Chapter 9 - THE FIRST BETRAYAL
Leah stared at Mrs. Bellgrave.
“My mother?”
Mrs. Bellgrave nodded.
Alexander looked equally stunned.
“What did Eleanor have to do with Edmund?”
“She worked with him first.”
Leah sat down slowly.
“Before my father?”
“Yes.”
Mrs. Bellgrave continued.
“Edmund recruited Eleanor to investigate financial irregularities.”
Alexander frowned.
“Then why did my father get involved?”
“Because Eleanor discovered Edmund was part of the theft.”
Leah’s mouth went dry.
“My mother was investigating him.”
“Yes.”
“And then?”
“She went to your father.”
“Thomas?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because she needed someone outside the Bellgrave family.”
Alexander stared at his mother.
“She trusted Thomas more than us.”
Mrs. Bellgrave looked at him sadly.
“She was right to.”
Leah remembered childhood arguments.
Her mother whispering behind closed doors.
Her father locking documents inside a kitchen drawer.
Car headlights lingering outside their house.
Everything had seemed ordinary then.
Now every memory looked different.
Vanessa sat across from her.
“So Eleanor exposed Edmund.”
Mrs. Bellgrave nodded.
“But Edmund discovered she had copied his records.”
“What did he do?”
“He threatened her.”
Leah swallowed.
“And my father?”
“Thomas took her away.”
Alexander looked toward his mother.
“Away where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then how did Leah grow up with both of them?”
“They returned years later.”
Mrs. Bellgrave answered carefully.
“They believed Edmund had stopped looking.”
Leah laughed bitterly.
“He hadn’t.”
“No.”
The library doors opened.
Vale entered with Emma asleep in his arms.
A police officer followed.
He lowered his daughter onto a sofa.
Then looked at Alexander.
“She remembered something.”
Alexander stood.
“What?”
Vale looked toward Leah.
“One of the men who guarded her kept talking about a place called North House.”
Leah frowned.
“North House?”
Mrs. Bellgrave immediately stiffened.
Alexander saw it.
“Mother?”
She looked toward him.
“Your uncle owns a property north of the city.”
Alexander’s expression hardened.
“He sold it.”
“No.”
Mrs. Bellgrave shook her head.
“He transferred it into a trust.”
Vanessa muttered.
“Of course he did.”
Alexander looked at Vale.
“Did Emma hear anything else?”
“Yes.”
Vale swallowed.
“They said a woman was being moved tonight.”
Leah’s heart pounded.
“What woman?”
“She doesn’t know.”
“Age?”
“She heard them call her ‘the old accountant.’”
Leah stood so quickly the chair fell backward.
“My mother.”
Alexander was already reaching for his phone.
Mrs. Bellgrave grabbed his arm.
“No.”
He looked down.
“What?”
“Edmund expects you to go.”
“That doesn’t matter.”
“It does.”
“Mother, Leah’s mother may be there.”
“I know.”
“Then we move.”
Mrs. Bellgrave’s voice sharpened.
“That is exactly how your father lost control.”
Alexander froze.
She continued.
“Edmund provokes.”
“He creates urgency.”
“He makes people move before they understand the board.”
Leah looked at her.
“You want me to wait?”
“No.”
Mrs. Bellgrave turned toward her.
“I want you to think.”
Leah’s anger rose.
“My mother has been missing for twenty years.”
“And if you walk blindly into North House, she may remain missing forever.”
Leah stared at her.
Mrs. Bellgrave continued.
“Thomas left you a code.”
Leah remembered.
Childhood phone number.
Her mother’s death date.
The place where they watched trains.
Alexander understood too.
“The evidence.”
Leah nodded.
“My father said no one could reach it without me.”
Vanessa leaned forward.
“So we find it first.”
Leah looked toward the clock.
4:36 a.m.
“The train station opens at five.”
Alexander looked at security.
“Vehicles.”
Mrs. Bellgrave grabbed his sleeve.
“You stay.”
He stared at her.
“Absolutely not.”
“Edmund wants you moving.”
“So?”
“So let Leah go without you.”
Leah looked toward Mrs. Bellgrave.
Alexander immediately objected.
“No.”
Mrs. Bellgrave ignored him.
“If Edmund watches Alexander, then Leah becomes invisible.”
Vanessa smiled faintly.
“For once, subtlety.”
Alexander looked toward Leah.
“I don’t like it.”
She nodded.
“Good.”
He frowned.
“What?”
“You’re not supposed to.”
Twenty minutes later, Leah left Bellgrave Palace in an ordinary sedan.
Vanessa drove.
Leah stared at her.
“You’re driving?”
Vanessa looked offended.
“I own six cars.”
“That wasn’t what I meant.”
“I know.”
Vale sat in the back seat.
“Can we focus?”
They reached the old train station just after dawn.
Leah hadn’t been there in years.
The place looked smaller.
The benches newer.
The platforms cleaner.
But one thing remained.
The pedestrian bridge.
Her father used to take her there every Sunday.
They would stand above the tracks and count freight cars.
Leah climbed the stairs.
At the top, she stopped.
A rusted metal plaque was fixed beneath the railing.
Vanessa looked around.
“This?”
Leah nodded.
“My father carved our initials here.”
She crouched.
T.M.
E.M.
L.M.
Leah ran her fingers beneath the plaque.
Something clicked.
A tiny compartment opened.
Vale stared.
“Your father was thorough.”
Inside was a brass key.
And a piece of paper.
One address.
A bank.
Vanessa looked at Leah.
“Safe-deposit box.”
Leah nodded.
They drove there immediately.
The bank manager initially refused.
Then Leah provided the code.
Her childhood number.
Her mother’s supposed death date.
The brass key.
The manager’s expression changed.
He led them underground.
Box 317.
Leah inserted the key.
The drawer opened.
Inside were three folders.
A flash drive.
A sealed letter.
And an old photograph.
Leah picked it up.
Her father.
Her mother.
Alexander’s father.
And Edmund Bellgrave.
All four standing together.
Leah turned the photograph over.
One sentence was written on the back.
WE WERE ALL FRIENDS ONCE.
Vanessa exhaled.
“That usually ends badly.”
Leah opened the first folder.
Financial records.
The second.
Copies of political donations.
The third.
Surveillance photographs.
Then she found something worse.
A death certificate.
Her mother’s name.
Eleanor Morgan.
Date of death: twenty years earlier.
Cause: boating accident.
Leah stared at it.
“It’s fake.”
Vale looked closer.
“How do you know?”
Leah pointed.
“My mother hated boats.”
Vanessa stared at her.
“That’s your proof?”
“No.”
Leah lifted another page.
A passport issued fourteen years after Eleanor’s supposed death.
Different surname.
Same photograph.
Same woman.
Leah’s mother.
Alive.
The passport name read:
ELEANOR MARSH.
Then Vanessa picked up one of the surveillance photographs.
Her expression changed.
“Leah.”
“What?”
Vanessa handed it over.
The photograph had been taken three months earlier.
Eleanor stood outside North House.
Beside her was Daniel Mercer.
May you like
And she wasn’t being held prisoner.
She was smiling.
