Chapter 7 - The Second Ledger
The screen went black before the name appeared.
Nikolai called security.
Saoirse grabbed his wrist.
“No.”
He looked at her.
“Kessler wants us there.”
“Exactly.”
“Which means it's a trap.”
“Probably.”
She released him.
“But I'm done letting other people open files about my life before I do.”
They went with federal agents.
Kessler was gone.
The nursery remained untouched except for the folder.
The DNA report inside was fake.
Saoirse recognized the laboratory formatting immediately.
“Why fake this?”
“To divide us,” Nikolai said.
“No.”
She examined the paper.
“He wanted us to notice something.”
At the bottom was a reference number.
317-2.
Second box.
Second ledger.
Cesily contacted the bank.
There was no Box 317-2.
Maeve knew the answer.
“Not a bank box,” she said.
“A shipping container.”
Terminal Seven.
Container 317-2 had supposedly been destroyed in a fire twenty-four years earlier.
Port records said nothing survived.
Nikolai knew better.
His father had maintained a private archive beneath the mansion.
They searched until dawn.
Behind a false wall in Viktor's old office, they found a steel cabinet.
Inside sat the second ledger.
It documented everything.
The baby switch.
The Brennan theft.
Payments to Kessler.
Payments to officials.
But the entries concerning Saoirse's miscarriages were recent.
And they weren't signed by Pavel.
They were signed N.D.
Nikolai Drevik.
Saoirse stared.
Nikolai looked physically ill.
“I didn't authorize these.”
“Your initials.”
“My account.”
“Your authorization code.”
“Yes.”
The room went silent.
Someone had used Nikolai's identity.
Tess studied the entries.
“Pavel thought these were real.”
“That explains why he believed Nikolai was targeting Saoirse,” Lucian said.
Saoirse turned pages.
The dates aligned.
Someone had deliberately made each faction suspect another.
Exactly as the previous generation had done.
Manufactured war.
Manufactured betrayal.
The same strategy.
“Who benefits?” Saoirse asked.
Cesily answered first.
“Kessler.”
“No.”
Saoirse looked at the assets.
“Kessler is the technician. Not the beneficiary.”
She followed the ownership trail.
Shell company.
Trust.
Holding corporation.
Then a familiar name.
Drevik Foundation.
Chairperson: Elena Drevik.
Nikolai's aunt.
The woman who had practically raised him after his mother died.
Nikolai sat down.
“No.”
Saoirse knew that word.
The same one she had spoken about Maeve.
Truth often arrived first as refusal.
Elena controlled the foundation.
She also sat on the hospital board where Saoirse had received fertility treatment.
She had introduced Saoirse to Dr. Kessler.
Saoirse remembered Elena holding her after the first miscarriage.
Making soup after the second.
Calling her daughter.
Nausea rose.
“Where is she?”
Nikolai checked his phone.
“She left Canada yesterday.”
Lucian's men traced her private plane.
It never departed.
The flight plan was false.
Elena was still in Vancouver.
And she had visited Tess at the mansion the afternoon Nikolai moved her in.
Tess went pale.
“She brought me tea.”
Saoirse and Tess looked at each other.
Two pregnant women.
Same mansion.
Same woman.
Nikolai called the hospital.
Tess needed testing immediately.
She had traces of a medication in her bloodstream.
Not enough to harm her.
Enough to cause symptoms that could later resemble pregnancy complications.
Elena had been preparing another tragedy.
This time Tess's.
Why?
Because Tess had found the payments.
The entire structure finally became visible.
Elena and Kessler had continued Viktor's system after his death.
They created conflicts.
Moved assets.
Manipulated heirs.
Kept Drevik, Vale and Oric factions divided.
And Saoirse's baby represented something uniquely dangerous.
A Brennan heir legally tied to Drevik assets.
If born, the child could eventually strengthen Saoirse's claim.
But there was still no proof Elena had caused the miscarriages.
Only payments.
Only opportunity.
Saoirse refused to claim more than they knew.
They needed Elena talking.
Nikolai volunteered to contact her.
“No,” Saoirse said.
He looked surprised.
“She expects you.”
“Exactly.”
Saoirse understood Elena.
Better than Nikolai did.
Elena believed Saoirse was emotional now.
Pregnant.
Abandoned.
Frightened.
Weak.
“Let her come to me.”
The plan was dangerous.
But it was Saoirse's plan.
Lucian offered security.
Nikolai offered alternatives.
Neither ordered.
At midnight, Saoirse sent Elena one message.
I found the second ledger. I haven't shown Nikolai.
The reply arrived instantly.
WHERE ARE YOU?
Saoirse smiled without humor.
Cesily's apartment.
One hour.
Elena arrived in forty-three minutes.
Saoirse sat alone at the table.
Or appeared to.
Recording equipment ran throughout the room.
Federal agents waited next door.
Nikolai listened from another floor.
Elena entered.
“My poor girl.”
Saoirse almost admired the performance.
“Sit.”
Elena did.
Saoirse placed the ledger between them.
Elena's eyes changed.
There.
Recognition.
“You know what this is?”
“No.”
“Bad answer.”
Elena smiled.
The motherly mask disappeared.
“You always were too intelligent for Nikolai.”
Saoirse's heart pounded.
“Did you pay Kessler?”
Elena leaned back.
“Which time?”
The words hit like a knife.
Saoirse kept her face still.
“My pregnancies.”
Elena's smile faded.
Then she said, “Your first two babies were never supposed to survive.”
Nikolai heard everything.
Saoirse somehow remained seated.
“And this one?”
Elena looked at her belly.
“This one was supposed to change ownership.”
“How?”
Elena glanced toward the hallway.
Then smiled again.
“You still don't understand who your baby legally belongs to.”
A sound came from the bedroom.
The hidden agents should have been there.
But nobody emerged.
Elena stood.
Saoirse reached beneath the table for the panic button.
It was gone.
Someone had removed it.
May you like
Then the bedroom door slowly opened.
Dr. Kessler stepped out.
