Charlotte's mother had instructed her to prepare her great-aunt Millicent Lyons's house for sale. It stood in one of the pretty south-eastern villages that bordered Arenosa, and had been empty since Millicent's death twenty years earlier.
Charlotte had offered Will to take any furniture that he wanted before the Lyons Estate auctioned the rest, but he'd refused. Charlotte had begged, saying that none of it was to Guillermo's tastes. I took that to mean that Guillermo wanted ex-Lyons property in his home as much as Will did. Charlotte had eventually persuaded Will to drive out to the house to take a look at a mysterious item of furniture that she was convinced that he'd fall in love with, and he'd finally relented.
Charlotte's car was already in the drive when we parked up at Millicent Lyons's house, a crumbling cube of whitewashed stone and long-dead palm trees in an acre of weed-infested gardens. She led us through the maze of corridors toward the west end of the house, the air charged with that same ripe moldy smell that had permeated Will's apartment in Maria.
Except that it hadn't been Will's apartment. It had belonged to Clarabel Lyons, Millicent Lyons's sister. Did all members of the Lyons family own a derelict house or two?
The furniture of the house was in a far better state than the creaking chairs and half-collapsed sofa in Will's old apartment. I peeked under dustsheets at delicate lacquered tables and floral-patterned sofas as we wandered through the rooms in Charlotte's wake.
Charlotte funneled us along a dim corridor toward a room with glass doors at the far end of the house, its interior hidden from us by thick white drapes. After long minutes of picking through a colossal bunch of keys, she clicked a golden key into the lock, and threw the doors open.
We stepped into an airy sunroom, just like Will's sunroom in Santa Elena, but four times the size. Floral wallpaper peeled from the walls, which were lined with narrow sofas. The huge west-facing set of windows opened into what was left of an ornamental rock garden. In the middle of the room stood the mystery item of furniture that Charlotte had wanted to show us.
My heart began to thump in my ears. I could see its pale legs on tiny black casters, peeking out from under a padded dustsheet. A grand piano.
It took all my strength not to lunge forward, rip away the dustsheet and play, untuned and all, for hours and hours until my hands hurt.
Charlotte gestured to Will to go check out the wondrous thing sitting in the middle of the room. "It's all yours."
Will stood frozen at the sunroom doors, his face unnaturally still. Not even his eyebrows were moving.
Charlotte's smile faltered. "Well?"
"Charlotte, I can't..." Will whispered.
"It's going to be auctioned if you don't take it."
"Give it to Sabrina." Will stalked back into the corridor.
"I can't. Guillermo won't have it in the house," she pleaded, tottering after him. "Please take it."
Will held minutely-shaking fingers over his chest, his forehead suddenly dotted with beads of sweat. Charlotte turned to me with a wounded expression, unsure of how she'd upset her little brother.
He needs you, Zeph.
"Charlotte, can you give us a second?" I sent a silent prayer to Santa Maria that Will's fibroma wasn't gonna make him stop breathing again.
"Of course. I'll give the girls a call to say when I'll be back." She looked at me with begging eyes, a plea to fix things with Will, before hurrying away along the corridor.
YOU ARE READING
The Sigma Asset 🏳️🌈 (bxb)║AMBYS WINNER 2022
Mystery / Thriller**AMBYS 2022 WINNER** He'll never play piano again. That's what virtuoso pianist Zephyr has vowed to himself after escaping Sigma, the sprawling criminal organisation that once held him--and still holds his friends--captive in California's mega-city...
