She Spent One Reckless Night With a Billionaire After Catching Her Boyfriend Cheating, but by Morning He Had Locked the Doors and Changed Her Life Forever

“The girl’s house,” Olivia repeated. “That could mean me.”

“Or Claire,” Adrian said.

“My apartment was searched.”

“Not thoroughly enough.”

They returned to Olivia’s building with Marcus and two officers. The apartment looked unchanged, but Claire’s letter had mentioned an old house in Tacoma. Olivia remembered the cedar box, the garden shed, and the loose floorboard beneath her childhood bed.

She drove there alone in the back seat of Adrian’s car, staring at the rain-blurred streets.

“You don’t have to come inside,” Adrian said.

“I know.”

“I can wait outside.”

“You hate waiting.”

“I hate many things.”

“You’re very honest about that.”

“It saves time.”

The house had been sold after Claire’s supposed death. The current owner, an elderly woman named Ruth, recognized Olivia immediately.

“Your mother told me you might come back,” Ruth said.

“When?”

“She visited last spring.”

Olivia’s chest tightened. “Did she leave anything?”

Ruth pointed toward the hallway. “She asked me to keep the room exactly as it was.”

Under the loose floorboard beneath the old bed was a narrow metal box. It contained the silver bracelet’s matching clasp, a key, and a letter from Daniel Parker.

Olivia read it aloud.

Claire, if you leave, take Olivia to the coast. Graham knows about the ledger. I made a copy of the ownership list and put it where she will find it when she is old enough to understand. I’m sorry I could not protect you both.

The key fit a small lock hidden behind the baseboard. A panel opened, revealing a crawl space beneath the house. They descended with flashlights.

The ledger sat inside a waterproof case beneath the foundation, exactly where Thomas’s recording had said it would be. But the pages inside were blank.

“Someone replaced it,” Adrian said.

Olivia pulled the cover from the case. A thin transparent sheet had been pressed against the first page. Heat had erased the ink from the visible paper, but the pressure marks remained beneath.

“It’s a transfer ledger,” she said. “The writing is impressed into the pages.”

“Can it be recovered?”

“With the right equipment.”

Adrian crouched beside her. “Then we have enough.”

“No. We have proof someone tampered with it. We need the original names.”

Footsteps sounded above them.

Ruth called, “Is everything all right?”

The voice that answered was not hers.

“Police,” a man said. “We have a warrant.”

Marcus raised a finger to his lips.

More footsteps entered the house. Olivia recognized one voice.

Jake.

“Search every room,” he ordered.

Adrian’s eyes turned cold. He gestured toward a narrow opening at the back of the crawl space. Olivia followed him through a tunnel of dirt and roots. They emerged behind a thicket near the alley as police sirens approached from the opposite direction.

“Jake has no authority to order a search,” Olivia whispered.

“He may have forged the warrant.”

“How did he know we were here?”

Adrian looked at her. “Who knew about the letter?”

“You, Naomi, Claire, and Lucas.”

“And Ruth.”

“Ruth wouldn’t.”

They watched Jake leave the house with two men in security uniforms. One of them handed him a small drive.

“He’s not working for Graham,” Olivia said. “He is Graham’s son.”

Adrian shook his head. “Jake’s father was on the tape.”

“His father could be Graham’s partner.”

The man beside Jake turned toward the alley.