Chapter 11 - THE SECOND LEDGER
"Gabriel," I gasped, handing him the note.
He read it quickly, his jaw tightening into a hard line.
"The second ledger?" Gabriel muttered, staring at the paper. "What second ledger?"
"I don't know," I said, panic threading my voice. "My mother never mentioned another one. I thought the microfilm in the rosary was everything."
Gabriel immediately pulled out his phone and dialed Anthony.
"Anthony, where is the security detail for the guest wing?"
A pause. Then Anthony’s voice crackled through, sounding frantic. "Boss, they're unconscious. Someone slipped a sedative into their coffee thermos. The side gate is open. Leo and Sarah are gone."
"Find them," Gabriel ordered, his voice echoing in the empty room. "Tear the city apart. Now."
He hung up and ran a hand through his hair.
"Why would she run?" I asked, pacing the floor. "Marcus is in police custody. He's locked up!"
Gabriel looked at me, his eyes dark. "Because Marcus didn't build his empire alone, Claire. If there is a second ledger, it means there is someone else. A partner. Someone who was just as involved in my mother's death as Marcus was."
The realization hit me like a physical blow.
My mother had run to protect Elijah. She knew this invisible partner would come looking for the second ledger to tie up loose ends.
"Where would she go?" Gabriel asked, turning to me. "Think, Claire. Where does she feel safe?"
I closed my eyes, trying to force my panicked brain to work.
The Hamptons house? No, Gabriel had just given me the key.
Her apartment in Queens? No, Isabella already knew about it.
Then, a memory flashed in my mind. The child's drawing from the hospital room.
"Montauk," I said, my eyes snapping open. "The lighthouse. It's the only place she's ever truly felt safe. She took Leo there when they were first dating."
Gabriel nodded sharply. "Let's go."
We sprinted to his SUV.
The drive to the eastern tip of Long Island took two agonizing hours. The morning sun burned away the clouds, casting a harsh, bright light over the highway.
I called my mother's phone over and over, but it went straight to voicemail.
As we approached Montauk Point, the massive brick lighthouse loomed over the rocky cliffs, overlooking the churning gray ocean.
Gabriel parked the SUV near the empty visitor center.
We ran toward the cliffs.
"Mom!" I screamed over the roar of the crashing waves.
I scanned the rocky shoreline.
Then I saw them.
My mother was pushing Leo's wheelchair along a narrow dirt path near the cliff edge. Little Elijah was clinging to her coat.
"Mom!" I yelled again, sprinting toward them.
She turned, her face pale with terror. But when she saw it was me and Gabriel, she collapsed to her knees in relief.
Gabriel and I reached them, breathless.
"Why did you run?" I demanded, dropping to my knees beside her and hugging her tight. "Why didn't you tell us?"
My mother sobbed, clutching Elijah.
"I couldn't risk it, Claire," she cried. "I remembered something last night. Something Eleanor told me in the hospital before she died."
Leo grabbed Gabriel's arm. "She told Sarah there were two copies of the evidence. Marcus had the financial records, but his partner had the names of the corrupt judges and politicians keeping them out of prison."
"Who is the partner?" Gabriel asked, his voice urgent.
Reversal.
My mother looked up at Gabriel, her eyes wide with fear.
"It's Isabella's father," she whispered. "Alejandro Varela."
Gabriel froze.
"Varela?" Gabriel repeated, stunned. "Isabella's father?"
"Yes," my mother said. "Alejandro helped Marcus orchestrate the crash to kill Eleanor. That's why Isabella was so desperate to force your father to sign those papers, Gabriel. She wasn't just protecting herself. She was protecting her father's legacy."
Gabriel stood up, turning to face the ocean, processing the betrayal.
Isabella hadn't been a clumsy victim of Marcus. Her entire family was poisoned.
"Where is the second ledger?" Gabriel asked quietly.
My mother reached into the lining of Leo's wheelchair cushion. She pulled out a small, waterproof metal tube.
"Eleanor mailed this to a PO box under my name the day she died," my mother said. "I kept it hidden for eighteen years."
Gabriel took the tube. He looked at the heavy metal cylinder. It held enough evidence to destroy the Varela family entirely.
"It's over," Gabriel said, his voice hard. "I'm going to burn Alejandro Varela to the ground."
He turned back to us. "Let's get you all to the safehouse. Anthony is sending a chopper."
We started walking back up the dirt path toward the parking lot.
The wind was howling off the ocean, biting through my thin cardigan. Gabriel took off his jacket and wrapped it around my shoulders, pulling me close.
I finally felt like we had crossed the finish line. The final secret was out.
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But as we crested the hill and saw Gabriel's SUV, we both stopped dead in our tracks.
Parked directly behind Gabriel's SUV were three black sedans. And standing in front of them, holding a suppressed rifle aimed directly at Gabriel’s chest, was Isabella.
