Chapter 18: The Red Book
The blue nursery had been rebuilt from the floorboards up.
The hidden cameras were gone.
The exterior locks had been removed.
The walls had been painted a soft cream color instead of the cold blue Margaret had chosen.
But Lily walked into the room as though she had seen it before.
She moved directly to the wall behind the crib.
“There,” she said.
Detective Ellis examined the baseboard.
The wood looked new, but one section produced a hollow sound when he tapped it.
A contractor opened the wall.
Behind the plaster was an older steel compartment.
Victor stepped backward when he saw it.
“I thought these had been destroyed.”
“What are they?” Claire asked.
“Document boxes.”
Ellis used a cutting tool to break the rusted lock.
Inside was a red leather ledger wrapped in plastic.
The first page contained a symbol shaped like a white flower.
An aster.
Most of the entries were written in codes.
Initials.
Dates.
Medical facilities.
Marriage arrangements.
Property transfers.
Guardianship orders.
Some names had a single word beside them.
COMPLIANT.
Others were marked RELOCATED.
A smaller number were marked UNRESOLVED.
Claire turned the pages carefully.
“These records go back more than thirty years.”
My father stood beside the window.
He looked older than he had an hour earlier.
“You helped create this?” I asked.
“I helped create the legal structure that financed the original shelters.”
“You signed these documents?”
“Some of them.”
“Did you know what was happening?”
“Not at first.”
“That is not an answer.”
His voice broke.
“By the time I understood, Isabelle had already disappeared.”
My mother’s name appeared on page forty-three.
ISABELLE ARDEN.
NONCOMPLIANT.
MATERNAL ASSET SECURED.
I stared at the entry.
“Arden?”
Victor said nothing.
My mother had always been Isabelle Whitmore.
At least, that was the name I knew.
Claire continued turning pages.
Then she stopped.
“Elena.”
My name appeared beneath a file number.
ELENA WHITMORE.
MARRIAGE ROUTE APPROVED.
CROSS SUCCESSION MERGER.
Beside the entry was the date Adrian and I first met.
That meeting had not been accidental.
Our marriage had not begun with romance.
It had begun with a financial order.
Rosa found Noah’s name near the back of the ledger.
NOAH WHITMORE.
PRIMARY SUCCESSION KEY.
ACTIVATION: AGE ONE.
I felt the room tilt.
“What does succession key mean?” I asked.
Victor approached the ledger.
His hands trembled.
“The old trusts required a living blood heir.”
“Whose blood?”
He studied the page.
“I don’t know.”
“Is Noah in danger?”
“Yes.”
The answer came from Claire.
She had found a folded document inside the back cover.
It was a transfer order.
On Noah’s first birthday, controlling authority over several hidden trusts would automatically transfer to his legal guardian.
My name had been crossed out.
Adrian’s name had also been crossed out.
A third designation had been typed beneath them.
THE TRUSTEE.
No personal name appeared.
Only a signature symbol.
A black crown above a white aster.
Detective Ellis photographed every page.
“We move Noah tonight,” he said.
“To where?” I asked.
“A federal safe location.”
“No.”
“Elena—”
“They found Mara inside a locked room. They accessed cameras that were supposedly gone. How do I know the safe location is safe?”
No one answered.
A telephone rang from inside the nursery closet.
There was no telephone installed in the room.
Ellis opened the door.
An old black phone sat on the floor.
It rang again.
I picked it up.
A familiar voice spoke.
“Elena.”
May you like
My blood turned cold.
Adrian was calling from prison.
