Chapter 9 - THE LEDGER
Evelyn grabbed her brother.
“You’re not going back.”
“We need the ledger.”
“We need you alive.”
Daniel looked at me.
“Sofia died for that evidence.”
That settled it.
“I’m going.”
Grace shouted, “Dad!”
I turned.
Her face was streaked with soot.
For twelve years, I had tried to make sure she never looked frightened.
Now she did.
And I had caused it.
“I’ll be back.”
“That’s what people always say right before something stupid.”
Evelyn almost smiled.
I ran.
Heat hit me like a wall.
The office stairs were burning.
I climbed anyway.
Inside the office, smoke covered the ceiling.
Daniel had said beneath the old desk.
I flipped it over.
Nothing.
Then I saw an eight-pointed star carved into the floorboard.
Sofia.
I pried it open.
A metal case sat beneath.
I grabbed it.
A beam fell behind me.
The stairs disappeared in fire.
No way down.
Glass windows faced the river.
Three stories.
Bad option.
Only option.
I wrapped my coat around my arms and slammed through the window.
Cold air hit me.
Then water.
The river swallowed everything.
For several seconds, I didn’t know which way was up.
I kicked toward light.
Hands pulled me onto the riverbank.
Evelyn.
Daniel.
Grace fell against me.
“You idiot.”
I coughed.
“Good to see you too.”
She hit my chest.
Not hard.
Then hugged me.
“I hate you.”
“I know.”
“I really hate you.”
“I know.”
I held her tighter.
For the first time in years, I didn’t tell her everything was okay.
Because it wasn’t.
We opened the metal case inside a safe apartment forty minutes later.
The ledger was real.
Payments to police officers.
Judges.
Union officials.
Businessmen.
And members of my own organization.
Vittorio had built a parallel empire.
Evelyn turned pages.
“This can destroy him.”
Daniel shook his head.
“Not alone.”
“What?”
“We need Sofia’s original recording.”
“We have it.”
“No. Another one.”
My blood went cold.
Daniel looked at me.
“She recorded Vittorio admitting he sabotaged her car.”
I stared at him.
“Where?”
“She mailed it to someone she trusted.”
“Who?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Your mother.”
I felt the room shift.
“My mother died when I was sixteen.”
“No.”
Daniel’s expression was grim.
“That’s what Vittorio told you.”
I stopped breathing.
“My mother is alive?”
Evelyn stared at Daniel.
“You never told me this.”
“I didn’t know until Sofia called me the night before she died.”
I stood.
“Where is she?”
Daniel gave me an address.
Wisconsin.
A small town near Lake Geneva.
Grace turned toward me.
“Dad?”
I barely heard her.
My mother.
Alive for twenty-six years.
And suddenly I understood something far worse.
If Vittorio had lied about her death, then my entire childhood after sixteen had been built by the man who murdered my wife.
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
A woman’s voice said one word.
“Dominic?”
My knees nearly gave out.
I knew that voice.
Older.
Weaker.
May you like
But I knew it.
“Mom?”
