Chapter 7 - The Book Nobody Wanted
The race to Boston became a battle of minutes.
Margaret remembered the shelf.
History.
Third floor.
A worn biography nobody had checked out in eleven years.
Ethan reached the library with Clara and Reed.
The book was gone.
A librarian checked the system.
Someone had borrowed it forty minutes earlier.
Name:
VANESSA WHITMORE.
Ethan stared at Vanessa.
She looked equally shocked.
“I didn't.”
Someone was using her identity.
Security footage revealed Richard himself leaving with the book.
For the first time, they had a clear image of him.
Police alerts spread across three states.
Richard called Ethan.
“You should have married my daughter.”
“You should have stayed away from my family.”
Richard laughed.
“Your family? Which one? The wife you replaced or the fiancée you're now accusing?”
Ethan said nothing.
Richard continued.
“People like us don't have families, Ethan. We have assets.”
“No.”
Ethan looked at Clara.
“You do.”
Richard's silence suggested the words had landed.
Then he made his final offer.
He would return the ledger in exchange for safe passage and twenty million dollars.
Ethan agreed.
Reed protested.
Ethan didn't care about the money.
The exchange would happen at an abandoned marina.
But Clara discovered the trap.
Richard didn't want money.
He wanted Ethan present because he intended to kill him and make it appear Ethan had fled after his financial crimes were exposed.
They changed the plan.
Vanessa volunteered to meet her father instead.
Clara opposed it.
“He'll hurt you.”
Vanessa looked at her.
“I already helped him hurt you by staying silent.”
For the first time, Vanessa apologized.
Not dramatically.
Not with excuses.
“I wanted your life,” she admitted. “And when I learned you might still be alive, part of me hoped you would never come back.”
Clara stared at her.
Vanessa's eyes filled.
“I have to live with that.”
Clara didn't forgive her.
Not yet.
But she allowed Vanessa to help.
At the marina, Richard appeared.
He embraced his daughter.
Then whispered something into her ear.
Vanessa's expression changed.
Police moved in.
Richard drew a gun.
May you like
A shot echoed across the water.
Vanessa fell.
