Mara couldn't move.
Elias Venn stood in the doorway with rainwater darkening the shoulders of his coat.
Jonas lowered his head.
“You knew.”
Elias looked at him.
“I knew she would find out eventually.”
Mara stepped forward.
“Where is my mother?”
Elias looked at the photograph.
“Closer than you think.”
“Don't speak in riddles.”
“I've spent twenty-two years speaking in riddles.”
“I don't care.”
Mara's voice broke.
“I want the truth.”
Elias nodded.
“Then you need to understand what happened before you were old enough to remember.”
He entered the hidden room.
Rivera watched him carefully.
Elias ignored him.
“Your father discovered the warehouse operation in 2004.”
“What operation?”
“People were moving evidence.”
“What kind?”
“Financial records. Property deeds. Court documents. Anything that could expose a network of officials taking money from companies.”
Mara looked at the photograph.
“Elias Venn Logistics.”
“My company was used.”
“By Shaw?”
“By people above him.”
“Who?”
Elias looked at her.
“That's what your father spent the rest of his life trying to prove.”
Mara picked up the photograph again.
“My mother was there.”
“Yes.”
“She was supposed to be dead.”
“She was given a new identity.”
“Why?”
“Because she saw the shipment.”
“What shipment?”
Elias hesitated.
“A group of files.”
“Files about what?”
“Children.”
Mara's expression changed.
“Children?”
“Families were being pressured to surrender property. Some children were removed from their homes because their parents refused to cooperate.”
Nina closed her eyes.
Mara looked at her.
“You knew.”
“I knew part of it.”
“You should have told me.”
“I was trying to keep you out of it.”
“You've all been doing that.”
Mara looked around the room.
“Everyone keeps deciding what I can handle.”
Elias nodded.
“Your father made that mistake too.”
“What mistake?”
“He thought hiding the truth would protect you.”
Mara stared at him.
“Where is my mother?”
Elias took a breath.
“She lives under another name.”
“Where?”
“I can't tell you.”
Mara laughed bitterly.
“Of course you can't.”
“She has been watched for years.”
“So have I.”
“Yes.”
“Then tell me.”
Elias looked toward the hallway.
“Because Shaw isn't the person controlling this.”
Rivera stepped forward.
“Who is?”
Elias looked at him.
“The person who signed the first transfer.”
Rivera frowned.
“Name.”
Elias didn't answer.
Mara opened the ledger.
The pages rustled.
She searched for the oldest entries.
Then she found a signature.
Not Shaw.
Not Venn.
Not her father.
A name she knew.
Her father's former supervisor.
Judge Malcolm Raye.
Mara stared.
“He was retired before I started working.”
“He wasn't retired,” Elias said.
“He died.”
“No.”
Mara looked up.
“He died six years ago.”
“That's what they reported.”
Mara felt a familiar chill.
Another dead person who wasn't dead.
Another carefully constructed lie.
“Where is he?”
Elias didn't answer.
Nina said, “Mara, we need to leave.”
“Why?”
“Because if Elias found us, Shaw can too.”
Elias shook his head.
“Shaw already knows.”
A phone began ringing.
Everyone froze.
It was Rivera's phone.
He looked at the screen.
No number.
He answered.
“Rivera.”
A man's voice spoke.
“Officer Rivera, you have something that belongs to me.”
Rivera's face hardened.
“What?”
“The notebook.”
Rivera looked at Mara.
The voice continued.
“You have ten minutes.”
“Who is this?”
“You already know.”
The call ended.
Rivera lowered the phone.
Mara noticed his hands were shaking.
“Did you recognize the voice?”
He nodded.
“Who?”
“Judge Raye.”
The room went silent.
Elias looked at Mara.
“Now you understand.”
“No.”
Mara closed the notebook.
“I understand that everybody has been lying.”
She looked at Rivera.
“But I don't understand why Raye wants the notebook.”
Elias answered.
“Because your father discovered the ledger wasn't the real evidence.”
Mara frowned.
“What?”
“The ledger was only the map.”
“To what?”
“The original records.”
Mara looked toward the shelves.
“You mean the warehouse files.”
“No.”
Elias pointed at the photograph.
“Something older.”
Mara waited.
“The first agreement.”
“What agreement?”
Elias's voice lowered.
“The agreement that created the entire network.”
Mara felt the room go still.
“Who signed it?”
Elias looked at her.
“Your father.”
Mara stared.
“That makes no sense.”
“It will.”
He walked to the desk.
There was a hidden compartment beneath it.
Elias opened it.
Inside was a single envelope.
He gave it to Mara.
Her hands were cold.
The envelope contained one document.
At the bottom were three signatures.
Daniel Ellison.
Adrian Shaw.
Malcolm Raye.
Mara read the heading.
Then she read it again.
It was an agreement dated twenty-two years earlier.
An agreement transferring ownership of several properties into a private trust.
But the names of the beneficiaries were children.
Mara's name was listed first.
She looked at Elias.
“Why am I a beneficiary?”
Elias's face softened.
“Because your father knew they would eventually come for you.”
Mara read further.
There were twelve children's names.
Beside each was a property.
Some properties were now government buildings.
Others had become commercial developments.
One was a school.
Another was a hospital.
Mara recognized the address of the old warehouse.
It had been demolished years ago.
She looked at the final line.
Beneficiary control transfers upon eighteenth birthday.
Mara's breath caught.
“I turned eighteen eighteen years ago.”
Elias nodded.
“Exactly.”
“And nobody contacted me.”
“Because the records disappeared.”
“Who made them disappear?”
Elias looked toward the door.
“Your mother.”
Mara stared.
“My mother?”
“She believed destroying the records would keep you safe.”
“But my father kept copies.”
“Yes.”
“And that's why he was killed.”
Elias didn't answer.
Mara stepped closer.
“Was he murdered?”
Elias looked directly into her eyes.
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Poison.”
Mara closed her eyes.
The hospital.
The weakness.
The sudden collapse.
The official explanation.
She had been grieving the wrong death.
A sound came from outside.
Car doors slammed.
Elias looked at Jonas.
“They're here.”
Rivera checked the windows.
“How many?”
“Enough.”
Mara folded the agreement and placed it inside her coat.
“What happens now?”
Elias looked at her.
“Now you meet your mother.”
Mara's heart stopped.
“You know where she is?”
“Yes.”
“Then take me to her.”
Elias nodded.
But before anyone could move, the front door downstairs exploded inward.
A voice shouted from the hallway.
“Police! Nobody move!”
Rivera looked at Mara.
Then at Elias.
Elias whispered, “That's not police.”
Mara heard another voice from outside.
Shaw.
“Bring me the girl.”
And from somewhere deeper inside the house came a woman's scream.
Mara knew that voice.
It was her mother.
Click here to continue reading: PART 8: The Voice Mara Had Waited Half a Lifetime to Hear Came From the Dark, but It Was Followed by a Warning She Could Not Ignore
The Arrest Was Supposed to End in Minutes, Until the Woman Asked One Question That Changed Everything
Part 7 of 20
