Chapter 5 - THE LEDGER HER MOTHER HID
Laya stared at the countdown.
06:41.
06:40.
06:39.
“No,” she whispered.
Gabriel pushed himself upright.
“Give me the phone.”
She handed it to him.
He studied the screen.
“This isn't a normal timer.”
“What?”
“It's connected to something.”
Elias leaned over.
“Remote trigger.”
Dominic shook his head.
“Could be a bluff.”
Gabriel looked at him.
“Pendleton doesn't bluff.”
Laya took the phone back.
“Then we need to find the ledger.”
Gabriel stared at her.
“You believe him?”
“I believe that your chief of surgery somehow knows details about my childhood that I never told him.”
Elias looked at her.
“What do you remember about your mother?”
Laya swallowed.
“Not much.”
“Try.”
“She worked nights.”
“At Mercy?”
“I thought so.”
Gabriel looked at Dominic.
“Find every employment record for Helena Hastings.”
Dominic left.
Laya frowned.
“You know her name?”
Gabriel's expression hardened.
“I've heard it before.”
“Where?”
“My father kept a photograph.”
Her heart skipped.
“What did she look like?”
Gabriel described her.
Dark hair.
Green eyes.
A small scar beneath her chin.
Laya touched her own chin unconsciously.
Same scar.
Elias noticed.
“You have it too.”
“My mother said I fell against a table.”
Gabriel looked away.
Laya felt suddenly exposed.
All her life, she had believed her mother had been ordinary.
A tired woman who worked too much.
A woman who died after years of hiding from a past Laya never understood.
Now she was learning that the past had never stopped looking for her.
Dominic returned with a folder.
“Got it.”
He handed Gabriel several pages.
Laya grabbed them.
The first was a hospital employment record.
Helena Hastings.
Registered nurse.
Chicago Mercy.
Twenty-seven years earlier.
Position terminated under sealed administrative review.
Laya's hands shook.
“What does that mean?”
Dominic turned the page.
“There was a disciplinary hearing.”
“For what?”
“Unauthorized access to restricted records.”
Gabriel looked at Laya.
“What records?”
Laya turned the page.
Her mother's signature appeared at the bottom.
Underneath was a list of names.
Politicians.
Police officials.
Judges.
Hospital administrators.
Business owners.
And one name she recognized.
Arthur Pendleton.
Her stomach dropped.
“Why would my mother access these?”
Gabriel said nothing.
Elias took the paper.
“Because she found the ledger.”
Laya looked at him.
“How do you know?”
“Because my father accused her of stealing it.”
“Your father knew her?”
“Yes.”
“Were they—”
Gabriel interrupted.
“Careful.”
Laya looked at him.
“Were they involved?”
Gabriel's face was unreadable.
Elias answered.
“Yes.”
The word seemed to echo.
Laya sat down.
“My mother had an affair with your father?”
“We don't know.”
“But you said yes.”
“I said they were involved.”
Gabriel turned toward his brother.
“You don't know that.”
“I saw the letters.”
“What letters?”
“Your father wrote to her.”
Gabriel went still.
“Where are they?”
“Gone.”
“Who destroyed them?”
“I don't know.”
The timer changed.
04:12.
Laya stood.
“We're wasting time.”
Gabriel nodded.
“Search the east wing.”
“Why?”
“That's where my father kept his private records.”
They moved quickly.
The mansion seemed different now.
Every hallway looked like a hiding place.
Every painting looked like it might conceal a door.
Laya followed Gabriel despite her anger.
He was still weak, but he refused help.
“You're going to tear your stitches.”
“I've survived worse.”
“That isn't medically reassuring.”
He glanced at her.
“You worry about me.”
“I worry about not having a patient die on my watch.”
A faint smile.
“Keep telling yourself that.”
They reached a locked study.
Gabriel produced a key.
The room smelled of dust and old leather.
Books lined every wall.
Elias entered behind them.
“There.”
A portrait of Gabriel's father hung above the fireplace.
Laya looked at it.
The older man had the same gray eyes.
And the same scar along his jaw as Gabriel.
Something about the portrait made her uncomfortable.
She stepped closer.
Behind the frame was a hidden compartment.
Inside lay a small metal box.
Gabriel opened it.
There was no ledger.
Only a photograph.
Laya took it.
Her breath stopped.
The photograph showed her mother.
Standing beside Gabriel's father.
Both were smiling.
And between them was a little girl.
Laya.
She stared.
“I don't remember this.”
“You were four,” Gabriel said.
She looked at him.
“You knew me.”
He didn't answer.
Elias stepped closer.
“Gabriel?”
Gabriel looked at the photograph.
Then at Laya.
“I saw you once.”
“When?”
“When you were a child.”
“Where?”
“My father's house.”
Laya's face went cold.
“You've known me my whole life?”
“No.”
“But you saw me.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I thought your mother was protecting you.”
“From who?”
Gabriel's eyes met hers.
“From my father.”
The timer flashed.
01:05.
Elias looked at the door.
“There's something else.”
“What?”
He pointed at the back of the photograph.
A handwritten sentence had been scratched into the paper.
WHEN THE GIRL RETURNS, THE LEDGER RETURNS WITH HER.
Laya felt dizzy.
“What does that mean?”
Gabriel stared at the words.
Then he looked at her.
“I think your mother hid the ledger somewhere you could find it.”
“Where?”
The mansion lights suddenly went out.
The timer stopped.
For three seconds, there was total darkness.
Then a voice came through the intercom.
“Time.”
A gunshot sounded.
Elias fell.
Laya screamed.
Gabriel caught her before she could run.
Dominic rushed into the room.
“Move!”
Laya dropped beside Elias.
Blood spread across his shoulder.
She pressed both hands over the wound.
“He's alive.”
Gabriel looked toward the doorway.
“Where is Pendleton?”
Dominic's expression was grim.
“Gone.”
Gabriel stared at the bleeding man.
Then at Laya.
Then at the photograph.
And he whispered something that made her blood run cold.
“Elias wasn't the target.”
Laya looked up.
“Then who was?”
Gabriel's eyes settled on her.
“You.
Laya turned toward the sound.
“Who are you?”
The voice laughed softly.
“You've asked that question before.”
“I don't remember you.”
“You will.”
Gabriel moved toward the speaker.
“Show yourself.”
“Still giving orders, Gabriel?”
He froze.
The voice knew him.
Not by reputation.
Personally.
“Who are you?”
“My name is Lena.”
Laya stared at the photograph again.
Two babies.
One had a hospital bracelet.
The other did too.
One said LAYA.
The other said LENA.
Her hands began to shake.
“My mother had twins.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't she tell me?”
“Because she thought I was dead.”
“Were you?”
“No.”
“Where have you been?”
A pause.
“Where everyone who is inconvenient gets sent.”
Laya felt sick.
“Who took you?”
“My grandfather.”
Gabriel's face hardened.
“Why?”
“Because I was the healthy one.”
Laya frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“You were sick when we were born.”
She remembered nothing.
“You were expected to die,” Lena continued.
“So they kept you.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To study you.”
Gabriel stepped toward the speaker.
“Who?”
“Everyone.”
The lights flickered.
Then the speaker went silent.
Dominic's radio crackled.
“Boss.”
Gabriel answered.
“What?”
“We found something.”
“What?”
“A tunnel beneath the greenhouse.”
Laya looked at the photograph.
“That's where my mother hid.”
Gabriel nodded.
They moved through the passage.
The tunnel ended at an abandoned service room.
Inside was a desk.
On it sat a stack of letters.
Laya recognized her mother's handwriting.
She opened the first.
My daughter,
If you ever find this, forgive me.
I did not leave because I stopped loving you.
I left because someone was willing to kill you to get to me.
Laya's vision blurred.
The second letter was addressed to Gabriel.
You promised me you would protect her.
The third was addressed to Victor.
You must never let your father know the girls survived.
Laya looked at Gabriel.
“Girls.”
He nodded.
“My father knew.”
“About me?”
“About both of you.”
She opened the final letter.
It contained only one sentence.
The ledger is not a book.
It is a person.
Laya stared.
“What does that mean?”
Gabriel looked at the letters.
“I don't know.”
Elias picked up a photograph.
“Maybe this does.”
It showed a newborn baby beside a black leather ledger.
Written on the back:
THE FIRST KEY.
Laya looked at the photograph.
Then at the letters.
Then at Gabriel.
“Where is the second key?”
A voice answered from behind them.
“Inside me.”
They turned.
Helena stood in the doorway.
Alive.
Older.
Trembling.
Laya stopped breathing.
“Mom?”
Laya stared at the photograph until her eyes hurt.
“Why would my mother hide this from me?”
Gabriel stepped closer.
“Because she knew what would happen if you remembered.”
“I remember enough.”
“That may be dangerous.”
“Everything about you is dangerous.”
He nodded.
“Fair.”
Laya touched the photograph.
“Was Lena older?”
“No.”
“Then why do I have memories of her?”
Gabriel looked at Helena's handwriting.
“Maybe because you were separated too young.”
“Maybe.”
A low mechanical hum came from the wall.
Elias turned.
“Someone is opening a remote lock.”
Dominic checked his radio.
“North wing.”
Gabriel's face hardened.
“Move.”
They hurried through the corridor.
Laya carried the photograph.
She didn't know why she had taken it.
Maybe because it was proof.
Maybe because she needed something that belonged to the truth.
At the end of the hall, they found a locked steel cabinet.
A small label was attached.
H.H.
Laya looked at Gabriel.
“My mother.”
He nodded.
She opened it.
Inside was a stack of hospital records and a cassette labeled:
FOR LAYA — WHEN SHE IS READY.
Laya stared at it.
“She knew.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“She always knew.”
May you like
Laya took the cassette.
“Then let's hear what she wanted me to know.”
