Chapter 10 - Trapped in the Warehouse
Daniel pulled me behind a row of shelving.
“Stay here.”
“No.”
“Mom.”
“I am seventy-four, not dead.”
He almost argued.
Footsteps entered the warehouse.
Thomas said:
“The lights were on.”
Vanessa answered:
“He’s here.”
She knew.
Then her voice echoed:
“Daniel?”
No answer.
“I know you found the warehouse.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
Vanessa continued.
“You’re making this worse.”
I wanted to laugh.
Fraudsters love that sentence.
They steal.
Lie.
Drug.
Forge.
Then accuse you of making trouble when you notice.
Thomas said:
“Daniel, we can fix this.”
Daniel stepped out.
I grabbed his sleeve.
He whispered:
“Trust me.”
I hated those words now.
He walked into the open.
Vanessa stared.
“Where’s your mother?”
“Gone.”
“Where?”
“Away from you.”
Thomas smiled.
“Be reasonable.”
Daniel held up the ledger.
“Reasonable?”
Thomas’s face changed.
Vanessa saw it.
“What is that?”
Daniel looked at her.
“You don’t know?”
That was interesting.
Thomas had secrets from Vanessa too.
Daniel said:
“My father documented everything.”
Vanessa turned to Thomas.
“You said there was nothing.”
Thomas snapped:
“Not now.”
There.
Crack.
I watched from the shadows.
Then Thomas moved toward Daniel.
“Give me the ledger.”
“No.”
“Daniel.”
“No.”
Thomas lunged.
Daniel stepped back.
The ledger fell.
Vanessa grabbed it first.
She opened one page.
Then another.
Her face changed.
“You stole from them before I even met Daniel.”
Thomas stared.
“You knew what this was.”
“I knew about the trust transfers. Not this.”
She was not innocent.
But betrayal looks different when the thief discovers another thief got there first.
Then police sirens screamed outside.
Evelyn had called them after our location tracker stopped moving.
Thomas ran toward the rear exit.
Vanessa did not.
She stood holding the ledger.
Then looked at Daniel.
May you like
And whispered:
“I can give you everything.”
