Chapter 7 - THE HOUSE FROM MY CHILDHOOD
My childhood home had been empty for years.
The windows were boarded.
The garden was overgrown.
The front door barely closed.
My mother unlocked it with a key she had kept for twenty years.
Inside, everything smelled like dust.
I remembered the hallway.
The staircase.
The kitchen where my mother used to bake.
I remembered being seven.
I remembered the night she disappeared.
Now I knew it hadn't been an accident.
She had been trying to save me.
We searched the house.
Nothing.
Then my mother stopped in the kitchen.
“Your grandmother loved puzzles.”
“What?”
“She never trusted safes.”
My father understood.
“She used the house.”
We searched the floorboards.
Nothing.
Then I remembered the porcelain angel.
The same angel my grandmother had kept on her kitchen table.
I ran to the old cabinet.
Behind it was a hollow compartment.
Inside was a small wooden box.
The original Kane ledger was inside.
My father opened it.
Pages of names.
Payments.
Politicians.
Judges.
Bankers.
Police officers.
Businessmen.
And one name appeared again and again.
Charles Whitmore.
But there was another.
Brandon Hale.
I felt sick.
Then we found something else.
A photograph.
It showed Kane standing beside a much younger Brandon.
My mother looked at it.
“He recruited him.”
“Why?”
“Because Brandon was ambitious.”
My father flipped another page.
There were notes in my grandmother's handwriting.
Vincent is not the only person Kane fears.
I looked at my mother.
“What does that mean?”
She smiled sadly.
“It means your grandmother was smarter than all of us.”
Then the lights went out.
My father pulled his gun.
“Everyone down.”
A window shattered.
Men entered.
We ran toward the basement.
My mother grabbed the ledger.
I followed.
My father stayed behind.
“Dad!”
“Go!”
Gunshots echoed upstairs.
We reached the back door.
A car waited.
Detective Brooks.
“Get in!”
We escaped.
Ten minutes later, my father arrived.
His coat was torn.
Blood stained his sleeve.
I ran toward him.
“Are you hurt?”
“It's nothing.”
My mother looked at him.
“You always say that.”
He smiled.
“For twenty-five years.”
For the first time, I saw them look at each other without anger.
Whatever had happened between them wasn't finished.
Maybe it never would be.
But there was still love there.
Then Brooks called.
“Brandon has been arrested.”
My heart stopped.
“What?”
“He tried to flee the country.”
“Where?”
“Airport.”
I exhaled.
Finally.
But Brooks sounded serious.
“There's a problem.”
“What?”
“He says he has information about Kane.”
“What kind?”
“He says Kane ordered your kidnapping.”
I stared at my father.
My mother went pale.
Then Brooks said:
“And he says Kane isn't after the ledger anymore.”
“Then what does he want?”
May you like
A pause.
“You.”
