Chapter 5
CHAPTER 5 — The Broken Ledger
The safehouse was a small, unassuming apartment above a bakery in the city’s working-class northern district.
The air here smelled of yeast and warm flour, a comforting contrast to the cold, wet terror of the docks they had left behind.
Elena sat at a small wooden table, a dry towel draped over her shoulders, staring at the contents of the brown envelope.
Beneath the main trust agreement was a smaller, leather-bound ledger, its pages filled with her father’s neat, compact handwriting.
It was a diary of his final days, a record of his growing suspicion that his wife was poisoning his tea with digitalis.
“Isabel thinks I do not notice the trembling in my hands,” she read aloud, her voice trembling as the words brought her father back to life.
“She thinks I do not see the way she watches me when I drink from the cup she prepares. But I must endure until the trust is secure.”
“Matthew knows what to do. If I do not survive the month, he will hide the key until Elena is old enough to understand.”
Elena closed the ledger, a tear escaping her eye and splashing onto the worn leather cover, leaving a dark circle on the hide.
She looked across the room at Matthew, who was busy cleaning his pistol at the kitchen counter, his movements methodical and calm.
— Why didn't you tell me when I turned eighteen? she asked, her voice cracking with the weight of five years of unnecessary grief.
— Why did you let me live in that house with her, wondering why my father had left me with nothing?
Matthew stopped his work, setting the barrel of the gun down on the counter with a soft, metallic click.
— Because at eighteen, you were still looking for her approval, Elena. You still wanted her to be the mother you lost.
— If I had shown you this then, you would have confronted her. And she would have disposed of you before you could defend yourself.
— I needed to build my own network first. I needed to ensure that when we struck back, we could destroy her completely.
Elena stood up, walking over to him, her eyes searching his face for any sign of the cold businessman she had feared.
— And now? Are we strong enough to destroy her?
Matthew looked down at her, his dark eyes reflecting the soft, yellow light of the apartment’s single lamp.
— No, he said honestly.
— But we don't have to destroy her. We just have to survive until the clock runs out at midnight tomorrow.
— Once the patent enters the public domain, Helios will lose all interest in Isabel. They will discard her like yesterday’s news.
— And without their money and protection, she will have to answer for your father’s murder.
Lev entered the room from the small balcony, his coat dripping wet, his expression grimmer than usual.
— We have a problem, he said, looking at Matthew.
May you like
— The local police have just issued an amber alert for Elena. They’re claiming you kidnapped her from her hotel.
— They’ve blocked the bridges. We’re trapped in the district.
