Golden Lies - Barbara Freethy [140]
"You still have the box, don't you, Father?" David asked. "I saw it a long time ago. It wasn't in the basement when Mrs. Chen started the fire, was it?"
Wallace hesitated for a long moment. "We kept the records of our transactions in the box. I had removed it to my house for safekeeping."
"So you have my grandfather's dragon and the box." Riley picked up the other dragon from the coffee table. "I think it's time we put the pieces back together again."
* * *
An hour later they were gathered together in the dining room of the Hathaway mansion with one more member of the family in attendance, Victoria. Paige's mother was furious at all that had transpired outside of her presence and had made that quite clear to Paige when the motley group, as Victoria referred to them, had descended on the mansion. But no one was paying much attention to Victoria. There were now three pieces on the mahogany table, the two matching dragons and a long narrow box with an ornate lock.
"We should do it together," Paige said, motioning for Alyssa and Riley to come forward. "I believe we three were meant to put the pieces back together."
"I agree," Riley said, handing Alyssa the dragon that had been kept in her grandparents' apartment for so many years. Then he picked up the one belonging to his grandfather.
Paige picked up the box and held it out to them. She felt a shiver of excitement run down her spine as the box seemed to grow warmer in her hands. She could almost hear voices from the past, or was it music? For somewhere in her mind she could hear the distinct sound of a distant flute.
Riley and Alyssa moved forward, joining their dragons together. With Paige's help, they inserted the back joint of each dragon into the box. Their eyes met at the same moment the lock turned, and the lid snapped open.
Paige reached for the several pieces of paper that were inside the box, but Wallace grabbed the papers from her hand. Before anyone could move, he had pulled a lighter from his pocket and set the papers to flame, the evidence burning quickly.
"Damn, you're good," Riley said, not making it sound like a compliment. "No one will ever know the extent of your thievery."
"Or your grandfather's involvement," Wallace said. "We did this together."
"He is right," Lee said. "We made our choice a long time ago. It was wrong. We were all cursed because of it, but now it is over."
"Not quite," Riley said. "These pieces are going back to China, to be restored to the National Palace Museum." He paused. "You agree with that, don't you, Paige?"
She looked at her family standing across from her, waiting, watching. She couldn't remember when she'd had their attention before. And it was time to stand up, to take control as her grandfather had told her to do.
"Yes," she said. "The pieces will be returned, to the museum as soon as possible. My father will make sure of that, won't you, Dad?"
"It would be my honor," David replied.
"But—" Wallace sputtered.
"Don't try to stop us, Grandfather," Paige said. "It's the right thing to do, and we're going to do it.
"And just how do you think you're going to do it?" Wallace asked David. "Where are you going to say you got the set?"
"He's going to say," Victoria interrupted, "that the House of Hathaway in association with their friends, the Chen family and the Delaney family, discovered a rare and previously lost piece of Chinese art that is now being returned to its rightful place."
Her mother was so smart, reading the situation quickly and coming up with a solution that would turn the three men from thieves into heroes. Everyone in the room seemed dumbstruck by her suggestion. But who could argue? Each family wanted to protect their own.
"Shouldn't they have to pay for what they did?" Alyssa asked finally.
"Everyone has paid in his own way," David replied. "My father lost his wife, his daughter, and his granddaughter. Your grandfather suffered the shame of knowing that his wife had burned down the store. Your grandmother suffered horrible burns on her arms. Your mother lived a