Chapter 4 - The Safe
I stared at the silver key resting in my palm. The metal was cold, etched with a tiny, faded logo: a griffin holding a shield.
“That’s the logo for Liberty Trust,” I murmured, my mind racing. It was the old, historic bank downtown, the one that had been closed for renovations for the past year.
“Mom,” Ellie said, pulling my arm. “Dad is getting away.”
“Let him run,” I said, my voice hardening into something I didn't recognize. “He can’t sell the company without the original shares, and according to my mother’s video, he doesn’t have them. We need to find Sarah.”
We pushed our way through the murmuring crowd, ignoring the sympathetic and horrified stares of the people I had known for decades. We burst out of the hotel lobby and into the cool Chicago night.
Sarah’s car was already gone from the valet.
I pulled my keys from my purse and unlocked my SUV. Ellie climbed into the passenger seat, buckling her seatbelt. She looked far older than thirteen in that moment.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“To the office,” I said, starting the engine. “If Sarah forged my signature on an asset transfer, the copies are in her files. I need to know exactly what Daniel thinks he’s selling.”
The drive to the Harrison Custom Homes headquarters took ten minutes. The building was dark, sitting quietly in the industrial park Daniel and I had purchased ten years ago.
I used my master keycard to bypass the front doors. The lobby was pitch black. We moved quickly, taking the stairs to the second-floor executive suites.
I pushed open the door to Sarah’s office and flipped the light switch.
The room was destroyed.
Filing cabinets were ripped open, folders scattered across the carpet like dead leaves. The hard drive had been physically ripped out of her desktop computer.
“Someone beat us here,” Ellie whispered.
I walked over to Sarah’s desk. Beneath the scattered papers, my foot hit something hard. I bent down. It was a framed photograph of Sarah and me at Ellie’s first birthday party. The glass was shattered.
But tucked behind the broken frame was a sticky note.
I’m so sorry, the note read in Sarah’s frantic handwriting. He found out about the offshore debt. He threatened to take my kids. The real ledger isn’t here. Look where Margaret planted the first seed.
I stared at the note, my heart pounding. Where Margaret planted the first seed.
“Mom?” Ellie asked, pointing at the wall behind Sarah’s desk.
The large abstract painting that usually hung there had been pushed aside, revealing a steel wall safe. It was hanging wide open, completely empty.
Whatever Daniel had been looking for, he had found it.
I stepped closer to the empty safe. But as I peered inside the dark metal box, my eyes caught a faint, blinking red light in the back corner.
I reached in and pulled it out. It was a cheap, disposable burner phone.
I pressed the screen. There was only one unread text message, sent three minutes ago from an unknown number.
I have the ledger. Meet me at the lake house. Come alone, or I burn it.
May you like
I knew who the message was from. It wasn't Daniel. It was Lauren.
And she had just invited me to a war.
