Chapter 6: The Ledger That Vanished
Agatha snatched the phone from Harris.
“Lock every gate,” she ordered.
“No one leaves the property.”
Harris took it back.
“You cannot detain people at your house.”
“I can protect my belongings.”
Rose lifted Edmund’s letter.
“That ledger belongs to everyone whose money you hid.”
Agatha turned to Martin.
“Call the board.
Tell them Rose is attempting to seize company records.”
Martin closed his briefcase.
“I will not repeat a statement I know may be false.”
“You work for me.”
“I work for Thorne Manufacturing.”
“For thirty-two years, those have meant the same thing.”
“Not today.”
Agatha’s cane trembled against the floor.
Arthur looked at Harris.
“Who entered the study?”
“The guard did not say.”
Lydia checked her phone.
“I know.”
She held up a message from her younger brother, Simon.
*Found the blue book.
Grandmother’s driver saw me.
I’m in the old greenhouse.*
“You told Simon?” Agatha demanded.
“I sent him the recording when you threatened Rose’s house.”
Agatha moved toward Lydia.
“If one page of that ledger leaves my property, I will have him charged.”
“With taking records that show financial misconduct?” Martin asked.
“That may create questions you do not want answered.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“Be careful, Martin.
Your father signed some of those entries.”
Martin went still.
Agatha smiled.
“Yes.
There are stains on more than one family name.”
“That is why you kept the ledger,” Rose said.
“It protected you.”
“It protected the company.”
“It protected your chair.”
Arthur took out his keys.
“I’m going to Simon.”
“So am I,” I said.
He looked at the ring in his palm.
“Eliza, you do not owe me help.”
“This is for my mother.”
Rose caught my hand.
“You have already lost your wedding day.”
“No.
Agatha tried to take it.
That is not the same thing.”
Lydia drove us to the Thorne estate while Harris followed.
My mother sat beside me, holding Edmund’s letter with both hands.
At the greenhouse, Simon emerged with dirt on his jacket and a blue leather book beneath it.
Agatha’s car stopped behind ours.
“Give me that ledger,” she said.
Simon moved beside Lydia.
“No.”
“You are both removed from my will.”
Lydia held out her hand to her brother.
“Then we will learn to earn our own money.”
Agatha faced my mother.
“Rose, one final offer.
Keep the house.
I will place two hundred thousand dollars in Eliza’s name.
Give me the letter and ledger, and none of us speaks of this again.”
I stared at her.
“You would pay me to call my mother a liar?”
“I would pay you to understand the cost of pride.”
Rose stepped between us.
“Do not speak to my daughter.”
“Your daughter was happy enough to wear my jewels.”
“Your grandson gave it to me,” I said.
“After you placed it in his hands.”
Agatha’s eyes hardened.
“Arthur has no future without this family.”
Arthur stood beside me.
“Then I will build one.”
“You have never built anything.”
“He built a life where people are not frightened of him.”
Agatha swung her cane toward the ledger.
Harris caught it before it struck Simon’s hands.
“That is enough,” he said.
Martin arrived behind her and opened the ledger on the hood of his car.
Columns of dates and payments covered each page.
Rose pointed to a repeated entry.
“R.M.
dividends.”
Martin read the totals.
“The first payment should have gone to Rose in 2009.”
“Where did it go?” I asked.
He followed a handwritten code to the final pages.
“Account AT-441.”
Agatha looked toward the house.
Martin turned another page.
“The account received Rose’s dividends for sixteen years.”
Arthur leaned over his shoulder.
“Whose name is on it?”
Martin did not answer.
“Read it,” Rose said.
He looked directly at Agatha.
“The Agatha Thorne Family Trust.”
My mother pressed a hand to her mouth.
The stolen dividends covered page after page.
Then Martin reached the newest entry.
“This transfer was made yesterday,” he said.
“To whom?” Harris asked.
May you like
Martin’s face drained of color.
“An account opened in Eliza Mercer’s name.”
