Chapter 3 - The Ledger
“No.”
Adrian’s answer came before Emily asked anything.
She held up the phone.
“The message says you have it.”
“I can read.”
“Then explain.”
“I don’t have the ledger.”
Daniel moved between them.
“This is exactly what they want.”
Emily turned on him.
“And I’m supposed to trust you?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“But you should trust patterns.”
She hated how reasonable that sounded.
Adrian grabbed his coat.
“We’re going to your mother.”
Daniel blocked him.
“That’s what they expect.”
“And Margaret is alone.”
“She’s alive.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know they need Emily.”
The sentence silenced everyone.
Emily stared at her father.
“What does that mean?”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“The ledger was encrypted.”
“You said it was paper.”
“It was. But the account references inside it were coded.”
“And?”
“You were the key.”
Emily frowned.
“I was eleven.”
“You used to write your birthdays backward.”
She remembered.
A childish habit.
Month, day, year reversed.
Her father had made a game of it.
Daniel continued.
“The ledger looks meaningless unless someone understands the numbering system.”
Adrian stared at him.
“You built financial encryption around your daughter’s childhood habits?”
“I was desperate.”
“You were reckless.”
“You think I don’t know?”
Emily cut them off.
“My mother.”
Adrian nodded.
“We go.”
This time Daniel didn’t argue.
Twenty-three minutes later, Emily sat in the back of Adrian’s armored sedan.
She had refused the front passenger seat.
Refused Adrian’s jacket.
Refused his hand when she stumbled on the curb.
Anger was the only thing keeping her functional.
Adrian sat opposite her.
Daniel beside him.
Nobody spoke until Emily’s phone rang.
Margaret.
Emily answered immediately.
“Mom?”
Her mother was crying.
“I’m okay.”
Emily nearly collapsed.
“Where are you?”
“Bedroom closet.”
“Is he gone?”
“I think so.”
Adrian gestured for the phone.
Emily ignored him.
“Did he hurt you?”
“No.”
“What did he take?”
“The music box.”
Emily looked at Daniel.
“But the photo showed it open.”
“He opened it. Then took it.”
“Was anything inside?”
Margaret hesitated.
“Not for years.”
Daniel went still.
“What?”
Emily put the call on speaker.
Margaret heard his breathing.
Then silence.
“Margaret,” Daniel said.
A sob came through the phone.
“Daniel.”
Emily looked between the phone and her father.
Sixteen years of secrets lived inside that one word.
Daniel’s voice broke.
“Where is the ledger?”
Margaret took several breaths.
“I moved it.”
“Where?”
“I couldn’t leave it in Emily’s room.”
“Margaret.”
“I gave it to someone.”
Adrian leaned forward.
“Who?”
Margaret stopped crying.
Her voice became wary.
“Who is that?”
“Adrian Romano.”
A silence followed.
Then Margaret said something Emily would never forget.
“Don’t let him near my daughter.”
Adrian’s face became unreadable.
Emily ended the speaker mode.
“Mom, we’ll be there soon.”
“No.”
“We’re already coming.”
“Emily, listen to me. Don’t go home. Don’t go to the office. And whatever Daniel tells you, make him explain what happened the night Salvatore Romano died.”
The call disconnected.
Adrian and Daniel looked at each other.
Emily saw it.
Recognition.
“Tell me.”
Daniel looked away.
“Not here.”
“Tell me.”
Adrian answered instead.
“My father didn’t die from a heart attack.”
Emily stared at him.
“What happened?”
“He was murdered.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“By whom?”
Neither answered.
Emily laughed bitterly.
“Wonderful. Apparently tonight is family-secret Christmas.”
Adrian looked out the window.
“My father called me the night he died.”
Emily waited.
“He told me there was one person inside Romano Group I should never trust.”
“Who?”
“He didn’t finish.”
“How convenient.”
“He was shot before he could.”
Emily’s anger faded slightly.
Adrian rarely spoke about Salvatore.
She knew his father’s death had changed him.
Adrian had been twenty-two.
Too young to inherit power.
Too proud to admit fear.
By twenty-five, he controlled everything.
“What did Daniel have to do with it?”
Adrian looked toward her father.
Daniel answered.
“Salvatore wanted to expose Harbor.”
“And?”
“We arranged to meet.”
“He never arrived?”
“He did.”
Adrian turned sharply.
That was new information even to him.
Daniel continued.
“Salvatore gave me documents proving Harbor had continued after my disappearance. Someone else had taken control.”
“Who?”
“I never saw the name.”
Adrian’s eyes narrowed.
“You’ve known for twelve years my father was murdered over Harbor.”
“Yes.”
“And you never told me.”
“I didn’t know if you were part of it.”
Adrian looked ready to explode.
Emily interrupted.
“My mother said she gave the ledger to someone. Who would she trust?”
Daniel shook his head.
“After I disappeared, very few people.”
“Family?”
“No.”
“Lawyer?”
Daniel stopped.
Emily saw it.
“Who?”
“Rebecca Lane.”
Emily knew the name.
Rebecca was her mother’s attorney.
A quiet woman in her sixties who had handled taxes, wills, and property papers for years.
Adrian immediately called Vincent.
“Find Rebecca Lane.”
Vincent answered after several seconds.
“We already tried.”
Adrian’s expression darkened.
“What do you mean?”
“She disappeared tonight.”
Emily shut her eyes.
Of course.
The car turned onto her mother’s street.
Police vehicles lined the block.
Adrian’s people waited discreetly farther away.
Emily jumped out before the sedan fully stopped.
“Emily!”
She ignored him.
She ran inside.
Her mother met her halfway down the hall.
They collided.
Emily held her.
Margaret shook violently.
For several seconds, Emily was eleven again.
Then Margaret saw Daniel.
Her arms fell away.
They stared at each other.
Daniel looked destroyed.
Margaret looked furious.
“You came back.”
“I had to.”
“You always say that when you ruin something.”
Emily stepped between them.
“Later.”
Margaret looked at Adrian.
Fear hardened into hatred.
“So you’re Salvatore’s son.”
“Yes.”
“You look like him.”
“I’ve been told.”
“That wasn’t a compliment.”
Adrian accepted the insult without reaction.
Emily noticed.
Margaret led them into the kitchen.
“The man knew exactly where the music box was.”
“Did you recognize him?” Daniel asked.
“No.”
“Accent?”
“American.”
“Age?”
“Maybe forty.”
Adrian scanned the broken back door.
“He wasn’t alone.”
Margaret frowned.
“How do you know?”
“Two entry points. One upstairs window, one kitchen door.”
Daniel examined the frame.
Emily watched them.
Men who had survived worlds she didn’t understand.
Then Margaret touched her arm.
“There’s something you need to see.”
She took Emily upstairs.
Adrian followed at a distance.
Daniel stayed below.
Margaret entered Emily’s old bedroom.
Most of it had changed.
The childhood bed was gone.
The walls repainted.
But one wooden shelf remained.
Margaret pulled it forward.
Behind it was a small recessed safe.
Emily stared.
“You had a safe behind my bookshelf?”
“You had braces and thought boys were terrifying. It seemed unlikely you’d discover it.”
Despite everything, Emily laughed.
Margaret opened the safe.
Empty.
Her smile vanished.
“No.”
“What?”
“There was another photograph.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“Of what?”
Margaret looked at him.
“Your father.”
“With Daniel?”
“No.”
“With whom?”
“Your uncle.”
Adrian became still.
Emily knew Adrian’s uncle well.
Victor Romano.
Vice chairman.
Mentor.
The man who had raised Adrian after Salvatore died.
Margaret continued.
“They were arguing beside the Harbor warehouse.”
“When?”
“The night Salvatore died.”
Adrian’s expression went blank.
Margaret opened the safe wider.
A piece of paper remained stuck beneath the bottom edge.
Emily pulled it free.
It was not old.
Fresh printer paper.
Someone had placed it there tonight.
A message.
Emily read it aloud.
THE LEDGER WILL BE EXCHANGED AT MIDNIGHT.
COME ALONE, EMILY.
Adrian immediately said, “No.”
Emily ignored him.
“There’s an address.”
Daniel had come upstairs.
He read over her shoulder.
His face drained of color.
Adrian noticed.
“You know it.”
Daniel didn’t answer.
Adrian grabbed his shoulder.
“Where is that address?”
Daniel looked at Emily.
“That’s the warehouse where Salvatore died.”
Emily checked the time.
11:17 p.m.
Forty-three minutes.
Then her phone buzzed again.
Unknown number.
She opened the message.
A live video appeared.
Rebecca Lane sat tied to a chair.
A man stood behind her.
Only his hand was visible.
On his finger was a Romano family signet ring.
May you like
Then Rebecca looked directly into the camera and screamed one sentence before the feed went black.
“Emily, Adrian’s uncle knows everything!”
