Chapter 9: The Dead Man Calls
At 2:13 the next morning, Ethan’s phone rang.
The number was blocked.
He answered on speaker.
For several seconds, only static filled the room.
Then a man spoke.
“Ethan.”
Ethan stopped breathing.
“Dad?”
Emily watched his face.
The voice was controlled, low, and unmistakably familiar to him.
“You have made a terrible mistake,” Charles Montgomery said.
Ethan gripped the phone.
“You’re alive.”
“That is not important.”
“You let me think you were dead.”
“I protected this family.”
“You abandoned us.”
Charles ignored the accusation.
“Your mother has been arrested because you allowed outsiders into our affairs.”
“She tried to kill Emily.”
“Emily was never supposed to survive the balcony.”
The room went completely silent.
Daniel motioned for Ethan to keep talking.
Ethan’s voice shook.
“You planned it?”
“Your wife discovered information that could destroy institutions far larger than our family.”
“She is my wife.”
“She was an employee’s daughter who became useful.”
Emily felt the cruelty of the sentence, but she did not react.
Charles continued.
“Bring me the original Crown ledger. In exchange, I will ensure the charges against you disappear.”
“Where are you?”
“You will receive instructions.”
“And Emily?”
A pause followed.
“She has already lived longer than expected.”
The call ended.
Daniel immediately contacted federal agents.
They could not trace the number.
Emily looked at Ethan.
“You asked what would happen to me.”
“I needed to keep him talking.”
“Was that the only reason?”
He lowered his eyes.
She had her answer.
Even now, some part of Ethan was calculating survival.
Daniel sat beside the bed.
“Charles believes the original ledger exists.”
“It must contain names not included in the others,” Emily said.
“The Senator?”
“And more.”
Ethan shook his head.
“I’ve never seen an original ledger.”
Emily remembered Victoria’s insult at the dinner table.
Some women inherit silver.
Others wash it.
At the time, Emily had believed it was merely cruelty.
Now the phrase returned with new meaning.
She looked at Ethan.
“Where does your family keep its silver?”
“At Hawthorne Hall.”
“Is any of it old?”
“Some pieces belonged to my great-grandmother.”
Emily’s heartbeat quickened.
“Victoria never trusted computers. Charles doesn’t trust paper. So they needed somewhere to hide something small.”
Daniel understood.
“A digital drive.”
Emily nodded.
May you like
“Inside something everyone sees but nobody examines.”
The original Crown ledger was hidden in the family silver.
