Chapter 8 - THE BOOK WITH NO TITLE|
The records room had been sealed for years.
Dust covered the shelves, and the air smelled of old paper and cedar. Alessandro unlocked the door himself, then stepped aside so Elena could enter first.
She noticed.
He had the authority to lead everyone in the house, yet he was allowing her to decide where to look.
The brass key opened a cabinet beneath the window. Inside were ledgers, property deeds, and folders marked with dates. Elena found a thick black book with no title on its spine.
Her hands trembled as she opened it.
The first pages contained ordinary business records. Then she found a handwritten note in her mother's familiar script.
If Elena ever reads this, tell her that I never wanted her to inherit my fear.
Elena covered her mouth.
Alessandro moved closer but did not touch her.
“Do you want a moment?”
She shook her head.
“If I stop, I don't think I'll start again.”
She continued reading.
Her mother had discovered that Thomas Vale was diverting money through shell companies. When she tried to report it, she was warned that the investigation would ruin the lives of innocent employees. She had copied the records and arranged to give them to Maria Santos.
A second note explained that Maria had hidden the most important evidence somewhere outside the mansion.
The book contained one final entry.
The person who ordered the threats is not the person who designed the scheme.
Elena read the sentence aloud.
Alessandro frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“I don't know.”
He examined the surrounding pages. Several entries had been removed with a blade, leaving narrow strips of paper attached to the binding.
“This book has been altered,” he said.
A knock interrupted them.
Marco entered with a report from the security team. The police had identified a second company receiving money from Northbridge. It was registered to a man named Daniel Mercer.
Ryan's older brother.
Elena felt a chill.
“Ryan told me his brother died.”
“Did you ever see proof?” Alessandro asked.
“No.”
Marco placed another photograph on the table. Daniel Mercer was alive and working under an assumed name in another state. He had been linked to Thomas Vale's old network.
The family connection suggested Ryan had not stumbled into Elena's life by chance. He might have been chosen because of her mother.
Alessandro instructed Marco to provide the information to the investigators.
Elena turned another page and found a pressed flower taped beside a handwritten number.
She recognized the flower. Her mother had kept the same kind in an old family album.
The number matched a storage facility outside Chicago.
“Maybe the missing records are there,” she said.
Alessandro nodded.
“We'll ask the police to secure it.”
As they left the records room, Elena stopped him.
“Why are you doing all this?”
“Because the truth belongs to the people who were hurt by the lies.”
“And if it destroys your family?”
He looked back at the old book.
“Then my family will have to survive the truth.”
That evening, Elena finally told Sophie everything. Her sister cried for their mother, then grew furious that so many people had hidden the truth from them.
“We deserved to know,” Sophie said.
“Yes.”
“Promise me you won't let them decide what happens to us.”
Elena took her hands.
“I promise.”
A message arrived on Alessandro's phone just after midnight.
The storage facility had been broken into.
The evidence was gone.
May you like
And someone had left a note on the empty shelf.
STOP SEARCHING, OR SOPHIE WILL BE NEXT.
