Chương 6
"Yes."
"Did she know about the lighter?"
Daniel looked toward the desk.
"I don't know."
Eleanor walked to the window.
"We need to be careful."
Mara looked at her.
"Careful?"
"Yes."
"Someone framed me."
"And someone is still trying to control what we find."
Mara held up the note.
"My father wrote Daniel's name."
"He also wrote that the records could not be trusted."
Eleanor looked at the papers.
"Which means someone may have changed more than we thought."
The phone in Mara's pocket vibrated.
All three of them froze.
She looked at the screen.
Unknown number.
The same as before.
Daniel noticed.
"Don't answer."
Mara almost did just to prove she could.
Instead, she answered and put it on speaker.
No one spoke.
"Who is this?" Mara said.
Silence.
Then a voice.
"You found the office."
Mara felt every muscle in her body tighten.
"Who are you?"
"You should leave before you find something you can't take back."
Daniel stepped closer.
"How do you know where we are?"
The caller ignored him.
"Your father made the same mistake."
Mara gripped the phone.
"What mistake?"
"He thought the truth would protect him."
The line crackled.
Then the voice lowered.
"It didn't."
The call ended.
Nobody spoke.
Mara looked at Daniel.
"Did you recognize that voice?"
"No."
The answer came immediately.
This time she believed him.
Eleanor walked to the desk.
"We leave this house."
Mara looked surprised.
"What?"
"Now."
"Why?"
"Because whoever is doing this knows we found the office."
Daniel looked toward the hallway.
"Grandma."
"What?"
"The front door."
They all heard it.
A slow click.
Not the sound of someone knocking.
The sound of someone trying a locked handle.
Mara's first instinct was to move toward the door.
Daniel grabbed her arm.
"No."
She looked at him.
The old Daniel was gone.
The nervous teenager.
The brother who avoided fights.
For a moment, he looked exactly like Victor.
Not because of his face.
Because of the fear he was trying to hide.
Eleanor turned off the office light.
The three of them stood in darkness.
The handle moved again.
A little harder this time.
Mara held the note in one hand and the key in the other.
She realized something then.
The lighter had never been the real threat.
It was only the thing that forced them to open a door everyone had spent twenty years keeping closed.
And whoever was outside had been waiting for them to do exactly that.
The handle stopped moving.
For several seconds, nobody in the office moved either.
Mara could hear her own breathing.
She hated that.
She hated that fear had a sound.
Daniel slowly released her arm.
His fingers had left a mark on her sleeve, and she noticed it more than she wanted to.
Not because it hurt.
Because it reminded her that he had reacted before thinking.
The same way he had as a teenager.
The same way he had the night their father died.
Eleanor stood near the desk, perfectly still.
"Everyone stays quiet," she whispered.
Mara almost argued.
Then she saw her grandmother's face.
This was not the woman who controlled meetings and family decisions.
This was someone calculating danger.
The handle moved again.
A softer attempt this time.
Whoever was outside was not trying to break in.
They were testing.
Waiting.
Mara looked at Daniel.
He noticed too.
"He knows we are here," Daniel mouthed.
Mara shook her head.
Not necessarily.
But she did not believe that anymore.
The office window was behind them.
The second floor.
No easy exit.
The door was the only way out.
Eleanor reached toward the desk drawer and pulled out something Mara had not noticed before.
A small metal box.
"What's that?" Mara whispered.
Eleanor did not answer.
She opened it.
Inside was an old cell phone.
Not a smartphone.
A small black device from years ago.
Mara stared.
"Why do you have that?"
"Your father gave it to me."
"Why?"
"Because he said normal phones could be used against people."
Daniel looked at the device.
"Does it work?"
Eleanor pressed the button.
The screen lit up.
Mara felt a strange discomfort.
A phone that had survived twenty years.
A secret that had survived twenty years.
The entire family had been built on things nobody wanted to say.
Eleanor looked at the screen.
There was one saved number.
She pressed call.
Nobody spoke while the phone rang.
Then someone answered.
"Mara?"
The voice was not the person outside.
It was a woman.
Eleanor closed her eyes.
"Paige."
Mara felt the room change.
Daniel looked at her.
"Why are you calling Paige?"
Eleanor ignored him.
"Where are you?"
There was a pause.
A long one.
Then Paige answered.
"Why?"
Eleanor's voice hardened.
"Because someone is outside Victor's office."
Another pause.
Mara heard breathing through the phone.
"Are you with Mara?"
The question bothered her.
Not because Paige asked.
Because of how quickly she asked.
"Yes," Eleanor said.
"Then listen to me."
Paige's voice dropped.
"You need to leave."
Daniel stepped closer.
Mara held up her hand.
"Why?"
Paige did not answer.
"Paige," Mara said.
The silence changed.
"Mara."
Her name sounded different in Paige's mouth.
Not familiar.
Not warm.
Careful.
"Where is the lighter?"
Mara stared at the phone.
"What?"
"The gold lighter."
"Why do you care?"
Another pause.
"Because it was never about the lighter."
Mara felt anger rise.
"Everyone keeps saying that."
"Because everyone is right."
"Then tell me what it was about."
Paige did not respond immediately.
When she did, her voice was quiet.
"The lighter was where your father kept the final piece."
Daniel looked at Eleanor.
"The final piece of what?"
Paige ignored him.
"Did you find the key?"
Nobody answered.
That was enough.
Paige exhaled.
"You need to get out of there."
"Why?"
"Because if someone knows you found the key, they know where the records are."
Mara looked around the office.
"Someone is here because of this room?"
"Yes."
May you like
"Who?"
Paige went silent.
