Chapter 7 - What Rosalind Was Hiding
“Gideon.”
The woman's voice was calm.
Gideon stopped breathing.
Genevieve watched the most feared man in Port Aurelia become a son again.
“Mother?”
“You have the ledger.”
“Where are you?”
“Ask Rosalind.”
Everyone turned.
Rosalind lowered her weapon.
Gideon's expression changed.
“You knew.”
Rosalind did not deny it.
“How long?”
“Six years.”
The betrayal hit differently from Genevieve's.
Rosalind had been Gideon's closest operative.
Perhaps his closest friend.
“You told me Eleanor survived,” Gideon said. “You never told me my mother did.”
“I was ordered not to.”
“By whom?”
The voice on the phone answered.
“By me.”
Victoria Vale told them to come to the old opera house.
Alone.
Naturally, nobody went alone.
At 5:12 a.m., Genevieve entered through the stage door with Gideon.
Rosalind followed at a distance.
Victoria waited beneath the ghost light.
She was elegant.
Silver-haired.
Alive.
Gideon stood ten feet away.
He did not embrace her.
“Why?”
Victoria looked at him.
“Because your father and I created the Meridian Circle.”
Silence.
Then she clarified.
Not as a criminal organization.
As a coalition.
Dominic Vale, Victoria, Arthur, and Eleanor had once worked together to break the old syndicates controlling Port Aurelia.
But their network grew.
Money attracted predators.
One member betrayed the others.
The Circle became the very thing it had been built to destroy.
“Malcolm?” Genevieve asked.
Victoria shook her head.
“Malcolm joined later.”
“Then who?”
Victoria looked at the ledger.
“The name is encoded.”
Genevieve understood the note.
Follow the money.
The blood-red handprint.
The contract.
Every piece was a cipher.
She opened the ledger.
Bank transfers repeated around dates significant to both families.
Deaths.
Attacks.
Corporate acquisitions.
Her wedding.
“Why tonight?” Genevieve asked.
“Because marriage gave the Circle permanent access to both infrastructures.”
“And annulment?”
“Would lock them out.”
Gideon looked at Genevieve.
“Then do it.”
She blinked.
“Annul the marriage.”
“You'd lose Winterborne port access.”
“I don't care.”
“You spent years negotiating it.”
“I care whether you live.”
Genevieve stared.
There was no calculation in his face.
No strategy.
He meant it.
Victoria watched them.
“You're like Dominic.”
Gideon turned cold.
“Don't.”
“He loved badly too.”
“I said don't.”
Genevieve closed the ledger.
“What happens after annulment?”
Victoria answered.
“The Circle will panic.”
“Good.”
Genevieve looked at the clock.
5:31.
Three and a half hours.
She had time.
“What does Section Seventeen actually require?”
“A witnessed filing before registration.”
Rosalind said, “The courthouse opens at eight.”
Victoria shook her head.
“They control the courthouse.”
Genevieve smiled.
“Then we don't use the courthouse.”
Everyone looked at her.
She was a Winterborne.
Ports were her language.
Maritime civil registrations could be witnessed by specific federal officers.
Port Aurelia's harbor master possessed the necessary authority.
And he owed Genevieve a favor.
At 6:05, they headed for the harbor authority.
Halfway there, Genevieve decoded the first ledger entry.
The transfers led to a holding company.
Black Meridian Holdings.
Its registered representative was a law firm.
The same firm that drafted the marriage contract.
Gideon's lawyer.
Samuel Crane.
Genevieve called him.
No answer.
She called his office.
Disconnected.
Rosalind searched.
“His private plane left forty minutes ago.”
“For where?”
“It didn't file a destination.”
Genevieve studied the transactions.
Crane was not the leader.
He was a conduit.
One recurring code appeared beside his payments.
A.W.
Arthur Winterborne?
No.
Too obvious.
She searched deeper.
A company name emerged.
Aurelia Waterfront Development.
A.W.
Genevieve looked at the directors.
One name appeared.
Beatrice Holloway.
Her former governess.
The woman who had raised her.
Genevieve's stomach dropped.
“That can't be right.”
Gideon looked.
Beatrice controlled the company receiving millions from Circle accounts.
Genevieve called her.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Then Beatrice sent a message.
I'M SORRY.
A second arrived.
I NEVER MEANT FOR YOU TO FIND OUT THIS WAY.
A third.
COME TO THE HOUSE WHERE YOUR MOTHER DIED.
ALONE.
Then Beatrice sent one photograph.
May you like
She was standing beside Malcolm.
And Malcolm had a gun pressed against Eleanor's head.
