Chapter 6 - The Friend Who Stayed
Norah did not move.
Maya stood on the staircase with her phone hanging at her side, tears tracking through the powder on her cheeks. Gideon’s hand tightened around his weapon. Lucian stepped toward Norah, but she lifted one palm and stopped him.
“How long?” Norah asked.
“Eight months.”
The answer hurt with the precision of a blade.
“Since before I married Lucian?”
Maya nodded. “Yes.”
“What did you tell him?”
“Where you were. Who you met. Whether Lucian was home. I never gave him anything that would put you directly in danger.”
“You gave him my life.”
Maya came down two steps. “He had my brother.”
Norah’s anger faltered, but it did not disappear. “What does that mean?”
“Jonah owes money to people he should never have met. Ethan arranged for them to find him. Then he offered to make the debt disappear if I helped.”
“And you believed him?”
“I believed he would kill Jonah if I refused.”
Maya held out the phone. The screen showed a series of messages from an unknown number. One contained a photograph of Jonah tied to a chair. Another showed Maya outside Cafe Pernell, watching Norah through the window.
“I should have told you,” Maya said. “Every day I planned to. Every day he sent another picture.”
Norah remembered all the times Maya had hugged her too tightly, all the questions she had asked about Lucian’s schedule, all the mornings when a car seemed to appear at the corner before Norah noticed it. Betrayal was not always loud. Sometimes it wore the face of the person who knew how to comfort you.
Lucian took the phone from Maya. “Where is Jonah now?”
“I don’t know.”
“You know more than that.”
Maya’s chin lifted. “I know Ethan isn’t the one giving orders. He was terrified every time he called me. He kept asking about Norah’s mother.”
Gideon looked toward Lucian. “We need to move everyone to the west residence.”
“No,” Norah said.
Lucian faced her. “This house has been compromised.”
“Then we stop moving like frightened prey. We have a recording, a false medical file, and a witness who knows where my mother is.”
“Ethan is not a witness you can trust.”
“Neither are half the people in this house.”
The truth silenced them.
Gideon finally spoke. “There is one person who can authenticate the ledger if we find it.”
“Who?” Norah asked.
“Mara Bell.”
Lucian’s expression hardened. “My attorney.”
“Your father’s attorney,” Gideon corrected. “She handled the port company’s civil cases before Lucian took control. She was also the last person to see Adrian alive before he went to Pier Nine.”
“Why did no one tell me?” Norah asked.
“Because Mara disappeared after your father’s death,” Lucian said. “She resurfaced three years ago and asked to work for me.”
Norah looked at him. “You hired her?”
“I needed someone who understood the old structure.”
“Or someone who could bury it.”
Before Lucian answered, the estate’s alarm sounded. The system reported movement in the underground archive, a room accessible only from the library.
Gideon ran first. Norah followed with Lucian despite his objection. The archive door stood open, and one of the locked cabinets had been emptied. Files lay scattered across the floor.
Maya cried out from behind them.
Her phone rang.
She answered on speaker. A man sobbed in the background.
“Maya,” Jonah begged. “Don’t let them take me to the river.”
Ethan’s voice replaced his. “Bring me the ledger by midnight, or your friend’s brother disappears.”
Norah stared at the empty cabinet. “He already knows where it is.”
Lucian’s eyes moved to the floor. A single envelope rested beneath the desk, sealed with black wax.
Norah opened it.
May you like
Inside was a copy of her marriage license, her pregnancy test results, and a note in her mother’s handwriting.
My daughter, if you are carrying a Moretti child, the ledger is no longer the most valuable thing you possess.
