Chapter 4
Mia told us the truth in the parking lot of the care facility.
Three years before I met Ryan, she had represented one of his former business partners.
Ryan contacted her privately and claimed he had evidence that would settle the case.
He asked her to meet him at a hotel conference room.
“When I arrived, there was no evidence,” Mia said. “He tried to kiss me.”
“Did you let him?”
“No.”
Her answer came quickly, but her voice trembled.
“He grabbed me. I pushed him away and left.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I didn’t recognize him when you first showed me his picture. He used a different last name.”
Elena folded her arms.
“When did you realize?”
“At Claire’s engagement party.”
I stared at my sister.
“That was four years ago.”
Mia nodded.
“I confronted him outside. He said if I told you, he would claim we had an affair. He had photographs of us entering the hotel.”
“So you stayed silent.”
“I tried to make you leave him.”
“You called him arrogant. You never told me he was dangerous.”
Mia wiped her eyes.
“I was ashamed.”
The word made me angry.
Then it broke my heart.
Ryan had used shame against all of us.
Before I could answer, Detective Hale received an alert from the security system at my house.
Someone had started a fire in the backyard.
We drove there with two patrol cars.
Flames were rising from a metal barrel when we arrived.
Ryan was gone.
Hale pulled half-burned papers from the grass.
They were copies of loan applications.
Elena noticed black ash beneath the porch.
“He burned something else.”
Firefighters removed a loose wooden panel.
Behind it was a hidden compartment containing another phone and a handwritten ledger.
Ryan had listed names, account numbers, and payments.
My name appeared beside the words Phase Two.
Elena’s name was marked Completed.
Mia found her own name near the bottom.
Beside it, Ryan had written Leverage.
“He kept records of everyone he manipulated,” she said.
Detective Hale powered on the hidden phone.
Most of its messages had been deleted.
One remained.
It was from Diane.
Thomas changed the trust before we put him away. Find the original or everything goes to the girls.
“What trust?” I asked.
We returned to Thomas that evening.
His hands shook when Hale showed him the message.
Years earlier, Thomas had created a trust containing the family’s legitimate assets.
After discovering Diane’s crimes, he secretly changed the beneficiaries.
He removed Ryan and Diane.
He named Noah.
He also included any legal spouse Ryan might have harmed through financial fraud.
“Elena and Claire,” Mia said.
Thomas nodded.
“The trust owns properties and investments worth several million dollars.”
I did not care about the money.
But Ryan did.
“Where is the original document?” Hale asked.
Thomas looked toward the door.
“I gave it to someone I trusted.”
“Who?”
“My younger sister, Ruth.”
Ryan had told me Ruth died long ago.
She lived in a small town two hours away.
We called her, but no one answered.
Hale sent local officers to check her house.
Thirty minutes later, he received their report.
The front door was open.
The house had been searched.
Ruth was missing.
No blood had been found, but her car was still in the garage.
On her kitchen wall, someone had written a message in red paint.
BRING ME THE LEDGER.
Hale wanted to place us under police protection.
I looked at the list of victims in Ryan’s book.
One name had been circled repeatedly.
Sophie Lane.
Elena recognized it.
“She worked with Ryan.”
The ledger said Sophie had received monthly payments for five years.
The final entry was made two days earlier.
Silence purchased.
Hale searched the name and found an address.
We drove there with officers.
Sophie opened the door holding a baby.
When she saw my face, she began to cry.
“I knew one of you would come eventually.”
“Where is Ruth?” Hale asked.
“I don’t know.”
Then Sophie looked at me.
“But I know what Ryan’s other plan was.”
May you like
She held the baby closer.
“He was going to make Claire’s death look like an accident.”
