Chapter 3 - The Ledger That Never Existed
Riona did not sleep.
By three in the morning, Montreal glowed beyond the hotel glass while Anel slept beneath a white comforter with one arm curled under his pillow.
The flash drive lay on the desk.
Riona had not opened it.
Not because she was afraid of technology.
Because she was afraid of Cosmo.
Dead men could not explain context.
Dead men could not clarify intentions.
They left words behind and trusted the living to survive them.
At 3:17 a.m., she finally inserted the drive into her laptop.
One folder appeared.
FOR RIONA
Inside were three files.
The first was a photograph.
Riona opened it.
She stopped breathing.
The image had been taken seven years earlier.
Vancouver.
Outside the small apartment where she and infant Anel had lived during his first year.
Riona stood on the sidewalk carrying a grocery bag.
Anel was strapped against her chest.
Someone had photographed them from across the street.
The second image showed her entering a pediatric clinic.
The third showed her leaving a bank.
The fourth showed her at a playground when Anel was approximately eighteen months old.
Surveillance.
Years of it.
Riona's hands began trembling.
She opened the second file.
A spreadsheet.
Payments.
Private security contractors.
Cash withdrawals.
Aliases.
One column contained a repeated authorization code.
SF-17.
Serafina Ferrante.
Riona felt sick.
She opened the third file.
Audio.
Cosmo's voice filled the room.
Older.
Weak.
But unmistakable.
“Riona. If you're hearing this, I failed to fix the damage while I was alive.”
She closed her eyes.
“I learned too late what Serafina had done. I also learned she had you watched after you left Montreal. At first I believed she wanted assurance that you would stay away. Then I discovered the truth.”
Riona leaned toward the screen.
“Serafina feared you were carrying Aldrich's child.”
A long pause.
“If you were pregnant, she intended to control what happened next.”
Riona's heart hammered.
Cosmo continued.
“I stopped her.”
Riona covered her mouth.
“You never knew because I decided ignorance was safer for you. Perhaps that was another mistake.”
The audio crackled.
“The evidence that framed you was built around entries inside an internal ledger. But the ledger shown to Aldrich was false.”
Riona sat straighter.
“The real ledger still exists.”
There it was.
The reason she returned.
Cosmo's voice became weaker.
“And it proves more than your innocence.”
The audio ended.
Nothing else.
Riona stared at the screen.
Of course.
Cosmo Ferrante had managed to create a cliffhanger from beyond the grave.
At 7:10 a.m., Aldrich called.
She hadn't given him her number.
She answered anyway.
“How did you get this?”
“Your hotel forwarded me.”
“I hate powerful men.”
“I remember.”
She almost hung up.
Then he said, “My grandfather left us joint access to a private archive.”
Riona became still.
“Us?”
“You and me.”
She looked at Cosmo's note.
“When?”
“Today. Estate. Ten.”
“No.”
“Riona.”
“I don't walk into Ferrante houses anymore.”
“I understand.”
“No, you don't.”
“I can bring every document outside.”
“Can you bring the cellar?”
Silence.
She knew immediately.
“It is in a cellar.”
“Yes.”
Riona sighed.
Cosmo had designed the situation carefully.
He had known neither of them would trust the other.
So he made cooperation necessary.
“I'll come.”
Aldrich released a quiet breath.
“Bring Anel.”
“No.”
“There are staff—”
“No.”
“I wasn't suggesting strangers. Marc's wife—”
“No.”
Aldrich paused.
“You don't trust anyone in my family.”
“Now you're learning.”
At ten fifteen, Riona arrived at the Ferrante estate with Anel beside her.
Aldrich stood on the front steps.
For half a second the image hurt.
Eight years earlier she had imagined returning to this house as his wife.
Not as a fugitive from their own history.
Anel looked up at the enormous building.
“Is this his house?”
“Yes.”
“It's too big.”
Aldrich heard him.
“I agree.”
Anel frowned.
“Then why do you live here?”
Aldrich crouched.
“I inherited poor judgment.”
Riona almost laughed.
Almost.
Inside, Aldrich introduced Marc.
Anel looked at him.
“You're related?”
“Cousins.”
“You don't have the same eyes.”
Marc glanced at Aldrich.
“No. Apparently that's a very exclusive family feature.”
Aldrich shot him a warning look.
Marc smiled innocently.
They descended through the old wine cellar.
The archive door stood behind a rack Aldrich had seen a thousand times and never questioned.
Two locks.
Riona inserted Cosmo's brass key.
Aldrich inserted the second.
They turned simultaneously.
The steel door opened.
Inside were filing cabinets, shelves, old computers, labeled boxes.
Anel remained upstairs with Marc's wife, Elise, after Riona reluctantly agreed only because the boy immediately became interested in Elise's elderly golden retriever.
Aldrich entered first.
Riona followed.
A desk stood in the center.
One envelope lay on top.
FOR ALDRICH AND RIONA
Aldrich opened it.
Inside:
Start with 2018.
They located the cabinet.
Files.
Financial records.
Security reports.
Then Riona found it.
A black leather ledger.
Her pulse jumped.
“This.”
Aldrich moved beside her.
She opened it.
Pages of dates and coded transactions.
Aldrich's expression changed as he read.
“What?”
“These entries.”
“What about them?”
“They were shown in Roland's report.”
Riona looked at him.
“So?”
“They aren't the same.”
He retrieved photographs of the original evidence from a digital archive.
Side by side.
The amounts differed.
Dates shifted by days.
Recipient codes altered.
Someone had rebuilt the ledger to implicate her.
Aldrich stared.
“I should have checked.”
“Yes.”
“I trusted Roland.”
“You trusted him more than me.”
He didn't defend himself.
That mattered.
Riona turned another page.
Aldrich stopped her hand.
“Wait.”
There.
One original transfer.
Large.
Recipient: S.F. Holdings.
Authorized by Roland Vain.
Riona looked at him.
“Serafina?”
Aldrich's face went pale.
“Could be.”
“You know it is.”
He didn't answer.
They kept searching.
Then Riona found a sealed document behind the ledger.
Medical information.
Her medical information.
Blood type.
Old clinic records.
A fertility examination she had undergone years before meeting Aldrich.
She stared.
“Why does your grandfather have this?”
Aldrich looked equally disturbed.
Riona opened another folder.
A report dated four weeks after she disappeared.
SUBJECT: RIONA MALLISTER. POSSIBLE PREGNANCY STATUS UNKNOWN.
Below it:
Authorization: Serafina Ferrante.
Riona stepped backward.
Aldrich read over her shoulder.
His face changed.
“What the hell?”
“You didn't know?”
“No.”
“Don't lie.”
“I didn't know.”
She believed him.
That frightened her more.
They found another report.
Locate subject. Confirm pregnancy. If confirmed, initiate contingency.
“What contingency?” Aldrich whispered.
Riona turned the page.
Missing.
Torn out.
A sound came from the doorway.
They both spun.
Roland Vain stood there.
He held no weapon.
He didn't need one.
His face told them enough.
“You shouldn't have opened this room.”
Aldrich stepped between him and Riona.
“Why?”
Roland looked tired.
Older than yesterday.
“Because Cosmo spent seven years building a story he wanted you to believe.”
Riona held up the report.
“Did Serafina order you to frame me?”
Roland stared at her.
“Yes.”
Aldrich went still.
Riona had imagined this confirmation for years.
She expected satisfaction.
Instead she felt grief.
Aldrich turned toward Roland.
“Why?”
“Because she believed Riona would destroy everything.”
“How?”
Roland laughed without humor.
“You still don't know.”
Aldrich stepped closer.
“Tell me.”
Roland's expression hardened.
“Riona wasn't framed because Serafina disliked her.”
He looked directly at Riona.
“She was framed because she discovered something.”
Riona searched her memory.
“What?”
Roland looked at the ledger in her hands.
“The money.”
“What money?”
“The money Cosmo had been hiding for thirty years.”
Aldrich frowned.
Roland continued.
“And once Serafina realized what you had accidentally uncovered, she had two choices.”
He raised two fingers.
“Bring you into the family permanently.”
One finger lowered.
“Or make Aldrich hate you.”
Riona felt cold.
“What money?”
Roland's answer changed everything.
“Money Cosmo had been quietly using to dismantle the Ferrante organization from the inside.”
Aldrich stared at him.
“What are you talking about?”
Roland smiled sadly.
“Your grandfather didn't leave you an empire, Aldrich.”
He glanced around the archive.
May you like
“He left you instructions for how to end one.”
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