Chapter 10 - The Child No One Recorded
Thomas Grady’s name did not appear in the ledger.
That was what made him dangerous.
“He was born to a woman named Lillian Grady,” my mother explained. “She worked in the hospital laundry. Adrian took her baby without creating a formal record.”
“What happened to Lillian?” Mara asked.
“She searched for her son until she died.”
“Who raised him?”
“Sheriff Cole.”
Jax stared at my mother.
“My father raised Grady?”
“Not openly. He placed him with his cousin’s family and paid them each month.”
“Why?”
“Guilt.”
Jax paced toward the door.
“All these years, Grady worked as Harold’s investigator.”
“He entered the Pike family to learn the truth.”
“Then why threaten us?” I asked.
“Because he believes I know where his mother is buried.”
“Do you?”
My mother nodded.
“The quarry.”
The demand was not only about Harold.
Grady wanted to confront the woman who had helped erase him.
Jax gathered the Iron Saints.
Mara coordinated with state tactical officers, but insisted they remain out of sight.
We took my mother in a medical transport van.
At 11:40 p.m., we reached the abandoned limestone quarry.
Floodlights illuminated the central pit.
Harold sat tied to a chair near the edge.
Blood covered one side of his face, but both hands were intact.
The finger in the box had belonged to someone else.
Grady stood behind him holding a pistol.
A row of wooden markers had been placed in the dirt.
Each carried the name of a mother from the ledger.
Lillian Grady’s marker stood at the center.
“You came,” Grady called.
My mother stepped from the van.
“I’m sorry about your mother.”
“You always say that.”
“You have every right to hate me.”
“I don’t need permission.”
Mara moved closer.
“Release Harold.”
Grady laughed.
“He has spent his life releasing no one.”
Harold struggled against the ropes.
“He is insane.”
Grady struck him across the mouth.
“Your father stole me before I had a name.”
“I wasn’t born yet.”
“You inherited the money.”
“So did Celeste.”
“Celeste is helping us.”
“She helped for twenty years before guilt became fashionable.”
I understood his rage.
It had nowhere to go without touching everyone.
“Where is Lillian?” he asked my mother.
She pointed toward the eastern wall of the quarry.
“Adrian buried her near the old pump house.”
“Why did he kill her?”
“She entered his office and found adoption contracts.”
“Did you see it?”
“No. Sheriff Cole told me.”
Grady turned toward Jax.
“Your father buried my mother.”
Jax did not deny it.
“I did not know.”
“You lived in his house.”
“I was nineteen.”
“So was Lillian when they took me.”
Grady pressed the gun against Harold’s head.
“You get to choose, Evelyn. Harold dies, or you tell everyone what you did with the first ledger.”
My mother’s face changed.
The first ledger.
Not the one recovered from Cedar Street.
“What was in it?” Mara asked.
“The names of the buyers,” Evelyn said.
“Where is it?”
“I gave it to Thomas Bennett.”
“The man who raised Nora?”
“Yes.”
“What did he do with it?”
“He used it to blackmail the families.”
I felt sick.
Thomas had not protected us.
He had profited from stolen children.
“Where is the money?” Grady demanded.
“I don’t know.”
“You lie.”
“He hid it before his death.”
Eli looked at me.
“When did Thomas die?”
“Twenty years ago. Car accident.”
My mother shook her head.
“No accident.”
“Who killed him?”
“Silas.”
Eli stepped backward.
The man who raised him had killed the man who raised me.
My mother continued before anyone could speak.
“Thomas threatened to reveal Eli’s location unless Silas helped him extort more money. Silas confronted him. They fought. Thomas’s car went over the ravine.”
Jax closed his eyes.
“Silas told me he arrived after the crash.”
“He lied to protect Eli.”
Eli’s voice became hard.
“Everyone keeps using me as a reason for murder.”
Grady watched him.
“That is what stolen children become. Excuses for adults.”
He pulled Harold’s chair closer to the quarry edge.
“Where did Thomas hide the money?”
My mother looked at me.
“The bakery.”
I stared at her.
“My bakery?”
“Thomas purchased the building through a shell company. The basement wall contains a safe.”
I had worked above hidden blood money for seventeen years.
Grady lowered his weapon slightly.
“How much?”
“Millions.”
Harold suddenly kicked backward.
His chair struck Grady’s knees.
The pistol fired.
Harold rolled toward the edge.
Eli lunged and caught the rope around his chest.
Jax tackled Grady.
The quarry erupted with movement as state officers emerged.
Grady fought wildly.
Mara ordered him to drop the weapon.
He turned toward my mother.
For one second, I thought he would shoot her.
Instead, he raised the gun toward himself.
Eli released Harold to Jax and stepped between Grady and the officers.
“Don’t.”
Grady’s hand shook.
“You had Silas.”
“He lied to me.”
“You had a name.”
“It wasn’t mine.”
“You had brothers.”
Eli looked toward the Iron Saints.
“You still could.”
Grady laughed bitterly.
“You think a vest makes us family?”
“No. Choosing not to let each other disappear does.”
The gun lowered slightly.
Then Harold seized a fallen officer’s weapon.
He fired at Grady.
My mother stepped into the path.
The bullet struck her chest.
She fell.
I screamed and caught her before she hit the ground.
Officers shot Harold in the shoulder and disarmed him.
Grady stood frozen.
My mother’s blood covered my hands.
“Why?” I cried.
She struggled to breathe.
“He deserved… one person… to choose him.”
Grady dropped to his knees.
The gun fell from his hand.
For the first time, his anger vanished.
He looked like a lost child.
Paramedics rushed forward.
As they carried my mother toward the ambulance, she gripped my wrist.
“The safe,” she whispered.
“What about it?”
“Do not open it inside the bakery.”
“Why?”
May you like
Her eyes began to close.
“Thomas wired it to burn everything.”
