Chapter 5: The Black Ledger
Grant lunged toward the laptop.
The security guard caught him before he reached it.
“This is fabricated!” Grant shouted.
The force of his voice carried through the glass wall. Guests in the conservatory turned toward the boardroom.
Evelyn did not flinch.
“What ledger?” Nora asked.
Grant struggled against the guard.
“Do not answer her.”
Celeste closed her eyes briefly.
It was the first time Nora had seen regret on her face.
Not guilt.
Regret that Grant had lost control.
Evelyn motioned for the guard to remove him from the room.
Grant twisted toward Nora as he was led into the corridor.
“You have no idea what your mother did,” he said. “She destroyed people and called it honesty.”
The door closed behind him.
Nora turned to Evelyn.
“What ledger?”
Evelyn sat slowly at the end of the table.
“Claire kept handwritten copies of sensitive transactions. She believed digital records could be altered.”
“Did she tell you where she kept them?”
“No. She said she would bring the ledger to our meeting.”
“And then she disappeared.”
Evelyn nodded.
Celeste moved toward the door.
The second guard blocked her path.
“This is absurd,” she said. “I will not stand here while an unstable employee invents accusations.”
Nora stepped in front of her.
“You entered my apartment.”
“I did no such thing.”
“You knew where I grew up.”
“Your personnel file contains your address history.”
“My childhood address isn’t in my personnel file.”
Celeste’s mouth tightened.
Nora searched her memory.
After her mother’s death, social workers had packed their apartment. Nora had been sent to live with an aunt who barely knew her. Most of Claire’s belongings had vanished into storage, donation centers, or unlabeled boxes.
Only one object had remained with Nora through every move.
A wooden music box shaped like a small house.
Her mother used to call it their emergency bank.
Nora had always assumed she meant the few folded bills hidden beneath the velvet tray.
But there had been something else.
When Nora was nine, she had seen Claire remove the brass hinge with a kitchen knife. Behind it was a narrow compartment.
“What do you remember?” Evelyn asked.
Nora looked toward the laptop.
“The music box.”
Celeste’s eyes sharpened.
Nora saw the reaction.
“You know about it.”
Celeste said nothing.
Nora reached for her purse.
“I need to go home.”
“You are not going alone,” Evelyn said.
Peter checked his phone.
His expression changed.
“What is it?” Denise asked.
“The security company monitoring Nora’s building just contacted us.”
Nora stared at him.
“Why would they contact you?”
Peter turned the screen toward her.
May you like
A silent alarm had been triggered inside Nora’s apartment less than three minutes earlier.
Someone was already there.
