Chapter 6 - The Ledger of the Past
The small circle of light from my penlight illuminated the dark barrel of the silenced pistol in Leo’s hand, casting long, menacing shadows across his sharp, unblinking eyes. The cold night wind whistling through the cracks in the boathouse floorboards sounded like a distant train rushing toward us.
"Drop the penlight, Clara," Leo said, his voice disturbingly calm, devoid of the theatrical anger I had expected. It was the voice of a professional executioner who had done this a hundred times before.
"You killed her, didn't you?" I asked, my voice shaking slightly, though I refused to drop the light. My fingers brushed against the plastic ID badge of my aunt Sarah still resting beside the red ribbon on the desk. "Sarah Hayes. Twenty years ago. She didn't run away to Europe like my family was told. You kept her here, in this house, didn't you?"
Leo didn't flinch. He didn't even blink. He simply adjusted his grip on the weapon, taking one slow, deliberate step closer.
"Sarah was bright," Leo said softly, a strange note of grim nostalgia touching his tone. "Too bright for her own good. She figured out that Vance wasn't just managing the estate’s legal portfolio—he was systematically draining the Mercer family trust to fund his own real estate empire in downtown Chicago. When she tried to smuggle those adoption papers and financial ledgers out to the authorities, she made the mistake of trusting the wrong people."
"And you disposed of her," I whispered, tears stinging the corners of my eyes, hot and furious.
"We didn't kill her, Clara," Leo corrected smoothly. "Vance gave her a choice: disappear completely, leave her infant daughter behind to be raised under a new name, or face charges of corporate espionage that would have put her away for the rest of her life. She chose to walk away. She left the baby—Liam’s daughter—behind to ensure the child would inherit what was left of the estate when she came of age."
My heart hammered against my ribs. "Liam’s daughter... she’s still here?"
"Where do you think she is?" Leo replied with a cold smile. "Vance keeps her close. Very close. As leverage against Liam, and as the ultimate insurance policy. As long as Liam thinks his daughter is safe at a boarding school, he signs whatever Vance puts in front of him. But if he ever finds out the truth—that his daughter has been living right under his nose as Vance’s 'ward'—Liam would burn this entire estate to the ground."
The revelation hit me like a physical blow. The child’s shoe upstairs, the pocket watch, my aunt’s badge, and Vance’s iron grip on the house—it wasn't just a turf war between rival syndicates. It was a twenty-year extortion plot orchestrated by a lawyer who had played both sides against the middle.
"And now you're going to clean up loose ends," I said, bracing myself, my hand sliding deeper into my scrub pocket to grip the heavy bottle of antiseptic.
"I'm a businessman, Clara, just like my employers," Leo said, raising the pistol slightly, aligning the barrel with my chest. "You found the ledger. You found the badge. You know too much to go back upstairs. But unlike the others... I'll make it quick."
He squeezed his finger against the trigger.
Clack.
The gun jammed. A microscopic flaw in the firing pin—or perhaps just sheer, unadulterated luck—saved my life in a fraction of a second.
Before Leo could clear the jam, I didn't hesitate. I hurled the heavy glass bottle of antiseptic straight at his face.
It struck him squarely across the temple with a sickening crunch of glass and skin. Leo stumbled backward, blinded and cursing, his hands flying to his face as alcohol and broken glass sprayed across his forehead.
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I didn't wait to see if he recovered. I turned, grabbed my aunt’s plastic ID badge and the red silk ribbon from the desk, and bolted straight toward the open drainage tunnel.
Behind me, Leo roared in fury, his heavy boots slamming against the wooden floorboards in hot pursuit as I dove headfirst into the dark, damp stone passage.
