Medical appointments.
And payments.
But the payments were not to Teresa.
They were to someone else.
Daniel looked up.
“Someone was watching your family.”
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
Caleb turned the page.
There was another name.
Richard Holloway.
Underneath it:
DO NOT TRUST.
Caleb looked at Daniel.
“Your father knew.”
Daniel nodded slowly.
“He knew.”
Then they reached the final pages.
One entry had been written in darker ink.
The handwriting was shaky.
Daniel recognized it immediately.
His father's final entry.
If anything happens to me, the ledger must never fall into Holloway's hands.
The Reed family must be protected.
Daniel's breath caught.
There was one more line.
Caleb must never know what his mother sacrificed.
Caleb stepped away.
“No.”
Daniel looked at him.
“My mother knew?”
“She knew something.”
“What did she sacrifice?”
Daniel turned the page.
There was nothing else.
The final page had been torn out.
Caleb stared at the empty binding.
“Someone removed it.”
Daniel nodded.
“Recently?”
“No.”
The tear was old.
Caleb looked toward the front windows.
“Then someone knew about this ledger years ago.”
Daniel closed it.
Neither noticed the car parked across the street.
Inside it, a man watched the bakery.
He lifted his phone.
“They found it,” he said.
A voice answered.
“Then don't let them leave with it.”
Chapter 8
The Truth About Teresa
By noon, Daniel had locked the bakery.
A handwritten sign on the door said CLOSED FOR RENOVATION.
It was a lie.
But Daniel needed privacy.
Caleb sat at one of the tables.
The ledger was between them.
Neither man had touched it for almost an hour.
Finally, Caleb spoke.
“I want to know what happened to my mother.”
Daniel looked at him.
“So do I.”
“No more secrets.”
Daniel nodded.
“No more.”
They opened the ledger again.
They started at the beginning.
The entries were detailed.
Samuel had documented everything.
Teresa's job.
Her landlord.
Her medical bills.
Caleb's school.
Even the price of groceries.
It was not surveillance.
It was protection.
Then they found a series of entries from 1999.
Teresa had discovered irregularities in a community fund.
Money was disappearing.
Large amounts.
The fund had been created to help workers whose factories had closed.
Samuel had contributed much of the money.
Richard Holloway had been responsible for managing several accounts.
Martin Vale had handled some of the transfers.
And someone had been stealing.
Caleb stared at the pages.
“My mother found out.”
“Yes.”
“She told my father?”
Daniel shook his head.
“Your father wasn't in the picture.”
“I never knew mine.”
“According to this, your mother refused to involve him.”
“Why?”
Daniel read the next entry.
Then he understood.
“Because she believed he was dangerous.”
Caleb's face hardened.
“Who was my father?”
Daniel looked at him.
The answer was written clearly.
Michael Reed.
Caleb stopped breathing.
“My father?”
Daniel nodded.
“You knew him?”
“No.”
“Then how do you know?”
“Your mother wrote his name here.”
Caleb looked at the page.
Below the name were several notes.
Michael Reed had worked with Holloway.
He had disappeared after the financial investigation began.
Caleb swallowed.
“Was he alive?”
“For a while.”
“Where is he now?”
Daniel turned another page.
There was a newspaper clipping.
MISSING MAN FOUND DEAD IN RIVER
The date was twenty-three years earlier.
Caleb stared at the photograph.
It showed a younger man.
The resemblance was undeniable.
He looked away.
For several minutes, he said nothing.
Then:
“My mother never told me.”
“She was protecting you.”
“From what?”
“From this.”
Caleb shook his head.
“I deserved to know.”
“Maybe.”
“No. I did.”
Daniel closed the ledger.
“Your mother was trying to keep you alive.”
Caleb looked at him.
“Alive?”
Daniel pointed to the entries.
“Look at the dates.”
Caleb did.
The first threat had been recorded two weeks after Michael Reed disappeared.
Then another.
Then another.
Someone had broken into Teresa's apartment.
Someone had followed Caleb from school.
Someone had threatened Teresa's employer.
Then, in 2000, she and Caleb left the city.
Daniel whispered:
“She ran.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Ohio.”
Daniel nodded.
“That explains why I never saw you again.”
Caleb's voice became quiet.
“She never wanted me to know why we left.”
Daniel looked at him.
“Did you ever ask?”
“Thousands of times.”
“What did she say?”
“That some places were safer if you didn't look back.”
Daniel smiled sadly.
“That sounds like her.”
Caleb stared at the ledger.
Then he noticed something.
A handwritten symbol appeared beside several names.
A small circle.
He pointed.
“What does this mean?”
Daniel studied it.
“I don't know.”
They searched through the pages.
The circle appeared beside six names.
Richard Holloway.
Martin Vale.
Michael Reed.
A bank manager.
A police officer.
And one more.
Samuel Mercer.
Caleb's face changed.
“Your father was marked too.”