Chapter 13 - A Father’s Decision
Brooks tried to stop me from taking the ledger.
“You walk into that estate alone, you die.”
“Maybe.”
“And the children still die.”
“Then give me another option.”
“We build a tactical plan.”
“Vale has a source inside your operation.”
“Not anymore.”
“You don’t know that.”
He did not answer.
I turned toward Ethan.
“Can Vale verify the ledger is real?”
“Yes.”
“How quickly?”
“Seconds.”
“Then he’ll want to see it.”
Ethan understood before Brooks did.
“You want to use it to get inside.”
“Yes.”
Brooks shook his head.
“No.”
I looked at him.
“You have children?”
His jaw tightened.
“A son.”
“If someone took him, would you stand in this kitchen waiting for a committee?”
“That’s exactly why I’m telling you not to go blindly.”
“I’m not going blindly.”
I placed Rachel’s handwritten ledger inside a black document case.
Then I removed the middle thirty pages.
Ethan stared.
“What are you doing?”
“Giving Vale enough truth to believe I have what he wants.”
Brooks looked interested despite himself.
“What happens when he notices pages are missing?”
“I tell him where they are.”
“Where will they be?”
“With you.”
The plan formed quickly.
I would go.
No visible surveillance.
No wire, because Vale would check.
The ledger pages I carried would contain evidence valuable enough that Vale could not destroy them without examining them.
I would tell him the missing pages were stored somewhere only I knew.
That would buy time.
Brooks’s team would remain several miles away.
Ethan would use an old Vale emergency frequency to determine whether the children were actually inside.
It was reckless.
But so was doing nothing.
Before leaving, I went upstairs.
Megan sat with an ice pack against her head.
“I’m sorry.”
“This isn’t your fault.”
“I should have known.”
“He was wearing a uniform.”
She started crying.
“Lily screamed for Tommy.”
“What?”
“When the man grabbed her, she didn’t scream for me.”
“She screamed, ‘Don’t take my brother.’”
I closed my eyes.
Five years old.
She had spent days believing her job was keeping Tommy alive.
Now she believed it again.
That ended tonight.
I drove toward Millbrook alone.
At 11:58 p.m., I reached the gates of the lakeside estate.
They opened before I touched the horn.
A man searched me.
Another took my phone.
A third checked the car.
Then Adrian Vale stepped onto the front porch.
Gray coat.
Silver hair.
Exactly as Lily described him.
He smiled.
“Daniel Reed.”
I stepped out holding the ledger case.
“Where are my children?”
Vale’s smile widened.
“Now I understand why Rebecca chose you.”
“Where are they?”
“Inside.”
“And Rachel?”
“Also inside.”
“Let me see them.”
“First, the ledger.”
“No.”
Vale’s expression hardened.
I held up the case.
“You spent eleven years trying to get this.”
“You can wait another sixty seconds.”
For several moments, neither of us moved.
Then Vale laughed.
“All right.”
May you like
He gestured toward the house.
“Come meet your real family.”
