Chapter 12 - THE SECOND LEDGER
We left before sunrise.
Alessandro moved us to an old farmhouse in Pennsylvania that had once belonged to one of his associates.
No internet.
No cameras connected to outside networks.
No phones except emergency lines.
For the first time, I thought we might actually be safe.
I was wrong.
At 7:13 that morning, someone knocked on the door.
Three times.
David reached for his weapon.
Alessandro raised one finger.
Wait.
Another knock.
Then a voice.
“Federal agent.”
Marcus Bell.
David opened the door.
Marcus stepped inside alone.
He looked exhausted.
“You shouldn't be here,” Alessandro said.
“I know.”
Marcus handed David a sealed envelope.
“We found this inside Nathaniel's personal safe.”
David opened it.
A ledger.
Not digital.
Not encrypted.
Handwritten.
My stomach dropped.
“The second ledger.”
Marcus nodded.
“The first one documented payments.”
David flipped through the pages.
“This documents people.”
Names.
Birth dates.
Addresses.
Aliases.
Photographs.
Then David stopped.
One page contained my name.
CATHERINE WINTERS.
Under it:
STATUS — PROTECTED.
David looked at Marcus.
“Protected by whom?”
Marcus didn't answer.
He turned the page.
There was Logan's name.
STATUS — LEVERAGE.
My blood went cold.
“No.”
David shut the book.
“They were using my family as leverage before I even disappeared.”
Marcus nodded.
“But there's something else.”
He pointed to the final page.
There were three names.
Nathaniel Winters.
Eleanor Winters.
And Alessandro Romano.
Beside Alessandro's name was one word.
TRAITOR.
Alessandro stared at it.
“I never saw this.”
Marcus looked at him.
“Because you weren't supposed to.”
David stepped between them.
“What does it mean?”
Marcus lowered his voice.
“Twenty years ago, your mother created a network.”
David's jaw tightened.
“She was protecting people.”
“No.”
Marcus looked at him.
“She was recruiting them.”
Silence.
“She built a system powerful enough to influence ports, police departments, banks and judges.”
“And my father?”
“He tried to take control.”
David stared at the ledger.
“Then why did she disappear?”
Marcus hesitated.
“Because she discovered something your father had done.”
“What?”
Marcus looked at me.
“Your father ordered the death of his own wife.”
David stopped breathing.
“No.”
“Your mother survived.”
“And everyone believed she was dead.”
Marcus nodded.
“Exactly.”
David sat down.
For twenty years, everyone had believed Eleanor Winters was a victim.
But she wasn't.
She had survived.
And after surviving, she had rebuilt everything.
Then Marcus pointed to one final notation.
A date.
Tomorrow.
A location.
Baltimore Harbor.
And beneath it:
THE FAMILY RETURNS.
David looked at Alessandro.
“She wants us there.”
Alessandro shook his head.
“No.”
David stood.
“We're going.”
I grabbed his arm.
“David, that's exactly what she wants.”
He looked at me.
“Maybe.”
Then he showed me the final page.
There was a handwritten sentence.
Only Catherine can open the door.
I stared at it.
“I don't understand.”
May you like
David whispered:
“I think my mother has been waiting for you.”
