Chapter 5 - The Ledger
Harper was moving before anyone could stop her.
Dominic caught up in the hallway.
"Car's coming."
"My mother—"
"We'll get her."
Daniel followed.
"No police."
Harper spun.
"Are you insane?"
"The police are compromised."
"My mother may have someone inside her room."
"I know."
"Then I don't care who is compromised."
Dominic stepped between them.
"Enough."
Harper stared at him.
He spoke calmly.
"Marco's already sending people. Quietly. We don't rush into a hostage situation blind."
"She's my mother."
"And that's exactly why you don't go through the front door screaming."
Harper hated him for making sense.
They reached the garage.
A vehicle was waiting.
Ten minutes later, Marco called.
Dominic put him on speaker.
"Room clear."
Harper's stomach dropped.
"What does that mean?"
"Mrs. Foster isn't here."
"What?"
"No forced entry. No blood. No struggle."
"Caleb?"
"Gone."
Daniel cursed.
Marco continued.
"One thing was left behind."
"What?"
"A wedding invitation."
Harper closed her eyes.
"Mine."
"Yes. Something's written on it."
"Read it."
Marco hesitated.
"Bring the daughter. Bring the ledger."
Dominic's expression darkened.
Harper felt strangely calm.
Fear had become too large for panic.
"Where?"
"Old Hawthorne Theater. Midnight."
Daniel shook his head.
"No."
Harper looked at him.
"That's my mother."
"They want you and the ledger."
"They already have her."
"Exactly."
"What would you suggest? Let her die?"
"I suggest we understand why your mother distrusted me before walking into a trap."
Harper stared.
That note.
If Daniel ever comes back, don't trust him.
"You wrote it?"
"No."
"It was your handwriting."
"I didn't write it."
"How do you know?"
"Because I never planned to come back."
That landed painfully.
Dominic looked toward Daniel.
"Someone forged it."
"Likely."
Harper crossed her arms.
"Wonderful. Forgery appears to be the theme of my life."
They arrived at Claire's temporary suite.
The room looked ordinary.
No overturned furniture.
No broken lamps.
A mug of tea sat half-finished.
Harper touched it.
Cold.
Marco handed her the invitation.
BRING THE DAUGHTER.
BRING THE LEDGER.
Below it was a time.
12:00.
Harper looked at the clock.
Two hours.
Dominic examined the room.
Daniel went toward the window.
Harper noticed something beneath the side table.
Her mother's purse.
"She wouldn't leave that."
Daniel crouched.
Inside were keys, wallet, medication, lipstick.
Phone gone.
Dominic looked toward the door.
"She was taken."
Harper found another object.
A tiny music-box key.
Her childhood piano had used the same decorative key for its locked lower cabinet.
She held it up.
Daniel stared.
"She wants us to find the piano."
"But the ledger isn't there," Harper said. "She told me she gave it away."
"Maybe she lied."
Harper looked toward Dominic.
"Can we get to my mother's house?"
"Yes."
Twenty minutes later, they entered through the rear.
Harper hadn't been there since yesterday.
Her engagement gifts still covered the dining room.
Seeing them hurt.
She pushed past.
The piano stood against the living-room wall.
Harper inserted the small key.
The lower compartment opened.
Empty.
Daniel crouched.
"There's another latch."
He pressed beneath the wood.
A hidden panel popped open.
Inside was an envelope.
HARPER.
Her name.
Harper opened it.
A letter.
Sweetheart,
If you're reading this, then somebody finally told you your father was not the man you believed him to be.
Daniel closed his eyes.
Harper continued.
The letter was from Claire.
She had discovered the hidden ledger one year earlier.
She had also discovered photographs.
Records.
Payments.
And one truth Daniel had never confessed.
Daniel hadn't simply investigated Gabriel Vale.
At one point, he had worked with him.
Harper lowered the letter.
"You were part of it."
Dominic turned toward Daniel.
Daniel's face became tired.
"At first."
Harper's voice shook.
"What does that mean?"
"I infiltrated the organization."
"That's not what Mom wrote."
"Because she doesn't know everything."
"Then tell me."
Daniel leaned against the piano.
"I was recruited young. Money laundering. Moving accounts. I became good at it."
"You were a criminal."
"Yes."
Dominic watched silently.
Daniel continued.
"Then I met your mother. Then you were born. I wanted out."
"So you became an informant."
"Eventually."
"How many people did you hurt before that?"
Daniel looked at her.
"Enough."
Harper folded the letter.
Her father had returned from the dead only hours earlier.
Now she had to mourn the man she thought he'd been.
Again.
Dominic said quietly, "Where's the ledger?"
Harper read the final paragraph.
I couldn't keep it here. I gave it to the one person Daniel never expected me to trust.
Harper frowned.
"Who?"
Daniel looked alarmed.
"Claire had no contacts."
Harper thought.
Her mother lived quietly.
Book club.
Church.
Gardening.
One person.
Harper looked up.
"Madison."
Daniel stared.
"What?"
"My mother trusted Madison."
Dominic's eyes narrowed.
"Would Claire give her the ledger?"
"Madison practically lived here when we were teenagers."
Harper remembered a conversation from months earlier.
Her mother had asked Madison to help move an old box from the garage.
Madison had acted strange afterward.
"Oh my God."
"What?" Dominic asked.
"Madison had it."
That changed everything.
Madison hadn't started investigating Caleb because she stumbled onto suspicious transfers.
Claire had given her the evidence first.
Which meant Madison's betrayal was tangled with something else.
Not excused.
Never excused.
But complicated.
Harper picked up her phone.
"Where would Madison hide something?"
She knew the answer before anyone spoke.
"The lake house."
Dominic looked at her.
"What lake house?"
"My family's cabin. We stopped using it after Dad died."
Daniel looked surprised.
"You still own it?"
"Mom refused to sell."
Madison knew where the spare key was.
They left immediately.
The cabin sat fifty minutes outside the city.
They arrived at 11:05.
No lights.
Dominic's men searched first.
Clear.
Harper entered.
Dust covered the furniture.
Childhood memories hit her everywhere.
Board games.
Family photographs.
The old couch where her father used to fall asleep watching baseball.
Harper refused to look at Daniel.
"Where would she put it?"
Dominic scanned the room.
"Somewhere connected to you."
Harper remembered being sixteen.
She and Madison had carved their initials beneath the wooden dock.
H + M.
FOREVER.
Harper almost laughed.
"Outside."
They hurried toward the lake.
Under the dock, wrapped in waterproof plastic, they found a metal box.
Inside lay a thick black ledger.
Daniel exhaled.
"There."
Harper lifted it.
Dominic didn't touch it.
"You should keep it."
She looked at him.
"Why?"
"Because too many men have decided what's best for you already."
Her chest tightened.
She looked away.
Inside the box was also an old cassette tape.
And a note from Madison.
HARPER—
I'M SORRY FOR CALEB.
THERE IS NO EXCUSE.
BUT PLEASE LISTEN TO THIS BEFORE YOU TRUST ANYONE.
Not Caleb.
Not Victor.
Not Daniel.
And not Dominic.
Harper slowly raised her eyes.
Dominic read the note.
His expression didn't change.
Daniel stepped toward her.
"What tape?"
Harper placed it into an old cassette player still sitting on a shelf.
Static.
Then voices.
Her father's.
And another man's.
Gabriel Vale.
Dominic's father.
Daniel's recorded voice said, "If anything happens to me, Harper can never know."
Gabriel replied, "She'll know eventually."
"No."
"Then what do you expect me to do with my son?"
Dominic froze.
Harper looked at him.
The recording continued.
Daniel: "Keep Dominic away from her."
Gabriel: "Why?"
Long silence.
Then Daniel spoke.
"Because if Victor ever discovers what our children are, he'll use them against both of us."
Harper frowned.
"What does that mean?"
Dominic looked equally confused.
The tape crackled.
Gabriel's voice became clearer.
"Then Harper and Dominic can never know they're connected."
Harper's stomach dropped.
Daniel lunged toward the cassette player.
Dominic stopped him.
"Don't."
The final words played.
Daniel's younger voice whispered:
"If either of them discovers who Harper's biological father really is, everything collapses."
Silence.
Harper looked at Daniel.
He had gone completely white.
"You aren't my father."
Daniel said nothing.
"Who is?"
Outside, headlights suddenly swept across the cabin windows.
Three black vehicles stopped.
Doors opened.
Dominic's men reached for their weapons.
Harper clutched the ledger.
A familiar voice called from outside.
"Harper!"
Caleb.
Then another voice.
Her mother.
"Don't give them the ledger!"
May you like
A gunshot shattered the porch light.
And someone kicked in the front door.
