Chapter 7 - The Old Ledger
Walter had served Nicholas's father for thirty-two years.
He had never spoken badly about him.
Not once.
Now he sat in the clinic room and said, "Your father kept two sets of books."
Nicholas gave a humorless laugh.
"That is not exactly shocking."
"One was money. The other was names."
The second ledger tracked decades of favors involving judges, union officials, contractors, doctors, and politicians.
"If Rebecca found it," Walter said, "she could have exposed half the old network."
Nicholas stared at him. "And my father would have stopped her." Walter looked away. That was answer enough.
Hannah watched Nicholas absorb the possibility that the man whose empire he inherited might have ordered his own daughter's disappearance.
"Why would Claire care about a seven-year-old ledger?" she asked.
Walter rubbed his face.
"Because names don't expire. They inherit power."
Nicholas's phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
A woman's voice whispered, "Nicky?"
The color vanished from his face.
"Rebecca?"
A sob came through the line.
Then hurried breathing.
"They moved me. I don't know where. There's water outside. Big windows. I can smell bleach."
Nicholas closed his eyes.
"Listen to me. Are you safe right now?"
"No."
"Who is with you?"
"A man in gray. He keeps saying you signed the papers."
Nicholas looked at Walter.
"I signed nothing."
Rebecca began crying.
"He says Claire is almost done. He says after the wedding, nobody will care what I remember."
A door slammed on her end.
Rebecca whispered one final sentence.
"Ask Hannah about her father."
Then the call ended.
Hannah froze.
Nicholas slowly turned toward her.
"Your father?"
Hannah could barely breathe.
Her father had died in a highway accident four years earlier.
At least that was what she had been told.
May you like
And suddenly, the job offer that had saved Ethan's life no longer felt like a miracle.
It felt like someone had placed her inside the Valenti house on purpose.
