Chapter 10 - The Riverside Ledger)
Marcus drove to the Riverside Motor Lodge the next morning.
Daniel came with him.
Evelyn wanted to.
Marcus refused only because the twins had slept badly after the hotel intrusion.
She surprised him by agreeing.
"Call every thirty minutes."
"I will."
"If you stop answering, I'm sending security."
"Understood."
"And Marcus?"
He turned.
"Don't believe something just because it makes Eleanor look guilty."
He stared at her.
She continued.
"That's what she did to both of us. She gave us a story we wanted to believe."
Marcus nodded.
The Riverside Motor Lodge had been abandoned for two decades.
Weeds pushed through cracked asphalt.
Faded numbers clung above rusted doors.
The old Hale logo remained barely visible on the reception building.
Room 18 matched the address Lydia had written.
The lock was gone.
Inside, dust covered everything.
Daniel turned on a flashlight.
"What exactly are we looking for?"
"A ledger."
"That narrows it down."
They searched the room.
Nothing.
Marcus stood in the center.
His father had chosen this place deliberately.
One place Eleanor would never enter again.
Marcus examined the walls.
The building had once been owned by Jonathan Hale.
His grandfather loved hiding safes behind paintings.
There were no paintings.
But one section of wall sounded hollow.
Daniel found a rusted maintenance panel.
Behind it sat a metal box.
Locked.
The brass key was gone, stolen with Evelyn's handbag.
But Marcus remembered the key number.
Daniel called a locksmith.
Forty minutes later, the box opened.
Inside were three items.
A black ledger.
A cassette tape.
A sealed envelope addressed to MARCUS.
Marcus opened the ledger first.
Pages of dates.
Payments.
Names.
Some were company executives.
Some were attorneys.
One appeared repeatedly.
Laura Cole.
Adrian's mother.
Another name appeared every month for sixteen years.
Margaret Vale.
Harold's wife.
Then Marcus found Eleanor.
Not as a recipient.
As a payer.
His mother had transferred thousands of dollars to Laura Cole for years.
Daniel leaned closer.
"Could be hush money."
Marcus remembered Eleanor's call.
Or something else.
The cassette tape required an old player.
Daniel found one at a nearby electronics repair shop.
They played it inside Marcus's car.
Richard's voice.
Then Eleanor's.
The recording was old.
Her voice sounded younger.
"You cannot bring him into our house."
Richard answered.
"He's my responsibility."
"You told me he was your son."
"I told you what I had to."
Marcus felt his pulse rise.
Eleanor said, "Then tell me the truth."
Silence.
Richard replied, "The truth will destroy my father."
"Jonathan?"
"Yes."
Then the tape jumped.
A missing section.
When it resumed, Eleanor was crying.
Marcus had never heard his mother cry.
"Richard, we go to the police."
"We can't."
"A child was taken."
"We don't know that."
"You just told me..."
Static swallowed the sentence.
Then Richard said, "If my father finds out we know, none of us are safe."
The recording ended.
Daniel exhaled.
"What the hell?"
Marcus opened the envelope.
Inside was a letter from Richard.
Marcus,
If you found this, then either I failed to stop Eleanor or Eleanor failed to stop someone else.
You will want a villain.
Do not choose too quickly.
Your mother committed acts I could not forgive. She will answer for them.
But the first lie in our family began before she became a Hale.
GHT-19 was created after Jonathan discovered that his bloodline was not what he believed it to be.
Schedule C identifies the people the trust was truly meant to protect.
I removed it from the official record.
Thomas Reed holds a copy.
Find him before Adrian does.
Marcus stopped reading.
Before Adrian does.
He continued.
Adrian believes the Hale fortune was stolen from his mother.
He is partly right.
He believes Eleanor caused his mother's death.
He may be right.
I never proved it.
But Adrian does not know the most important fact.
Laura Cole was not his mother.
Marcus read the sentence again.
Daniel leaned closer.
"What?"
Marcus continued.
The real identity of Adrian's mother is contained in Schedule C.
If Adrian learns it before you understand what happened in 1988, he may come for the wrong people.
Especially your children.
Marcus lowered the letter.
"Why my children?"
Daniel shook his head.
Marcus's phone rang.
Evelyn.
He answered immediately.
"Everything okay?"
No response.
"Evelyn?"
Then Noah's voice.
"Dad?"
Marcus stood beside the car.
It was the first time Noah had called him that.
His heart lurched.
"Hey, buddy. Where's Mom?"
Noah whispered, "She's talking to Grandma."
Marcus's blood went cold.
"What?"
"Grandma came upstairs."
"Security didn't stop her?"
"She had a lady with her."
Marcus opened the driver's door.
"Put your mom on."
Footsteps.
Then Evelyn.
"Marcus."
"Why is Eleanor there?"
"She brought someone."
"Who?"
Evelyn's voice was strange.
"Harold Vale's daughter."
Marcus stopped.
"What does she want?"
"She says Harold lied to you."
"About what?"
"Everything."
Behind Evelyn, a woman spoke loudly enough for Marcus to hear.
"Tell him."
May you like
Evelyn was silent.
Then she said, "Marcus, she has the original Schedule C."
