Chapter 8 - THE LAST PAGE
The sound of the doors locking echoed through the warehouse.
Bell shouted for everyone to stay together.
Dante moved toward me.
Richard remained above us.
“You don't have to do this,” Dante called.
Richard laughed.
“You still think this is about revenge.”
“What is it about?”
“Control.”
He pointed at the ledger.
“That book destroyed men more powerful than your family.”
Victor shouted.
“You're the one who kept it hidden.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Richard smiled.
“Because information is worth more alive than dead.”
Dante stared at him.
“You ordered Isabella's disappearance.”
“No.”
A pause.
“Your father did.”
Dante's face hardened.
“And my mother?”
Richard's expression changed.
“Your mother made the mistake of helping her.”
“My mother was murdered.”
“Your mother was silenced.”
The distinction made me sick.
Richard continued.
“She knew where the ledger was.”
“And she refused to tell you.”
“Yes.”
“Why attack Harper?”
Richard looked at me.
“Because she inherited the one thing your mother had that the ledger couldn't record.”
“What?”
“Her memory.”
I frowned.
Richard explained.
My mother had memorized several pages of the ledger after hiding it.
She had never trusted paper alone.
The final pages contained evidence that could expose people still living powerful lives.
Including Richard.
Dante looked at the ledger.
“The final pages.”
Richard nodded.
“Exactly.”
Dante opened it.
The final section had been torn out.
I stared.
“Where is it?”
Richard smiled.
“You have it.”
I felt the necklace around my neck.
“No.”
Richard nodded.
“The pendant.”
Dante immediately stepped between us.
Richard laughed.
“Twenty-two years, Dante.”
Then he said something that changed everything.
“Your mother didn't hide the final page in the pendant.”
He pointed at me.
“She hid it in her daughter.”
Silence.
I remembered the strange things my mother had taught me as a child.
Names.
Dates.
Numbers.
She had called them memory games.
I suddenly realized they weren't games.
She had been teaching me.
I whispered a sequence.
Dante looked at me.
“What is that?”
“I don't know.”
Victor stepped closer.
“Say it again.”
I did.
Victor's face changed.
“That is a ledger code.”
I closed my eyes.
Another memory surfaced.
My mother sitting beside my bed.
“Harper, repeat this after me.”
I had thought she was teaching me multiplication.
But the numbers were names.
Bank accounts.
Dates.
Locations.
People.
I opened my eyes.
“I remember.”
Dante stared.
“What?”
“The final page.”
Richard's smile disappeared.
I began speaking.
One name after another.
Bell wrote them down.
Politicians.
Businessmen.
Judges.
Police officers.
Then I reached the final name.
I stopped.
Dante noticed.
“Who?”
I looked at Richard.
“Yours.”
His face changed.
“No.”
“You weren't protecting the organization.”
I continued.
“You were running it.”
Richard stepped backward.
Bell immediately moved.
Richard reached inside his coat.
Dante raised his weapon.
“Don't.”
Richard froze.
For a moment, nobody moved.
Then Richard dropped the weapon.
Bell arrested him.
The warehouse doors opened.
Morning light poured inside.
But something still bothered me.
“Dante.”
He looked at me.
“What?”
“The people who attacked me.”
Richard hadn't acted alone.
Victor shook his head.
“There are still two names missing.”
Dante opened the ledger again.
A page near the beginning contained a symbol.
A red circle.
Beside it was a single word.
ELENA.
I stared.
“My mother.”
Dante looked confused.
“She died.”
Isabella stepped forward.
“No.”
Everyone turned.
“She didn't die that night.”
My heart stopped.
“What?”
Isabella shook her head.
“She escaped.”
Dante stared at her.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I didn't know where she went.”
“Then how do you know she's alive?”
Isabella looked at me.
“Because she contacted me three months ago.”
I could barely breathe.
“Where is she?”
Isabella's eyes filled with tears.
“She told me not to tell you until the ledger was safe.”
Dante took one step forward.
“Where?”
Isabella handed him a photograph.
It showed an elderly woman sitting outside a small church.
She was holding a rosary.
I knew that rosary.
My mother had owned one exactly like it.
On the back was an address.
May you like
Dante looked at me.
“We're going.”
