Chapter 4 - PAIGE’S PRICE
I read Paige’s messages three times.
The words did not become easier to believe.
I DIDN’T.
I HID THEM FOR YOU.
My sister had spent years laughing when Mom humiliated me.
She had benefited from money stolen from me.
Now she wanted me to believe she had preserved evidence.
I called her.
She answered on the first ring.
“Where are you?”
Her voice was low.
“Home.”
“Alone?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
“Put me on video.”
“What?”
“If you’re alone, show me.”
She swore softly.
Then the call switched to video.
Paige appeared in her kitchen.
Her makeup was gone.
She was still wearing the dress from my wedding, but the diamond bracelet was missing.
She turned the phone slowly.
Empty counters.
Empty breakfast nook.
Dark hallway.
No one visible.
“Happy?” she asked.
“No.”
Her mouth tightened.
“Fair.”
I leaned against Daniel’s car in the alley outside Grandpa’s old office.
Police lights flashed against the brick walls behind me.
“Why did Mom tell you to burn the files?”
“She called me yesterday.”
“What did she say?”
“She said Grandpa had old estate paperwork that could be misunderstood.”
I laughed once.
“Misunderstood.”
“I know how it sounds.”
“You laughed at me this morning when she called me a regret.”
Paige looked away from the camera.
“I know.”
“You have spent your entire life helping her make me feel small.”
“I know.”
“And now you want credit for not destroying evidence of theft?”
“I don’t want credit.”
Her voice sharpened.
“I want protection.”
There it was.
Not remorse.
A deal.
“What are you afraid of?”
Paige hesitated.
“Mom.”
I almost ended the call.
Then she said something that stopped me.
“She knows I copied the ledgers.”
My grip tightened on the phone.
“Copied what ledgers?”
“The ones in the folders.”
“Where are the copies?”
“Not with me.”
“Where?”
“I’m not telling you until you promise something.”
I closed my eyes.
Of course.
Even now, Paige needed leverage.
“What do you want?”
“I want you to keep my name out of whatever you do next.”
“No.”
Her eyes widened.
“You didn’t even think about it.”
“Because I saw the ledger.”
“You think I knew?”
“You wore a bracelet bought with money from my account.”
“I thought Mom paid for it.”
“She did.”
“With my money.”
Paige flinched.
For the first time, I saw actual shame.
“I didn’t know that.”
“How much did you know?”
She sat at the kitchen island.
“Growing up, I knew they treated you differently.”
“That is not what I asked.”
“I knew there was money from Grandpa.”
“For me?”
“I didn’t know it was specifically yours.”
I stared at her.
“Try again.”
She rubbed her forehead.
“When I was twenty-one, I heard Dad arguing with Mom about your trust.”
My chest tightened.
“What did you hear?”
“Dad said they had taken too much.”
The alley seemed to go silent around me.
“And you never told me.”
“I was twenty-one.”
“I was nineteen.”
“I was scared.”
“You went to Paris three months later.”
She closed her eyes.
“I know.”
“With Mom.”
“I know.”
“Was that paid from my account too?”
“I don’t know.”
“Would you care if it was?”
Paige looked back at the camera.
“I care now.”
“That is convenient.”
Her voice broke slightly.
“Emma, I know I have been horrible to you.”
I said nothing.
“I know saying I was jealous sounds pathetic.”
“It does.”
“But I was.”
I almost laughed.
“Jealous of what?”
“You.”
That surprised me enough to keep listening.
Paige looked down.
“Grandpa liked talking to you.”
“He listened when you spoke.”
“You got scholarships without anyone making calls.”
“You built a career nobody handed you.”
“Mom hated that she couldn’t control you, and she trained us to hate it too.”
I did not know what to do with that.
Part of me wanted to reject every word.
Another part recognized the pattern because I had lived inside it.
Paige continued.
“When Mom told me to destroy the files, I realized she was scared.”
“I had never seen her scared of you before.”
“So you copied them.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Safe-deposit box.”
“At which bank?”
“I’ll tell you tomorrow.”
“No.”
“Emma—”
“Tonight.”
“It’s almost one in the morning.”
“You wanted protection.”
I looked toward the police officers still inside the building.
“You get it by cooperating now.”
Paige’s jaw tightened.
For a moment, the old contempt flashed across her face.
Then it disappeared.
“First National on Mercer.”
“Box number?”
“319.”
“Who has access?”
“Only me.”
“Good.”
I paused.
“Do not go there alone.”
She gave me a tired look.
“You think Mom is going to attack me in a bank?”
“I think someone disabled security cameras and locked us in a basement less than an hour ago.”
Her face changed.
“What?”
I told her what happened.
By the time I finished, Paige was no longer pretending to be calm.
“Emma.”
“Yes?”
“I didn’t tell Mom where I hid the folders.”
“Then how did she know where to send someone?”
“I don’t know.”
The same thought hit us at once.
Dad.
He had called Grandpa while we were inside.
He knew where we were.
But he had sounded surprised by the power outage.
Either he was lying extremely well or someone else had been watching both sides.
I ended the call after making Paige promise to stay home and lock her doors.
Daniel opened the passenger door for me.
“You believe her?”
“About being sorry?”
“No.”
I climbed in.
“About being scared.”
“Yes.”
Grandpa sat in the back seat, silent.
I turned toward him.
“What?”
He looked through the window at the flashing police lights.
“Your father knew where we were.”
“Yes.”
“But he told us to leave before the lights went out.”
I thought about it.
“You think he was warning us.”
“I think he knew something was going to happen.”
“That is not better.”
“No.”
Grandpa’s voice was flat.
“It is worse.”
We returned to Stone House at 1:42 a.m.
The reception was over.
The ballroom staff had cleaned most of the tables.
My wedding cake had been packed into boxes.
A few candles still burned near the windows.
I stood in the empty room and felt the weight of the day settle onto me all at once.
I had gotten married.
My mother had called me her greatest regret.
My grandfather had accused my parents of theft in a church.
My reception had been canceled and resurrected.
I had spent midnight in a dark basement surrounded by stolen-account records.
I began to laugh.
Daniel stared at me.
Then he started laughing too.
Grandpa watched us for a moment.
“You two are strange.”
That made us laugh harder.
The release lasted less than a minute.
Then Grandpa’s house manager entered the ballroom.
“Mr. Stone?”
“Yes, Helen?”
“There is something you should see.”
She held out a large white envelope.
“No return address.”
“When did that arrive?”
“It was under the front gate when security made the last round.”
Daniel took the envelope before Grandpa could.
He examined it.
“No postage.”
Someone had delivered it by hand.
My name was written across the front.
EMMA.
I opened it carefully.
Inside was a photograph.
The image showed my mother standing outside Grandpa’s old office building.
The timestamp printed in the corner was 10:16 p.m.
Tonight.
While she had supposedly been at home.
My mother had been outside the building forty minutes before the power went out.
On the back of the photograph were six words.
SHE WASN’T THE ONE WHO WENT INSIDE.
Daniel stared at the message.
Grandpa sat down slowly.
I turned the photograph over again.
In the far corner of the image, half hidden behind a parked SUV, stood another person.
Only part of the face was visible.
May you like
But I recognized the gray tuxedo.
My father.
