Chapter 13 - THE PRICE OF MY MOTHER’S LOYALTY
My mother had left her phone beneath her courthouse seat.
The security cameras showed her entering the underground garage seven minutes before the hearing ended.
She spoke to a courthouse officer.
The officer opened a restricted door.
My father appeared moments later.
They entered a vehicle together.
Agent Grant issued alerts for both of them.
I watched the footage twice.
Part of me had believed my mother was finally ready to tell the truth.
Instead, she helped him escape.
Natalie touched my shoulder.
“Do not assume you understand why she did it.”
“She always chooses him.”
“Maybe.”
“There is no maybe.”
My phone rang.
The number was blocked.
I answered.
My mother whispered my name.
“Where are you?”
“I cannot tell you.”
“You helped him escape.”
“I had no choice.”
“You always say that.”
“Richard has Ava.”
My anger vanished.
“What?”
“He took her before the hearing.”
I looked around the courtroom.
I had assumed Ava was working with the university newspaper.
I had not spoken to her since midnight.
“Is she alive?”
“Yes.”
“Let me hear her.”
A muffled sound came through the phone.
Then Ava spoke.
“Emily, do not give him anything.”
My father shouted in the background.
The call returned to my mother.
“He wants the ledger and the lake house key.”
“Where is he taking her?”
“To the lake house.”
“I am calling Agent Grant.”
“If he sees police, he will hurt her.”
“He will hurt her anyway.”
“I can keep him calm.”
“You have never been able to control him.”
Silence followed.
Then my mother said something I had waited my entire life to hear.
“I know.”
Her voice broke.
“I know what I allowed him to become.”
“You helped him become it.”
“Yes.”
The admission did not heal anything.
But it changed the sound of her voice.
“I put a tracker inside my coat,” she continued.
“Send me the signal.”
“I already sent it to Agent Grant.”
I looked across the courtroom.
Agent Grant checked her phone.
A location appeared on the map.
The vehicle was moving north toward the lake house.
“Keep Ava alive,” I said.
“I will.”
The call ended.
Agent Grant organized a tactical team.
The federal prosecutor ordered us to remain behind.
I refused.
“My father wants the ledger.”
“You cannot give it to him.”
“I will give him a copy.”
“And if he discovers it is fake?”
“Then I need to make sure he does not have time to check.”
Natalie stepped between us.
“This is not a courtroom strategy, Emily.”
“No.”
I looked at the map.
“It is a family reunion.”
We drove north in separate vehicles.
Rain began falling as the city disappeared behind us.
Halfway to the lake house, my mother’s tracker stopped moving.
Agent Grant called the surveillance team.
The vehicle had been abandoned beside the highway.
There was blood on the passenger seat.
Ava’s necklace lay on the ground.
My father had changed vehicles.
The tracker was no longer with him.
Then my phone received a photograph.
Ava was tied to a chair inside the lake house.
Behind her, my father held a gun.
May you like
The message beneath it contained six words.
BRING THE REAL LEDGER BEFORE SUNSET.
