The floor vanished beneath my feet.
One instant I was holding Graham upright between my mother and me; the next, smoke swallowed the hallway and the wooden boards dropped away.
I hit something hard.
My shoulder struck a beam, and Graham's weight dragged me sideways. My mother caught his coat and screamed my name.
“Lena!”
I reached for her.
My fingers closed around hers for half a second.
Then another section of floor collapsed.
She disappeared.
I landed on a lower level surrounded by dust and broken timber.
For several seconds, I couldn't breathe.
The air tasted like plaster and burning wood.
I heard someone coughing.
“Mom?”
No answer.
“Mom!”
A hand grabbed my ankle.
I nearly kicked free before recognizing my father's voice.
“I'm here.”
He pulled himself from beneath a fallen beam.
His forehead was bleeding.
“Where's Marianne?”
“I don't know.”
We searched through the smoke.
A shape moved near the wall.
My mother.
She was trapped beneath a wooden door.
I crawled toward her.
“Are you hurt?”
“My leg.”
My father helped lift the door.
I pulled her free.
She tried to stand and immediately collapsed.
“We have to go,” Ortiz shouted from somewhere above us.
The ceiling groaned.
Daniel was nowhere in sight.
Neither was Richard.
Graham lay several feet away.
His eyes were open.
“Leave me,” he said.
“No.”
“Lena.”
I grabbed his hand.
“You're coming.”
He tried to laugh.
“I don't think so.”
“You don't get to decide.”
My father lifted him.
The smoke thickened.
A window appeared ahead.
We broke it.
Cold morning air rushed in.
Ortiz climbed through first, then helped my mother outside.
I followed with Graham and my father behind me.
We collapsed onto wet grass.
The estate burned from the lower floors upward.
Flames moved behind the windows.
For a moment, none of us spoke.
Then my mother pointed toward the house.
“Richard.”
Ortiz looked at her.
“He was in the basement.”
“He knew about the accounts.”
My father stared at the burning building.
“He wanted the evidence destroyed.”
“Did he escape?”
No one knew.
We heard sirens approaching from the road.
My father looked at me.
“The ledger.”
I froze.
I had forgotten it.
Daniel had been carrying it when the floor collapsed.
“He had it.”
My father nodded.
“Then we find him.”
We searched the edge of the property.
Nothing.
The basement entrance was buried.
Smoke poured from a broken ventilation shaft.
Ortiz stopped me when I tried to approach.
“You're not going in there.”
“Daniel is inside.”
“And if he's trapped, firefighters will search for him.”
“He has the ledger.”
“I know.”
She looked at me.
“And if Richard is still alive, he knows you have the code.”
My mother sat against a tree, holding her injured leg.
“I know where Daniel would go.”
Everyone turned.
“Where?”
She looked toward the river.
“Old Ferry Station.”
My father frowned.
“Why?”
“Because that's where he kept the first copies.”
Ortiz stood.
“Then we're going.”
Before we left, Graham called me.
I knelt beside him.
His face had gone pale.
“Listen.”
“I'm listening.”
“The account.”
“What about it?”
“Even though the transfer was cancelled, the money didn't disappear.”
My father looked at him.
“Where did it go?”
“Into a holding account.”
“Can Richard access it?”
Graham shook his head.
“Only Lena.”
I stared at him.
“Why?”
“Because the account was built around your identity.”
“What happens if I don't touch it?”
“It stays frozen.”
“And if I do?”
Graham looked frightened.
“It can be transferred anywhere.”
My mother understood.
“Richard needs Lena alive.”
I looked toward the burning estate.
“Then he's coming for me.”
Graham nodded.
“He won't stop.”
We left him with paramedics when they arrived.
He grabbed my wrist before they carried him away.
“I wasn't lying about one thing.”
“What?”
“Your father did try to protect you.”
I looked at Elias.
“He just made terrible choices.”
My father lowered his eyes.
The ambulance doors closed.
We drove toward the river.
Nobody spoke for several miles.
Then Ortiz's phone rang.
She answered.
Her expression changed.
“What?”
She listened.
“Say that again.”
She ended the call.
“Firefighters found a body.”
My mother whispered, “Richard?”
“No.”
“Who?”
Ortiz looked at me.
“Captain Vale.”
I felt a chill.
“Vale was at the estate.”
“Yes.”
“Then Richard escaped.”
“Apparently.”
We reached the ferry station.
The building had been abandoned for years.
The river moved slowly beside it.
Daniel's car stood behind the terminal.
The driver's door was open.
My father stepped out.
I followed.
Inside, the station was empty.
Then I saw blood on the floor.
Fresh.
My mother stopped behind me.
“Daniel.”
We followed the trail to the ticket office.
A door stood open.
Inside was a broken chair.
On the wall someone had written a message.
NOT ALL OF THE LEDGER WAS IN THE BOOK.
My father stared at it.
“What does that mean?”
I noticed a small metal box beneath the desk.
The brass cylinder opened it.
Inside was a flash drive.
And another photograph.
Daniel stood beside a woman I had never seen.
She was young.
She looked remarkably like me.
My mother covered her mouth.
“That's Evelyn.”
My father shook his head.
“No.”
“She was younger here.”
“Before she disappeared.”
I turned the photograph over.
A date.
Three months before my father was born.
And beneath it:
THE FIRST CHILD.
I looked at my father.
“What does that mean?”
He didn't answer.
My mother did.
“It means Evelyn had another child.”
“Who?”
She stared at the photograph.
Then at me.
“I think you're looking at her.”
The room went silent.
“You're saying that woman is my…”
“Sister,” my father whispered.
A noise came from the river.
We ran outside.
A boat moved away from the dock.
Daniel stood at the stern.
He held the ledger.
He raised one hand.
Then shouted across the water.
“Find the first child!”
The boat disappeared around the bend.
My father stared after him.
“Evelyn had another child.”
Ortiz looked at me.
“And if Daniel is looking for her, then Richard probably is too.”
I looked down at the photograph.
The woman beside Evelyn had my eyes.
But there was something else.
A bracelet.
I knew it.
My mother had one exactly like it.
I looked at her.
She went white.
“You recognize it.”
She nodded.
“I gave it to her.”
“Who?”
My mother couldn't answer.
Then her phone rang.
She looked at the screen.
Unknown number.
She answered.
A woman's voice said three words.
“Hello, little sister.”
Click here to continue reading: PART 14: The Woman on the Phone Claimed to Be My Sister, and Her First Question Proved She Knew More Than Any of Us
The Night the Locked Door Opened and Everything I Thought I Knew About My Family Changed
Part 13 of 20
