Chapter 7 - THE ENEMY INSIDE MY HOUSE
I wanted to burn the world down.
Daniel stopped me.
"That's exactly what they want."
I turned on him.
"They have my children."
"And they expect you to act emotionally."
"They have my daughters."
"I know."
I grabbed him.
"Find them."
"We will."
Patricia stepped forward.
"I know where Victor would take them."
I looked at her.
"Where?"
"The old Hale estate."
We drove there.
Every mile felt like an eternity.
When we arrived, the property was abandoned.
Too quiet.
We entered carefully.
Then heard a child's voice.
"Daddy?"
Avery.
I ran.
The room was empty.
A recording played from a speaker.
My daughter's voice.
A message.
"You're too late."
Then another voice.
Victor.
"You finally came."
He appeared on a screen.
Older.
Gray-haired.
Smiling.
"You look like your father."
"Where are my daughters?"
"Safe."
"Bring them out."
"No."
I stared at him.
"What do you want?"
"The ledger."
"I don't have it."
"You will."
Then the screen changed.
It showed my daughters.
They were sitting in a room with Clara's younger brother, Michael.
I looked at Patricia.
She gasped.
"Michael."
Victor spoke.
"You thought you were protecting your son."
Patricia began crying.
"Please."
"Your loyalty has always been conditional."
The screen went black.
Then another message appeared.
Twenty-four hours.
I turned to Patricia.
"How do we find them?"
She looked at me.
"We don't."
"What?"
"We let Victor believe he has won."
That was the beginning of the plan.
We leaked false information.
We pretended the ledger was in my downtown office.
Victor took the bait.
Security tracked the movement.
Meanwhile, Clara discovered something else.
She had been studying Madeline's letters.
"There is a pattern."
"What?"
"She never wrote the word 'ledger.'"
I looked at her.
"She always called it something else."
"What?"
"The blue book."
My heart stopped.
"The girls' story."
Clara nodded.
"The blue house. The blue lamp. The blue book."
I suddenly understood.
The ledger had never been hidden in a safe.
Madeline had hidden it in something Victor would never suspect.
A children's book.
We returned to the safe house.
Sophie had a favorite storybook.
Blue cover.
I opened it.
Nothing.
Then I noticed the pages were unusually thick.
I separated the binding.
A tiny encrypted drive was hidden inside.
The ledger.
We had it.
But before we could celebrate, my phone rang.
Victor.
"You found it."
I froze.
"How?"
A laugh.
"Because I was never outside your house."
My blood ran cold.
He continued.
"I was inside it."
May you like
The line went dead.
Then every light in the safe house shut off.
