Chapter 8 - The Man Who Should Have Been Dead
The lights went out.
Jasmine screamed.
Aaron pulled me behind a stone column as glass shattered somewhere near the front of the house.
Richard shouted:
“Down!”
We heard footsteps.
Then silence.
Terrible, deliberate silence.
Aaron held my wrist.
For three years, I had forgotten what his hand felt like when it was trying to protect me rather than stop me from leaving.
I hated that I noticed.
Police arrived minutes later after Richard triggered a silent alarm.
Whoever had entered disappeared through the garden.
No one was hurt.
But a message had been left on the library wall.
Three words.
GIVE IT BACK.
The ledger.
Thomas Cole wanted the ledger.
That meant he knew we had found it.
Which meant someone close to us was feeding him information.
Federal investigators took custody of the original that night.
I kept digital copies.
So did Nathan.
By morning, the truth began to emerge.
Thomas Cole had spent decades hiding behind corporate entities.
Jasmine had believed her father died when she was fourteen.
He hadn't.
Her mother had helped him disappear.
Years later, Jasmine discovered inconsistencies surrounding his death and joined Prescott Global hoping to learn why.
Aaron stared at her.
“You used the company.”
“Yes.”
“You used me.”
Her eyes filled.
“Yes.”
That admission hurt him.
I saw it.
Not romantically.
He had trusted her professionally.
Now he understood how betrayal felt when it arrived wearing a familiar face.
Strangely, I felt no satisfaction.
Richard finally told us his part.
He had discovered pieces of William's scheme after taking control of Prescott Global.
Instead of exposing his father, he covered it up to protect the company.
That decision allowed Thomas's network to survive.
“You chose the name over the truth,” Aaron said.
Richard lowered his head.
“Yes.”
Aaron looked disgusted.
For the first time, I understood something about him.
Aaron had inherited his father's instinct to protect institutions.
Companies.
Reputations.
People who depended on him.
He had spent years protecting everything except his marriage.
And perhaps he finally understood that too.
Later, we stood outside the federal building.
Aaron said:
“You were right.”
“About?”
“Me.”
I waited.
“I didn't have an affair.”
“I know.”
“But I still abandoned you.”
I looked at him.
He continued.
“Every time you needed me, I assumed there would be another chance. Another dinner. Another weekend. Another anniversary.”
His voice lowered.
“I treated your patience like an unlimited resource.”
There was no defense in his voice.
Only recognition.
“I loved you, Claire.”
“That wasn't enough.”
“I know.”
Those three words mattered more than any apology he'd offered before.
But they did not change my decision.
“I still want the divorce.”
Pain crossed his face.
Then he nodded.
“I know that too.”
For once, he didn't fight me.
We walked separate directions.
And somehow that hurt more than the fighting.
That afternoon, investigators confirmed the ledger was authentic.
Arrests were being prepared.
Accounts frozen.
Search warrants approved.
But Thomas Cole remained missing.
Then Jasmine received a text.
One photograph.
Her mother tied to a chair.
Beneath it:
BRING CLAIRE. COME ALONE.
Jasmine stared at me.
“No.”
I agreed.
“We're not doing what he says.”
Then a second message arrived.
This time the photograph was of my childhood home.
Briar Hill.
And beneath it:
I KNOW WHERE EDWARD HID THE SECOND LEDGER.
There was no second ledger.
At least none I knew about.
But apparently Thomas believed there was.
And if he was willing to threaten his own daughter to find it, whatever that second record contained was more dangerous than everything we'd already uncovered.
I looked at Aaron.
He looked at me.
Neither of us needed to say it.
This was almost over.
May you like
And the final secret was waiting where the entire nightmare had begun.
At Briar Hill.
