Chapter 4 - The Ledger
That night, Daniel took Emma and me to his family’s townhouse in Manhattan.
I expected marble floors and silent staff.
Instead, Daniel’s mother, Margaret, made grilled cheese at two in the morning because I had forgotten to eat.
She never asked permission to hold Emma.
She waited until I offered.
That small kindness nearly broke me.
Daniel sat across from me at the kitchen island.
“I need to tell you something.”
I looked up.
“What?”
“I came back twice.”
My breath stopped.
“From Singapore?”
He nodded.
“The first time was six weeks before Emma was born.”
I stared at him.
“I was living at home.”
“I know.”
“I never saw you.”
“Your father told security you had filed a harassment complaint against me.”
My mouth fell open.
“He said what?”
Daniel opened his phone.
He showed me a building visitor report.
My supposed signature appeared at the bottom.
I had never signed it.
“The second time, I sent my mother.”
Margaret looked down.
“Your father told me you had lost the baby.”
The room went silent.
My arms tightened around Emma.
Daniel’s eyes were wet.
“I believed you had miscarried and hated me enough not to tell me personally.”
I could barely breathe.
“He made both of us grieve a child who was alive.”
Daniel nodded.
Then Maya entered carrying a laptop.
“Grace, we recovered part of your grandmother’s burned file.”
She opened a scanned image.
Grandma Evelyn’s handwriting covered several pages.
Dates.
Amounts.
Account numbers.
Initials.
R.C.
D.C.
C.W.
I recognized Dad’s initials immediately.
Robert Carter.
Daniel looked at Charles.
“C.W.?”
Charles shook his head.
“Not me.”
Maya enlarged another entry.
Beside C.W. was a payment of $600,000.
The date was four years ago.
Two days before Grandma died.
Margaret frowned.
“There was another Whitmore executive with those initials.”
Charles looked suddenly disturbed.
“Caleb Whitmore.”
Daniel’s uncle.
Charles’s younger brother.
The man who currently controlled Whitmore Development’s international finance division.
Daniel stood.
“That’s impossible.”
Charles did not answer.
Maya clicked to the next image.
Grandma had written one final sentence across the bottom of the page.
IF ROBERT FALLS, CALEB FALLS WITH HIM.
Daniel stared at the screen.
Then his phone rang.
He answered.
His expression immediately changed.
“What happened?”
He listened.
Then he looked directly at his father.
“Uncle Caleb just boarded a private jet.”
“To where?”
May you like
Daniel’s face hardened.
“Singapore.”
