Chapter 13 - THE HOSPITAL ROOM|
Margaret Brooks was awake when Elena reached the hospital.
She looked tired, but her eyes were clear.
Elena rushed to her bedside.
"Mom."
Margaret took her hand.
"I'm all right, sweetheart."
"Someone changed your medication."
"I know."
"Who?"
Her mother glanced toward Rafael.
He remained near the door, giving them space.
Margaret lowered her voice.
"Victor Hale came to see me yesterday. He said your father had left something dangerous and that I should tell you where it was."
Elena felt sick.
"What did you tell him?"
"Nothing."
"Did he threaten you?"
Margaret nodded.
"He said he knew what happened to Daniel."
Rafael stepped closer.
"What exactly did he say?"
Margaret looked at him.
"He said Daniel wasn't killed because he discovered the shipment. He was killed because he refused to tell them where he hid the original ledger."
Elena closed her eyes.
"The lighthouse account."
Her mother nodded.
"Your father told me there was one final copy. Not on the flash drive. Not in the archive. Somewhere only you could find it."
Elena remembered the pendant.
The tiny compartment had contained the paper, but there had been another detail she had overlooked.
A small sequence of numbers written beneath the warning.
She pulled the pendant from her neck.
The numbers were not a bank code.
They were coordinates.
She searched them on her phone.
They led to an old lighthouse on the eastern edge of Meridian Harbor.
Rafael looked at the screen.
"That's where the original ledger is?"
"I think so."
Margaret squeezed her daughter's hand.
"Your father wanted you to have the truth, but he never wanted you to become part of this world."
Elena leaned down and kissed her forehead.
"I'm not becoming part of it, Mom. I'm ending it."
Rafael waited outside while Elena spoke with the doctor.
When she returned, he was speaking quietly to Claire Donovan.
The investigator had arrived with two officers.
"We need to secure the lighthouse," Claire said. "If the ledger is there, it could be the final piece of evidence."
Rafael nodded.
"I'll arrange access."
Claire looked at him sharply.
"No private security. No Moretti men. We handle this."
Rafael accepted the order.
Then a nurse approached Elena.
"Miss Brooks, there's someone asking to see you."
"Who?"
The nurse glanced toward the corridor.
"Your fiancé's mother."
Elena frowned.
"I don't have a fiancé."
May you like
The nurse looked confused.
"She says she's Vivienne Sinclair."
