My name is Elena Cole, and five years earlier, I had been a thirty-one-year-old single mother living in a modest neighborhood outside Austin, Texas.
I worked as an administrative assistant for a municipal financial investigator named Arthur Bell.
Arthur was a meticulous man who believed public money should be accounted for down to the last dollar.
He handled investigations involving suspicious government contracts, missing funds, and companies accused of charging taxpayers for work they had never completed.
I managed his appointments, organized documents, and prepared reports.
Our relationship was strictly professional, although Arthur had always treated me with kindness.
When Chloe turned three, he gave her a little wooden music box decorated with painted blue birds.
She loved it immediately.
Every evening, she would wind the tiny brass key and listen to the delicate melody before falling asleep.
I never imagined that innocent birthday present would one day become the most important object in my life.
