Chapter 10 - REBECCA’S HIDDEN LEDGER
The letter contained no simple location.
Rebecca had been careful.
I hide it where Ethan’s first laugh still lives.
Victor stared at the sentence.
“What does that mean?”
I had no idea.
He did.
“The old sunroom.”
“Why?”
“Rebecca used to sit there with Ethan when he was a baby.”
The sunroom had been closed for renovations almost a year.
Serena said the ceiling leaked.
I had never questioned it.
We went there.
Door locked.
Again.
Victor laughed bitterly.
“Another room in my house I apparently can’t enter.”
He found the master key.
Inside, white sheets covered the furniture.
Dust floated through weak evening light.
Unlike the blue room, this one genuinely seemed unused.
Victor walked toward the old rocking chair.
“This is where Ethan laughed for the first time.”
“How old?”
“Four months.”
For a second, his face softened.
Then he remembered why we were there.
We searched.
Under cushions.
Drawers.
Cabinets.
Nothing.
Then I noticed the rocking chair.
One rear leg looked newer.
Different wood tone.
Victor turned it over.
A hollow compartment had been cut beneath the seat.
Inside:
A thin black ledger.
A USB drive.
And one sealed envelope.
Victor.
Rebecca’s handwriting.
He sat on the dusty floor.
I moved away.
“Do you want privacy?”
“No.”
The answer came immediately.
“I’ve had too much privacy.”
He opened the envelope.
Victor,
If you found this, Graham is probably still close to you.
I’m sorry.
I should have told you before I became too sick to fight.
Victor stopped reading.
His eyes filled.
I looked away.
After several seconds, he continued.
Graham used Blackwood family accounts to hide management fees connected to my trust.
At first I thought they were accounting errors.
They were not.
I confronted him.
He promised to correct everything.
Then records disappeared.
My heart tightened.
Rebecca had lived the same pattern.
Missing records.
Altered files.
Trusted explanations.
I began keeping copies.
Someone discovered I was doing it.
That sentence made Victor pause.
Someone.
Not necessarily Graham.
Two weeks later, the medication in my home was changed without my knowledge.
Victor stopped breathing.
I felt cold.
Rebecca had died from cancer.
Everyone knew that.
Medication changes could have been ordinary.
But the wording was deliberate.
I cannot prove who changed it.
Do not turn suspicion into certainty.
Evidence first.
I stared.
The same phrase I had been using.
Victor laughed through tears.
“That was Rebecca.”
The letter continued.
But I know Graham was not working alone.
I saw a woman entering the estate office the night before the account backups disappeared.
I could not identify her.
At that time Serena was not part of our lives.
That mattered.
Serena could not have been Rebecca’s mysterious woman.
The conspiracy predated her.
Graham had another partner.
The letter continued.
If Ethan is ever harmed, assume the trust is the target.
I closed my eyes.
Rebecca had predicted exactly what was happening.
Then:
The ledger contains the accounts I could verify.
The USB contains copies of emails and transfer records.
Do not give either to Graham.
Do not assume anyone on the household security team is neutral.
Victor lowered the paper.
“Security team.”
The missing camera footage.
Cloned credentials.
Unknown wired terminal.
Someone besides Serena and Graham had access.
We opened the ledger.
Transfers over four years.
Small at first.
$25,000.
$60,000.
$110,000.
Then larger.
Companies with generic names.
Mercer Advisory.
Oakwell Family Services.
BRS Consulting.
Victor recognized none.
The USB contained supporting documents.
Then one transfer recipient caught my attention.
Sable House Management.
Current registered director:
Serena Blackwood.
Formation date:
Seven years ago.
Victor stared.
“That’s impossible.”
He met Serena four and a half years ago.
Married her three years ago.
Yet a company using her full legal name had received Blackwood-related money seven years earlier.
“She knew Graham before she knew you.”
Victor’s face drained.
We opened corporate history.
Original director:
Serena Walsh.
Her maiden name.
Same birth date.
Same address history.
No mistake.
Serena had financial links to Graham years before she ever “met” Victor at a charity dinner.
Their relationship had been engineered.
Victor whispered, “She targeted me.”
Maybe.
But Rebecca’s unknown woman still existed.
And then I saw another company receiving payments.
Blackwood Security Operations.
Victor frowned.
“That’s our security contractor.”
Payments weren’t suspicious by themselves.
Then we opened the recipient account.
Authorized signer:
Mason Hale.
Victor’s head of estate security.
The man who managed every camera in Blackwood Manor.
The man who told Victor the foyer system had been successfully upgraded.
May you like
The man who could explain how eleven minutes disappeared.
📖 Find out why Victor’s security chief Mason Hale appeared inside Rebecca’s secret ledger—and what happened when we realized he was still inside the mansion in CHAPTER 11. 👇
