Chapter 5 - THE SECRET INSIDE THE BLUE LEDGERNico returned twenty minutes later with a cut above his eyebrow and fury in his eyes.
The attacker had escaped, but the message had made one thing clear: someone believed I possessed the missing ledger.
“I don't have it,” I told him.
“I know.”
“Then why are they threatening me?”
“Because they think you know where it is.”
I looked toward the library.
“My mother might.”
“She says she doesn't.”
“She may be protecting me.”
Nico considered that.
“Then we need to find out what your father left behind.”
The next morning, I called my mother from the estate.
She sounded stronger, but when I mentioned the blue ledger, she fell silent.
“Hannah, do you remember the wooden music box your father gave you?”
I closed my eyes.
It had been shaped like a little house, with a tiny brass key and a ballerina that spun when the lid opened.
“I kept it for years. It disappeared when we moved after he died.”
“No,” she whispered. “I gave it to you. You carried it everywhere until you were fourteen.”
I remembered suddenly.
The box had broken during a move. I had been devastated, and my mother had promised to repair it. After that, it vanished into a storage unit.
“Mom, what was inside?”
“I don't know. Daniel told me the box would only matter if the people who killed Anthony came looking for you.”
I looked at Nico.
He had heard every word.
Within an hour, Marco had located the storage facility. We drove there with two security vehicles, following a route designed to avoid being tracked.
The unit was dusty, crowded with old furniture and boxes from three different apartments.
I found the music box beneath a stack of winter blankets.
Its wooden roof had cracked, and the little ballerina was missing.
My fingers trembled as I turned it over.
A small brass plate covered the bottom.
Nico knelt beside me and examined it.
“There's a second compartment.”
He used a narrow tool to release the plate.
Inside lay a tiny brass key and a folded piece of paper.
The note contained only six words.
THE MIRROR REMEMBERS WHAT MEN FORGET.
I stared at it.
“What does that mean?”
Nico's expression had gone very still.
“My father had a mirror in his private office. It was brought from his first house in Chicago. He refused to let anyone replace it, even after the frame cracked.”
“Where is it now?”
“At the estate.”
We returned immediately.
The mirror stood in a locked room at the end of a corridor I had never seen opened. Its dark wooden frame was decorated with carved vines, and a narrow brass plate was set into the lower edge.
The key fit.
A small panel opened behind the frame.
Inside was a sealed envelope, a photograph, and a slim blue notebook.
The ledger.
Nico picked it up carefully.
The pages contained dates, shipment numbers, company names, and payments. Several entries were marked with Anthony Moretti's initials. Others carried the initials V.M.
“Vincent Moretti,” I whispered.
Nico flipped through the pages.
His face hardened with every line.
The records showed money transferred through shell companies, false invoices, and payments to officials. They also documented a shipment scheduled on the night Anthony died.
A final entry had been written in a different hand.
If anything happens to me, Daniel has the original evidence. Vincent has copies. Trust neither the money nor the men who protect it.
I looked at the photograph inside the compartment.
It showed my father standing beside Anthony Moretti and a third man whose face had been scratched out.
On the back, my father's handwriting read:
To Hannah, when she is old enough to know why I had to leave.
My hands shook.
“He knew he might not come back.”
Nico's voice was quiet.
“He was trying to protect you.”
I opened the sealed envelope.
Inside was a letter addressed to me.
My dearest Hannah,
If you're reading this, it means the truth has survived longer than I expected.
I did not leave because I stopped loving you. I left because I discovered that someone I trusted had planned to kill Anthony Moretti, and my own name had been placed on the list of people who would die with him.
I made a choice no father should ever have to make. I disappeared so that you and your mother could live.
The ledger will prove what happened, but it will not tell you everything. There is one person who knows where the original recordings are hidden.
Look for the woman who wears Anthony's ring.
Forgive me for the years I missed.
Love always,
Dad.
Tears blurred the page.
Nico stood beside me without speaking.
Then I noticed the final line, written beneath my father's signature.
If Vincent is still alive, do not trust the man who says he is protecting you.
I slowly lifted my eyes.
“Nico.”
He looked at the letter.
For a long moment, neither of us spoke.
Then his phone rang.
Vincent Moretti's name appeared on the screen.
Nico answered.
“Uncle.”
Vincent's voice came through the speaker, smooth and almost affectionate.
“Nico, I've heard you've brought a young woman into the house. I hope you're not making the same mistake your father made.”
Nico's expression became lethal.
“What mistake was that?”
“Trusting someone who had everything to gain from his death.”
The call ended.
I clutched the letter against my chest.
May you like
The ledger had exposed a traitor.
But my father's final warning suggested the man I feared might not be the only one hiding the truth.
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