Chapter 5 - THE LEDGER IN THE EMPTY HOUSE
Nicholas's memory returned slowly.
Some days, he could speak in full sentences.
Other days, exhaustion swallowed his words.
But one detail remained clear.
The ledger.
“It was in my house,” he told me.
“Where?”
“My father's study.”
I frowned.
“Your father?”
Nicholas nodded.
“He died five years ago.”
He explained that the Castellano family had controlled shipping and logistics operations for decades.
Some businesses were legitimate.
Others were not.
Nicholas had inherited both.
“I tried to separate them,” he said.
I looked at him.
“Did you succeed?”
His expression darkened.
“No.”
He told me Gabriel had been moving money through shell companies.
When Nicholas discovered the transfers, he confronted him.
Gabriel denied everything.
Then the shooting happened.
I listened carefully.
But I didn't promise to help him hide anything.
“If you have evidence of crimes,” I said, “you need to tell investigators.”
Nicholas studied me.
“You're not afraid of me?”
I swallowed.
“I'm afraid of what you've done.”
He looked away.
For a long moment, neither spoke.
Then he said quietly, “That's fair.”
Two days later, Nicholas met with his attorney and law enforcement representatives.
He disclosed the existence of the ledger.
Investigators obtained legal authority to search the family property.
The study had been stripped.
The safe was empty.
The desk drawers contained nothing useful.
But beneath the floorboards, investigators found a small compartment.
Inside was a sealed envelope.
It contained a handwritten letter from Nicholas's father.
My sons,
If you are reading this, it means the family has reached the point I feared most.
I built an empire that made us wealthy.
But I also built a prison.
Do not let loyalty become an excuse for cruelty.
The truth is in the blue account.
Nicholas stared at the letter.
“The blue account.”
His attorney frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Nicholas closed his eyes.
Then whispered, “My mother.”
His mother had kept the family's financial records before her death.
May you like
And she had used blue notebooks.
Somewhere, hidden among the belongings of a woman who had died fifteen years earlier, was the evidence that could expose Gabriel.
