Chapter 3 – THE PRICE OF A MOTHER

The tablet screen glowed in the dim light of David’s apartment.

I stopped breathing. The blue ledger felt like an anvil in my hands.

“What are you doing to her?” I whispered, my voice completely devoid of strength.

Richard lowered the tablet. He didn’t blink. The man I had shared a bed with for thirty-one years looked at me with the cold, calculating eyes of a corporate shark who was about to close a hostile takeover.

“I’m ensuring that my family’s internal disagreements remain internal,” Richard said smoothly. “Your mother is perfectly safe, Catherine. As long as you hand me the ledger, my associate will simply wish her a good night and leave the premises.”

“You’re holding an eighty-year-old woman hostage in her own home!” David screamed, his panic returning. “You’re out of your mind, Richard!”

“I am protecting a three-billion-dollar empire from a pathetic gambling addict and a hysterical housewife,” Richard corrected sharply, not even glancing at David. “Hand it over, Catherine. You have three seconds.”

He raised the tablet again. His thumb hovered over a red button on the screen.

I didn’t doubt him. I knew the extent of his ruthlessness in business; I had just never been on the receiving end of it.

I held out the blue ledger.

“No, Catherine, don’t!” David lunged forward, trying to grab the book from my hands. “It’s my only leverage! The Rossi family will kill me!”

One of Richard’s security guards stepped forward and delivered a brutal, swift punch to David’s stomach. My brother collapsed to the floor, gasping for air.

“David!” I cried out.

“The book, Catherine,” Richard demanded.

I shoved the ledger into Richard’s chest. He took it greedily, a triumphant smile finally breaking across his handsome face.

He tapped the screen on the tablet and spoke into it. “Stand down, Marcus. Leave the house.”

I watched the live feed as the man behind my mother nodded, turned, and walked out the front door. Mom slumped forward on the couch, burying her face in her hands.

“You’re a monster,” I said, tears of absolute hatred spilling over my cheeks.

“I am a survivor,” Richard replied, tucking the heavy blue ledger under his arm. “This book was the only loose end your father ever left. I’ve spent ten years wondering if he actually kept records. Thank you for doing the legwork for me, David.”

Richard looked down at my brother, who was coughing on the cheap carpet.

“As for you, David,” Richard said coldly. “I paid off the Rossi family last year. You don’t owe them a dime.”

David looked up, his face pale and confused. “What? But… they called me last week. They threatened me.”

Richard smiled. “I own the debt now. I bought it from them. You owe me half a million dollars. And since you just tried to blackmail me, I’m calling the debt in. You have forty-eight hours to vacate this apartment and leave the state, or I’ll have you arrested for the forgery of Catherine’s signature on the house deed. Do you understand?”

David sobbed, completely broken.

Richard turned to leave, but he paused at the door, looking back at me.

“I told you, Catherine. You wouldn’t last a month without me. You don’t have the stomach for the real world.”

He walked out, his security detail following closely behind.

I dropped to my knees next to David. My brother was a mess, a weak man who had made terrible choices, but he was still my brother.

“I’m sorry, Cath,” he wept, clutching his stomach. “I ruined everything. He has the book. He’s going to get away with it.”

“Get up,” I said, my voice hardening.

“What?”

“Get up,” I repeated, grabbing his arm and hauling him to his feet. “Pack a bag. You’re coming to the house with me. You aren’t running away this time.”

“He’ll destroy us, Catherine! He has the original records!”

“He has a ledger,” I said, my mind racing as I remembered something my father told me on his deathbed.

I dragged David out to my car and shoved him into the passenger seat. I sped back to the mansion, breaking every speed limit in the city.

When I burst through the front door, Mom was standing in the hallway, holding a cup of tea. She looked shaken, but entirely unhurt.

I ran to her and wrapped her in a crushing hug. “Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”

“He just stood there and took my phone,” Mom said bravely, pulling back. She looked at David, who was standing awkwardly by the door. She didn’t yell. She just gave him a look of profound disappointment that made him lower his eyes.

“He took the ledger, Mom,” I said, walking into the living room.

“I know,” Mom sighed. “We lost.”

“No, we didn’t,” I said, turning to face them both. “Dad was an accountant. He audited Fortune 500 companies. He never, ever kept just one copy of the books.”

David looked up, wiping his face. “You think there’s a copy? Where?”

I reached into my coat pocket and pulled out the heavy, antique silver skeleton key Mom had given me earlier. The key to the mahogany desk.

“Mom,” I said carefully. “When Vanessa called Richard’s phone, she said the desk was smashed to pieces. She said the blue ledger was gone.”

“Right,” Mom nodded.

“Dad’s desk has three false bottoms,” I said. “He showed them to me when I was sixteen. If David smashed the desk, he would have found all of them.”

I turned to David. “Did you smash the desk tonight?”

David looked completely confused. “What? No. I picked the lock on the back door of the house. The desk was already smashed to splinters when I got there. The blue ledger was just lying on the floor in the wreckage. I grabbed it and ran.”

The room went dead silent.

If David didn’t smash the desk… who did?

Before anyone could speak, the doorbell rang. It was 3:30 AM.

I walked cautiously to the front door and looked through the peephole.

My heart hammered against my ribs.

I unlocked the door and pulled it open.

Standing on my front porch, wearing a trench coat over her red dress, was Vanessa Cole. And she was holding a thick, manila envelope.

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