Chapter 9
The missing page changed everything.
Caleb checked the binding.
“It was here.”
Grant took the ledger.
“What was on it?”
“I don’t know. I never memorized every page.”
Thomas was brought back from the police car.
Grant held the damaged ledger in front of him.
“Who tore this out?”
Thomas looked at it.
His expression changed.
Mercer laughed from across the barn.
“There it is.”
Evelyn turned.
“What?”
“The part Nathan never figured out.”
Thomas snapped, “Be quiet.”
Mercer smiled.
“You still protecting her?”
Evelyn’s heart started pounding.
“Protecting who?”
Thomas looked away.
Mercer continued.
“All these years, Thomas took the blame because he thought family loyalty meant something.”
“Who?” Evelyn demanded.
Mercer stared directly at her.
“Your mother.”
Evelyn stopped.
“My mother died twelve years ago.”
Mercer’s smile disappeared.
“No.”
Thomas closed his eyes.
Evelyn felt the floor vanish beneath her.
“What are you talking about?”
Her mother, Diane Reed, had supposedly died in a boating accident when Evelyn was twenty-three.
No body had been recovered.
Thomas had organized the memorial.
He had told everyone she was gone.
Marissa stepped beside Evelyn.
“Dad?”
Thomas’s face crumpled.
“She left.”
Evelyn stared at him.
“You told us she died.”
“She asked me to.”
“Why?”
“Because federal investigators were closing in.”
Marissa covered her mouth.
Thomas spoke quietly.
“Your mother created the first accounts. Mercer learned everything from her.”
Evelyn looked at Mercer.
“You worked for my mother?”
“For years.”
“And she’s alive?”
Thomas nodded.
“At least she was five years ago.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
Evelyn slapped him.
Officers moved forward, but Thomas didn’t react.
“You let me mourn her!”
“I was protecting you.”
“Stop saying that!”
Her scream echoed through the barn.
“You used that word for every horrible thing you did!”
Thomas lowered his head.
Marissa began crying.
“So Mom started this?”
“Yes.”
“And the missing page?”
Thomas looked at the ledger.
“It contained the account where she kept her money.”
Caleb frowned.
“Who took it?”
Thomas looked toward Mercer.
Mercer shook his head.
“Not me.”
Everyone became silent.
If Mercer didn’t have it and Thomas didn’t have it, someone else had accessed Caleb’s hiding place.
Then Marissa whispered, “Cole.”
Evelyn turned.
“Cole was in Helen’s garage.”
Caleb’s eyes widened.
“He wasn’t searching for Nathan’s note.”
“He was searching for the ledger.”
“And maybe he found the page.”
Grant immediately called the jail.
Her expression darkened.
“What?”
Cole had been transferred to the hospital after complaining of chest pain.
During transport, the ambulance had been forced to stop because another vehicle blocked the road.
The driver of that vehicle had helped Cole escape.
Evelyn felt sick.
“When?”
“Twenty minutes ago.”
Thomas laughed once.
Not from amusement.
From disbelief.
“Diane.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“What?”
“She always had a habit of arriving before everyone else.”
Grant ordered roadblocks.
Police searched the surrounding counties.
Marissa stayed close to Evelyn.
Wren was still safe under police protection.
Evelyn wanted nothing more than to take her daughter and leave the state.
But Nathan had died because too many people kept running.
She wouldn’t run.
At dawn, Grant received a call.
Cole’s prison clothes had been found beside a highway.
Nearby security footage showed him entering a dark SUV.
The driver was a woman.
Older.
Gray-blond hair.
Evelyn stared at the blurry image.
Marissa whispered, “That looks like Mom.”
Thomas sat down.
“She’s back.”
Then Evelyn’s phone buzzed.
A new message.
This time there was no unknown number.
The sender name appeared clearly.
MOM.
The message said:
Your father always was terrible at keeping promises.
Bring Wren to me.
She deserves to know what Nathan discovered.
Evelyn stared at the screen.
Then another message appeared.
May you like
And Evelyn finally understood why Nathan had been so afraid.
Wren isn’t Nathan’s biological daughter.
