Chapter 6 - THE EMPTY HOUSE
I drove wildly, speeding through streets I usually took slowly. Every red light felt like an eternity. Every second wasted felt like a second closer to losing everything.
When I reached Sarah’s house, the porch light was on. The curtains were drawn. Everything looked exactly as it had hours earlier.
I leaped from the car and ran to the door. Knocked hard.
“Sarah! Sophie!”
Silence.
I knocked again. Called their names.
Still nothing.
I gripped the doorknob. It turned beneath my hand. Unlocked.
I pushed the door open and stepped inside.
The living room was empty. The television was off. Sophie’s stuffed rabbit lay on the sofa, exactly where she had left it. But the room felt wrong. Abandoned. Too quiet.
“Sarah!” I called again, moving toward the hallway.
I checked the kitchen. Empty. The bedroom. Empty. Sophie’s small sleeping bag was rolled neatly on the floor. But she was not there.
I ran back to the living room. Saw it then. A single sheet of paper lying on the coffee table. My name written across the top in Sarah’s handwriting.
I snatched it up.
*Adrian, I am so sorry. They came before you arrived. Vanessa. She said you had been hurt. That she had come to take Sophie to you. I hesitated. But then Julian stepped from the shadows. He held a knife to my throat. He told me if I made a sound, he would kill me in front of the child. I had no choice. I could not fight them both without endangering Sophie. They took her. They said to tell you: bring the ledger at dawn. Or you will never see her again. Go to the river. Do exactly as they say. And please—save her. I am so, so sorry.*
The paper shook in my hands.
They had her.
Vanessa and Julian. Together. They had tricked their way inside. They had threatened Sarah. And they had taken my daughter.
I folded the note carefully and placed it in my pocket. Then I walked to the kitchen and found Sarah sitting on a chair by the table, her face buried in her hands, trembling violently.
She looked up when I entered. Her eyes were red. There was a dark, bruising mark along her jaw.
“I tried,” she whispered. “I tried to hold them back. But he was too strong. And Vanessa… she walked right in. She spoke so calmly. She smiled at Sophie. And Sophie went to her. Because she thought she was safe.”
I knelt beside her. Took her hands.
“You did what you had to do. You saved your own life. And you gave them no reason to hurt Sophie sooner.”
Sarah gripped my arms.
“Take it to them. Whatever they want. Give it all to them. Do not try to fight. Not yet. Sophie is more important than any secret. More important than any ledger.”
“I know,” I said quietly. “Claire gave her life protecting this. But she would have given it all away in a heartbeat to save her daughter.”
I stood up. Walked to the window. The night was deep and dark. Dawn was still hours away.
They would be waiting at the river. At the place Claire had chosen. At the place she had hidden the truth.
They thought the ledger was power. They thought it was a weapon.
But Claire had known something they had not. Power is only dangerous when you are willing to destroy everything to keep it.
I turned back to Sarah.
“Call the police. Tell them everything. The names. The threats. The location. But tell them to wait. Tell them to stay back until I speak. If they rush in… Julian may hurt Sophie. I need to keep him calm. I need to keep him talking.”
Sarah nodded. “I will. Adrian—be careful. Julian is desperate. And Vanessa… I do not know what she is capable of anymore.”
I walked out to my car. I opened the trunk. I pulled out the small metal box I had recovered from the oak tree. I placed it beside me on the passenger seat.
I did not have the ledger. Not really. Claire had buried it deep. And she had told me—on video, in writing, in every warning she left behind—*do not dig it up*. Keep it buried. Use it as protection.
But she had also said: If they ever come for Sophie… tell them you know where it is. Tell them you will burn it before you let them take it.
I started the engine. Glanced at the clock. Three hours until dawn.
May you like
I drove toward the river. Toward the place Claire and I had loved. Toward the place where her secrets lay buried.
And somewhere ahead, waiting in the dark, were the two people who had taken everything from her. And now they had taken my daughter.
