Chapter 4 - THE LEDGER
We found Varga's car outside an old private bank in Boston.
He entered alone.
Matteo watched from across the street.
I studied the building.
“He's not meeting anyone.”
“How do you know?”
“The bank closed two years ago.”
Matteo looked at me.
“Exactly.”
“So why would he come here?”
I pointed toward a side entrance.
“Records.”
Matteo's eyes narrowed.
We waited.
Twenty minutes later, Varga emerged carrying a small metal case.
He didn't see us.
But someone else did.
A black sedan pulled away from the curb.
Matteo immediately stepped out.
“Stay here.”
I grabbed his sleeve.
“No.”
He looked down at my hand.
I released him.
“I'm sorry.”
He shook his head.
“No. You're right.”
We followed the sedan.
It led us to an abandoned warehouse near the harbor.
Inside, Varga met a man I didn't recognize.
I couldn't hear everything.
But I heard enough.
“De Luca can't know.”
“His wife already knows too much.”
My stomach tightened.
The other man handed Varga a file.
A photograph fell out.
My mother's photograph.
Then another.
Mine.
Matteo's expression changed.
He whispered, “Stay behind me.”
This time I didn't argue.
We waited until Varga left.
Then Matteo entered.
I followed.
On the table was the metal case.
Inside was an old ledger.
My mother's handwriting covered the first page.
My hands shook.
“She found it.”
“What?”
I turned the pages.
Numbers.
Transfers.
Shell companies.
Payments.
My father's name appeared again and again.
And beside it was another name.
ADRIAN VARGA.
Matteo stared at the page.
“That's impossible.”
I looked closer.
“No.”
“What?”
I pointed to the dates.
“These aren't payments from fifteen years ago.”
He frowned.
“They were altered.”
I flipped several pages.
“The original entries are underneath.”
Someone had tried to erase the evidence.
But not completely.
I smiled bitterly.
“My mother knew whoever did this would make mistakes.”
Matteo looked at me.
“You sound like her.”
I swallowed.
“I barely remember her voice.”
“You don't have to remember her voice.”
He touched the page.
“You remember how she thought.”
I looked at him.
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
Then a noise came from the hallway.
Footsteps.
Matteo pushed me behind a steel cabinet.
Three men entered.
One of them was Varga.
He had come back.
His eyes landed on the ledger.
Then on Matteo.
Then on me.
His expression changed.
“You.”
I stepped out.
Varga laughed.
“Mrs. De Luca.”
My husband moved beside me.
“You've made a mistake.”
Varga's smile disappeared.
“No.”
He raised his weapon.
“I think your wife made the mistake.”
Everything happened at once.
Matteo shoved me sideways.
A shot exploded through the warehouse.
Glass shattered.
Carlo's men stormed in.
Varga escaped through a back exit.
But he left something behind.
A phone.
I picked it up.
One message remained open.
THE DIVORCE WAS SUPPOSED TO SEPARATE THEM. WHY IS SHE STILL WITH HIM?
I stared at the screen.
Matteo read it over my shoulder.
Then another message appeared.
IF SHE FINDS THE SECOND ACCOUNT, EVERYTHING COLLAPSES.
I looked at my husband.
“What second account?”
Matteo's face hardened.
“I don't know.”
I looked back at the ledger.
My mother's handwriting seemed to stare back at me.
And suddenly I understood.
The first ledger wasn't the secret.
It was the map.
May you like
Somewhere there was a second account containing everything my mother had discovered.
And someone was terrified that Lucia De Luca would find it.
