Chapter 4 - What Rebecca Knew
Arthur locked the door.
Daniel moved beside me.
Rebecca stared at Lily's father as if twelve years had collapsed into twelve seconds.
I wanted to cross the room.
Hold her.
Demand answers.
Instead I watched Arthur's hands.
Old habits.
He noticed.
"Still watching the hands."
"Still lying to people."
Arthur smiled.
Rebecca said, "Marcus, listen to me."
Whitmore looked furious.
"You weren't supposed to bring him here."
Arthur shrugged.
"Plans change."
That told me something.
They weren't one organization anymore.
They were factions.
People who had shared secrets long enough to become enemies.
I looked at Rebecca.
"Why?"
Tears filled her eyes.
"Lily."
"I spent twelve years telling our daughter her mother was dead."
"I know."
"She cried herself to sleep for a year."
Rebecca broke.
"I know."
"Did you watch?"
She nodded.
That hurt worse.
"Every birthday?"
"Yes."
"Graduation?"
"Yes."
"Everything?"
"Everything I could."
I wanted to hate her.
I couldn't.
Arthur interrupted.
"Touching reunion, but we're short on time."
I turned toward him.
"What happened in Baltimore?"
Arthur's smile disappeared.
"Victor Raines was never the target."
"Who was?"
"Me."
Daniel stiffened.
Arthur continued.
"Whitmore and the others needed someone blamed for the network. Victor volunteered to disappear. The warehouse fire erased records, witnesses, and inconvenient loyalties."
"And Rebecca?"
"Found the original ledger."
Rebecca nodded.
"It listed everyone."
"Where is it?"
"I destroyed it."
Whitmore laughed.
"No, you didn't."
Rebecca looked at him.
"I destroyed what you found."
Silence.
She had kept another copy.
Of course she had.
I almost smiled.
That was Rebecca.
"What does the real ledger contain?"
"Payments. Judges. Police. prosecutors. businessmen. Everything."
"Where?"
She looked at me.
"I hid it somewhere only you would eventually understand."
Arthur stepped toward her.
"Enough."
I moved.
He stopped.
Neither of us needed to say anything.
He remembered me.
"Marcus," Rebecca said, "the ledger isn't the most important thing."
"What is?"
"Why they came after Lily."
I looked at Whitmore.
"They didn't plan the assault."
"No. Preston is simply a cruel idiot."
Whitmore's face tightened.
Rebecca continued.
"But they had been watching her."
"Why?"
"Because Lily received something from me."
My mind returned to her phone.
The card.
The scratched letters.
"What?"
"A key."
"I didn't find a key."
"She doesn't know she has it."
Arthur said, "Rebecca."
She ignored him.
"When Lily was little, you gave her a music box."
I remembered.
Wooden.
Hand-painted stars.
Rebecca had bought it during a trip to Maine.
"Lily still has it."
Rebecca nodded.
"The key is inside."
Arthur drew a gun.
Daniel moved.
I hit the light.
Darkness.
A shot.
Glass shattered.
Rebecca screamed.
I crossed the room by memory.
Caught Arthur's wrist.
Twisted.
Gun fell.
Daniel tackled Whitmore.
Rebecca opened the door.
Alarm.
We ran.
No bodies.
No revenge.
Evidence mattered more.
Rebecca came with us.
For the first time in twelve years, she sat beside me in a car.
Neither of us spoke.
At the safe house, she told us everything.
Victor Raines controlled the network.
Arthur managed enforcement.
Whitmore protected cases.
Sutton handled political access.
Hale moved money through developments.
Rebecca discovered the ledger because she had worked as an accountant for one of Hale's charities.
She tried to expose them.
Arthur threatened Lily.
Rebecca staged her death with help from a medical examiner already controlled by the network.
Then they kept her hidden.
"Why didn't you run?"
"I tried twice."
"What happened?"
"They sent photographs of Lily."
My hands tightened.
"School. Soccer. Our house."
Rebecca cried.
"They knew where she was every day."
I understood.
Fear had become her prison.
Daniel asked, "The music box?"
Rebecca looked at me.
"The key opens a bank vault."
"What bank?"
"First Atlantic."
"Box number?"
She smiled through tears.
"Lily knows."
We returned to the hospital before dawn.
Rebecca stayed hidden.
I entered Lily's room.
She woke.
"Dad?"
"Remember your music box?"
Confusion.
"The one with stars."
She nodded.
"Where is it?"
"Apartment."
"Inside?"
"Closet."
Then her eyes widened.
"Mom?"
I couldn't lie anymore.
"She's alive."
Lily stared.
Then cried silently.
I held her.
"Why?"
"I'll explain everything."
She squeezed my hand.
"She left me?"
"No."
That mattered.
"She protected you."
Lily closed her eyes.
I called Daniel.
He went to the apartment.
The music box was gone.
Someone had beaten us there.
But Lily remembered something.
"I moved it."
"Where?"
"Storage."
"What storage?"
"Campus art studio."
Of course.
At noon, Daniel and I entered the university arts building.
Locker 114.
Music box.
Inside, beneath the velvet lining, a brass key.
Engraved:
F.A. 619.
First Atlantic.
Box 619.
At the bank, we used Rebecca's authorization and the key.
Inside the box sat a ledger.
Original.
Signed.
Dated.
Enough to destroy careers.
But beneath it was another envelope.
FOR MARCUS ONLY.
Inside was a photograph.
Arthur.
Victor.
Whitmore.
Hale.
Sutton.
And Detective Sloan.
Taken eleven years ago.
Daniel stared at it.
"No."
My phone rang.
Sloan.
I answered without speaking.
"Marcus."
I looked at his face in the photograph.
"Where are you?"
"Hospital."
My blood went cold.
"Why?"
"Lily asked for me."
"No, she didn't."
Silence.
Then Sloan whispered:
"Marcus, don't come here."
A gunshot sounded through the phone.
The line went dead.
I ran.
When I reached Trauma Two, the guards were unconscious.
Lily's bed was empty.
On the pillow was a note.
One sentence.
BRING THE LEDGER IF YOU WANT YOUR DAUGHTER BACK.
May you like
And beneath it was a name I had hoped never to see again.
VICTOR RAINES.
