Chapter 6 - THE RED NOTEBOOK
Lena blamed herself.
I didn’t.
I was getting tired of women blaming themselves for things men had deliberately done.
The office break-in was captured on camera.
A man in a baseball cap entered through a staff hallway using another employee’s badge.
His face was partially hidden.
But Detective Lane recognized the jacket.
Same jacket Ryan wore when he entered my apartment.
They issued another warrant.
This time Ryan disappeared.
His phone went dark.
His apartment was empty.
His car was found in a grocery-store parking lot.
Then Ethan called.
“We found the notebook.”
I stopped.
“How?”
“He brought it here.”
“Ryan?”
“No.”
“Who?”
“Nathan.”
Ethan’s brother walked into the estate library twenty minutes later carrying a plastic evidence bag.
Nathan Caldwell looked like Ethan if someone had taken the same face and taught it to smile for shareholders.
Expensive navy suit.
Silver cuff links.
Perfect composure.
He placed the red notebook on the table.
“I found it in my office.”
Detective Lane stared at him.
“How did it get there?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No.”
That answer surprised everyone.
Nathan sat.
“I think Ryan put it there.”
“Why?”
“To implicate me.”
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
“Convenient.”
Nathan looked at his brother.
“You’ve already decided I’m guilty.”
“I’ve decided you’ve been withholding information.”
Nathan sighed.
Then looked at me.
“Your mother came to see me fourteen months ago.”
My heart stopped.
“How close to her death?”
“Six days.”
Grace died after complications from pneumonia.
Fast.
Unexpected.
Six days earlier, she had visited Caldwell Global.
“Why?”
“She wanted NorthBridge reopened.”
Nathan explained that Mom had discovered the debt-forgiveness program was being manipulated.
She believed Douglas Mercer had created intermediary companies years earlier and Ryan had later helped revive them.
“Ryan?”
“He did contract work for one vendor.”
My mouth went dry.
“So my mother knew him.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did she know I worked here?”
Nathan’s expression changed.
“No.”
That answer hurt unexpectedly.
Mom died two weeks before I started at the Caldwell estate.
Ryan recommended the job to the staffing agency.
I had considered it luck.
It was not.
Nathan continued.
“Grace gave me copies of transaction numbers.”
“Why you?”
“Because she didn’t trust the foundation’s compliance department.”
“Did she trust you?”
He laughed bitterly.
“Not much.”
That also sounded like Mom.
Detective Lane opened the notebook.
Pages of recipes.
Medication reminders.
Hospital notes.
Then halfway through, everything changed.
Account numbers.
LLCs.
Debt purchase prices.
Dates.
Initials.
D.M.
R.M.
N.C.
Nathan Caldwell.
Nathan stared at his own initials.
“I have never seen this.”
Ethan’s expression hardened.
Nathan reached for the notebook.
Detective Lane stopped him.
“No.”
Then I noticed something written at the very bottom of the page.
My mother had circled N.C.
Beside it:
NOT NATHAN. CHECK THE OTHER CALDWELL.
May you like
Everyone looked at Ethan.
For the first time since that night in the kitchen, the billionaire looked genuinely afraid.
