Chapter 6 - THE LEDGER
The police arrived three minutes later.
By then, Dad was gone.
Rachel was gone.
And Savannah was sitting on the floor, shaking so badly she couldn't speak.
The officers searched the building.
Nothing.
No Dad.
No Rachel.
No black box.
No original ledger.
But I still had the photograph Claire gave me.
And Claire had something else.
A key.
She placed it in my palm.
"This opens a safety deposit box."
"Whose?"
"My father's."
"When did he leave it?"
"Eleven years ago."
"If he disappeared eleven years ago, how did you get the key?"
Claire smiled sadly.
"He mailed it to me."
I stared at her.
"After he disappeared?"
"Yes."
"From where?"
"That's what we never discovered."
The police eventually let us leave.
I drove home with Claire following behind me.
For the first time in years, I wasn't afraid of being alone.
I was afraid of being right.
At midnight, we arrived at the bank.
The manager opened the box after verifying Claire's identity.
Inside was a thick leather ledger.
A cassette tape.
And a letter.
The letter was addressed to me.
Not Claire.
Me.
My hands shook as I opened it.
Lila,
If you're reading this, your father has probably told you I'm dead.
I am not.
But if you are reading this years after I wrote it, I may finally be unable to protect you.
Your father didn't build the company.
I did.
And the company belongs to you.
I stopped reading.
Claire watched me.
"Keep going."
The letter explained everything.
Daniel had discovered that my father had been moving money through shell companies.
He confronted him.
Then he discovered something worse.
My mother had known.
And Savannah had known too.
But the most shocking part came next.
Daniel wrote that I had been chosen as the legal heir because he believed my father would eventually destroy the company.
He transferred his shares to me before his disappearance.
The twelve-million-dollar property wasn't a recent investment.
It had been part of the original company.
And the property was only one piece of what Daniel had left me.
There were accounts.
Offshore trusts.
Investment portfolios.
A second property.
And a private fund worth nearly eight million dollars.
I stared at Claire.
"Why would he leave all this to me?"
She looked down.
"Because he believed you were the only person in the family who hadn't become corrupted."
I continued reading.
Then I reached the final paragraph.
If Savannah ever tries to take the company, do not trust her.
If your father claims he was protecting the family, do not believe him.
And if a woman named Rachel appears beside your sister, leave immediately.
I froze.
Rachel.
Daniel had written her name eleven years ago.
But that was impossible.
I looked at Claire.
"How did my father know about Rachel?"
Claire's face changed.
"He didn't."
I showed her the letter.
She read it.
Her hands began shaking.
"There's something else."
"What?"
"Rachel wasn't her name eleven years ago."
"Then what was it?"
Claire stared at the signature at the bottom.
"Rebecca Cross."
I looked at her.
"Your family?"
Claire nodded.
"My aunt."
I couldn't breathe.
"She's your aunt?"
"Yes."
"The woman everyone says died twelve years ago?"
Claire's eyes filled with fear.
"She's not dead."
The cassette suddenly clicked inside the recorder.
Neither of us had touched it.
Then a man's voice came through the speaker.
Daniel.
Alive.
His voice was older.
Tired.
But unmistakable.
"If Lila is listening to this..."
May you like
There was a long pause.
"...then Rebecca has already found her."
