Chapter 9 - The Woman Who Signed Her Own DeathThe signature was mine.

I stared at it.

My name.

My handwriting.

A document declaring that if I died, all assets would transfer to Juliette.

But I had never signed it.

Marcus examined the paper.

"This was created before the fire."

"Impossible."

"Not impossible."

He pointed to the date.

The document had been signed six months before the fire.

I was sixteen.

A minor.

Someone had forged my signature.

But then we discovered something worse.

My fingerprints were on the document.

I couldn't explain it.

Then my mother did.

She had once made me sign blank pages during a family legal dispute.

My grandfather had kept them.

Someone had used those pages to manufacture legal documents.

The entire inheritance had been designed years before my death.

The fire was only the final step.

I realized the plan had never been spontaneous.

They had been preparing to erase me for years.

We returned to the Mercer mansion.

It had been abandoned after the scandal.

Inside my old bedroom, I found the hidden compartment where I used to keep the red notebook.

It was empty.

Except for one sentence carved into the wood.

YOU WERE NEVER SUPPOSED TO SURVIVE.

A noise came from downstairs.

Marcus raised his weapon.

We moved silently.

In the dining room stood Juliette.

She was holding the original ledger.

"Where did you get that?"

She smiled.

"From the person who has been protecting you."

"Who?"

She placed the ledger on the table.

"Marcus."

I turned.

Marcus froze.

Juliette laughed.

"He didn't save you."

She looked at Marcus.

"He found you first."

My stomach dropped.

Marcus lowered his gun.

Juliette continued.

"He knew who you were before anyone else."

I looked at him.

"Is that true?"

He didn't answer.

Juliette stepped closer.

"Ask him where he found you."

I did.

Marcus finally spoke.

"At the hospital."

"And?"

"I knew who you were."

The room seemed to tilt.

"You knew?"

"I was investigating the fire."

"You knew I survived."

"Yes."

"Then why didn't you tell my family?"

"Because your family was trying to kill you."

I stared at him.

"Why did you keep me hidden?"

He looked at me.

"Because I needed evidence."

Juliette smiled.

"Exactly."

Then she opened the ledger.

Inside the back cover was a photograph.

Marcus standing beside my unconscious body in the hospital.

Taken twelve years ago.

On the back was a handwritten note.

KEEP HER ALIVE UNTIL THE LEDGER IS FOUND.

I looked at Marcus.

"Who wrote this?"

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He whispered:

"Your mother."