Chapter 10 - THE LEDGER BENEATH THE FLOOR|
Edward drove without turning on the headlights until they were several blocks away from the restaurant.
Clara sat beside him, holding the map so tightly that its edges bent.
"Where are we going?"
"Somewhere they won't look immediately."
"Why would Anselmo accuse you of disappearing people?"
"Because I know where the money went."
"Did you hurt anyone?"
Edward looked at her.
"No. But I helped someone escape."
"Who?"
"Sofia Bellini."
Clara's heart raced.
The missing investigator was alive, and her father knew where she had been.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I needed to know whether you were being watched."
"Everyone keeps making decisions for me."
"I know. Your mother did the same thing."
He drove toward a storage facility outside the city.
The property consisted of rows of metal units surrounded by a high fence. Edward unlocked a unit near the rear.
Inside were old furniture pieces, cardboard boxes, and a wooden desk.
He moved the desk aside.
Beneath it was a loose section of flooring.
Clara knelt and pulled it open.
A metal case was hidden underneath.
Edward entered the combination.
Inside lay a thick ledger, a collection of photographs, and a small audio recorder.
Clara opened the ledger.
The first page listed the original Bellara investors.
The second contained payments made to shell companies.
The third contained a handwritten note.
A. Marchetti — final authorization.
But this was not Aurelio.
The signature belonged to Anselmo.
Clara turned another page.
Her mother's name appeared beside a transfer dated twenty years earlier.
She read the note beneath it.
Witness protection payment — refused.
Her mother had refused money to remain silent.
A second document showed that someone had attempted to register Clara as a beneficiary of a trust connected to Bellara.
The date was seven years earlier.
She was fourteen.
Edward watched her read.
"Your mother wanted to leave you something."
"Why didn't she tell me?"
"She thought the money would put a target on your back."
Clara found another folder.
It contained photographs of Aurelio as a teenager.
In one, he stood beside his father.
In another, he was holding a small girl by the hand.
Clara looked closer.
The girl was her.
She was wearing a yellow raincoat, standing in front of the old Bellara offices.
She remembered the day vaguely.
Her mother had taken her there after school.
A young boy had given her a paper flower.
Aurelio.
She had forgotten him completely.
But the photograph was not the most disturbing discovery.
Beneath it was a document showing that the trust had been transferred into a company controlled by Anselmo.
The transfer had happened three months before Aurelio proposed.
Clara looked at Edward.
"Why would Anselmo use my trust?"
"Because it was never just a trust."
Edward pointed to the last page.
It contained the original ownership structure of Bellara.
Clara's mother had held a controlling interest through a legal arrangement that had never been dissolved.
And Clara was her sole heir.
She stared at the document.
"You're telling me I own Bellara?"
"Part of it. A controlling part, if the original agreements are still valid."
Clara slowly closed the ledger.
Aurelio hadn't needed her because she was an accountant.
He had needed her because she was the missing owner.
Before Edward could explain further, headlights swept across the storage unit.
A black SUV stopped outside.
Two men got out.
Edward immediately closed the metal case.
"Take the ledger."
Clara grabbed it.
"Who are they?"
Edward pulled open a rear exit.
"People who have been looking for this for twenty years."
They ran toward the back fence.
A shout sounded behind them.
Then a gunshot shattered the night.
Edward stumbled.
Clara turned.
Blood was spreading across his shirt.
"Dad!"
He grabbed her wrist.
"Run!"
But a second vehicle appeared beyond the fence.
Its headlights illuminated the man stepping out.
May you like
Aurelio Marchetti.
And he was pointing a gun directly at Edward.
