Chapter 5 - The Red Ledger
Emily stared at Vanessa.
“What red ledger?”
Vanessa laughed.
“That’s the problem.”
She looked at Margaret.
“Ask her.”
Margaret shook her head.
“I have never seen it.”
“But Clara did.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“What was in it?”
Vanessa’s jaw tightened.
“My father never said.”
“Then why care?”
“Because he was terrified of it.”
That mattered.
Gerald Vale had been one of the most powerful attorneys in Manhattan.
If he had feared a book hidden by a thirteen-year-old girl, the contents had to be devastating.
Emily looked around the library.
“My mother hid it here?”
Vanessa shrugged.
“Maybe.”
Daniel immediately ordered the room sealed.
No one would remove anything.
Vanessa laughed again.
“You’re too late.”
Daniel turned.
“What did you do?”
“I searched this room months ago.”
“Did you find it?”
“No.”
Emily watched her.
Vanessa’s frustration seemed genuine.
Then Margaret whispered, “The nursery.”
Everyone looked at her.
“What?”
“Clara used to hide things in the old nursery.”
Daniel frowned.
“It was renovated.”
“Not completely.”
Margaret led them upstairs.
The old nursery was now a storage room.
Boxes filled the walls.
A faded mural of white birds remained behind a bookcase.
Margaret touched one bird.
“I painted this with Clara.”
Emily stepped closer.
One bird had a red wing.
Margaret pressed it.
A wooden panel clicked.
Daniel stared.
“How did I never know this?”
“Because your sister did.”
Inside the compartment sat a small metal box.
Emily’s heart pounded.
Daniel opened it.
No ledger.
Only a key.
And a note.
The handwriting was childish but steady.
IF EMILY EVER COMES BACK, GIVE HER THIS.
Emily’s knees nearly weakened.
Her mother had written her name.
Before disappearing.
Margaret began crying.
“She knew.”
Emily unfolded the note.
Another line appeared beneath the first.
DON’T TRUST GERALD.
DON’T TRUST RICHARD.
AND DON’T TRUST THE WOMAN WHO WEARS MY NECKLACE.
Emily looked up.
Vanessa instinctively touched her throat.
A small gold chain disappeared beneath the neckline of her black dress.
Emily stared.
“Show me.”
Vanessa stepped back.
“No.”
Daniel reached for the chain.
Vanessa slapped his hand away.
But the pendant slipped free.
A small oval locket.
Margaret gasped.
“That was Clara’s.”
Emily felt cold.
Vanessa grabbed it.
“My father gave it to me.”
“When?”
“Before he died.”
Margaret stared in disbelief.
“He had it?”
Vanessa finally looked frightened.
Emily asked the obvious question.
“If your father had my mother’s necklace…”
May you like
She stepped closer.
“Then he saw her after she disappeared.”
