The envelope had been sealed with ordinary brown tape.
I wanted to tear it open immediately.
Thomas stopped me.
"Wait."
I looked at him.
"You've had enough chances to tell me to wait."
"This could be dangerous."
"Everything is dangerous."
He didn't argue.
I opened the envelope.
Inside was a small memory card and a handwritten note.
The note contained only one sentence.
*If Thomas comes back, do not give him this until you know what happened to Jonah.**
I looked at my father.
He flinched.
"You knew she had another copy."
"I suspected."
"Did you know about the note?"
"No."
I turned the memory card over in my fingers.
Marcus said, "We need a computer."
Daniel pointed toward the nurses' station.
"There's one downstairs."
We left the archive.
The hospital corridors were nearly empty. Fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, and somewhere beyond the closed doors a machine gave a steady electronic beep.
I kept expecting to see Jonah.
Every passing shadow made me turn.
At the nurses' station, Daniel found an old desktop computer.
The memory card contained three files.
One was a scanned document.
One was an audio recording.
The last was a photograph.
I opened the photograph first.
It showed my mother sitting at a kitchen table.
She looked older than I remembered.
Tired.
Beside her sat Jonah.
He was perhaps twelve.
Between them was the original ledger.
I zoomed in.
Several pages were visible.
Numbers.
Names.
Company stamps.
Property addresses.
And one handwritten line that made my pulse jump.
*Avery Children — 50% each.**
Daniel leaned over my shoulder.
"That's what your mother was protecting."
"Us."
"Yes."
I opened the document.
It was a legal statement prepared by my mother.
She described the property scheme, the false transfers, and the hidden trust.
But she also wrote something I had never expected.
She admitted that Thomas had not been killed in the accident.
He had survived.
He had chosen to disappear because the people pursuing the ledger had begun threatening the children.
But she did not agree with his plan.
She wrote that Thomas had become convinced the only way to protect us was to separate us.
She believed the opposite.
She believed separation would eventually destroy both of us.
I looked at Thomas.
"She blamed you."
He nodded.
"She had every right."
The audio file began playing.
My mother's voice filled the quiet room.
"If you're hearing this, I failed to bring my children together."
I closed my eyes.
"Jonah deserves to know his sister. She deserves to know her brother. Neither child should carry the guilt of decisions made by adults."
Her voice trembled.
"But there is something neither of them must know until the right time."
The recording paused.
Then she said:
"The ledger isn't the real evidence."
I opened my eyes.
Thomas stared at the computer.
My mother continued.
"The real evidence is the recording made on the night Thomas died."
I looked at the cassette.
"But we have it."
"No," Thomas said.
I turned.
"What?"
"The cassette you found is incomplete."
My mother's voice continued.
"The original recording contains a confession."
My heart began pounding.
"Someone admitted ordering the property transfers."
The audio crackled.
"Someone admitted arranging the accident."
Daniel whispered, "Who?"
My mother's voice answered.
"Victor Hale."
Marcus swore.
Thomas closed his eyes.
I stared at him.
"Victor is dead."
"He was believed to be."
I looked at Marcus.
He nodded slowly.
"I saw his car after the crash."
"But not his body."
"No."
My mother continued.
"Victor knew the children were the only legal heirs connected to the trust. He believed that if both disappeared, the property could be absorbed into the companies."
The recording ended.
Nobody spoke.
I looked at Daniel.
"Then Jonah wasn't hidden because of the ledger."
Daniel shook his head.
"Not entirely."
"He was hidden because someone wanted him dead."
"Yes."
"And me?"
Thomas answered.
"You were the easier child to hide."
The words hurt.
He saw it immediately.
"That's not what I meant."
"It doesn't matter."
"It does."
"No. It explains everything."
I walked away from the computer.
My mother had made a choice.
Thomas had made another.
Daniel had carried the secret.
And Jonah had grown up believing I had been given the life that should have belonged to both of us.
A sound came from the hospital entrance.
Doors opened.
Then closed.
Marcus looked toward the corridor.
"We should go."
Thomas nodded.
We gathered the files.
As we reached the stairwell, Daniel stopped.
"Someone's coming."
We listened.
Footsteps.
Two people.
Maybe three.
Thomas whispered, "Back to the records room."
We moved quickly.
The footsteps approached.
A man's voice spoke from the hall.
"Check the archive."
I recognized it.
The stranger from Cedar Hill.
The man who had demanded the tape.
Marcus whispered, "That's not Victor."
"Who is it?"
He looked at Daniel.
"Edward's son."
I stared at him.
"Edward had a son?"
"Yes."
"What is his name?"
Marcus didn't answer.
The door opened.
A man stepped into the stairwell.
He was in his forties, wearing a dark coat.
He looked directly at me.
Then he smiled.
"Finally."
Daniel moved in front of me.
The man raised both hands.
"I'm not here to hurt her."
Thomas stepped forward.
"You should leave."
The man laughed.
"You've been dead for six years, Thomas. You don't get to give orders."
He looked at me.
"My name is Adrian Vale."
Marcus went pale.
Adrian smiled.
"You know my father."
Marcus said, "Your father was supposed to be dead."
"So was yours."
Adrian's gaze shifted to Thomas.
Then he looked at the cassette in my hand.
"Give me the recording."
"No."
His smile disappeared.
"Then give me the copy."
I realized something.
He knew about the memory card.
He knew exactly what we had found.
I looked at the note again.
My mother's handwriting.
*If Thomas comes back, do not give him this until you know what happened to Jonah.**
She had never written that warning for Thomas alone.
She had known someone else would eventually come looking.
I slipped the memory card into my pocket.
Adrian watched the movement.
"Where is Jonah?"
I asked.
He smiled.
"That's the right question."
Then the lights went out.
Click here to continue reading: PART 11: In the Darkness, Someone Took the Ledger, and When the Lights Returned, Daniel Was the Only One Missing
The Night I Pretended to Sleep While My Uncle Whispered a Name I Had Never Heard Before
Part 10 of 20
