Chapter 11 - No one moved.Vale stood at the top of the stairs with two armed men behind him.
My mother stepped in front of me.
"Leave them alone."
Vale smiled.
"You still don't understand, Margaret."
He said my mother's name as though it belonged to him.
"The ledger doesn't matter anymore."
Caleb held the document.
"Then why did you come?"
"Because I need my son."
Caleb stared.
"I am not your son."
Vale smiled.
"That's where you're wrong."
He descended the stairs.
Slowly.
"You are my son's son."
Caleb's face hardened.
"My father?"
"Not your biological father."
Silence.
Vale pointed to Tyler.
"Ask him."
Tyler looked broken.
"What?"
"Tell him."
Tyler shook his head.
"No."
Vale pulled out a file.
"Your mother signed the agreement."
Caleb looked at Marlene.
She burst into tears.
"What agreement?"
Marlene couldn't speak.
My mother finally answered.
"Caleb was born to another woman."
He stared at her.
"What?"
"Your father adopted you."
"Why?"
"Because Northstar needed an heir."
Caleb laughed bitterly.
"So my entire life was a business plan?"
"No."
Marlene sobbed.
"I loved you."
"But you lied."
"To keep you alive."
Vale stepped closer.
"Northstar belongs to your family."
Caleb raised the ledger.
"No."
He looked at me.
"Not anymore."
Vale's expression changed.
"Give it to me."
"No."
"Then Tyler dies."
Everyone looked at Tyler.
Two men pulled guns.
Tyler closed his eyes.
I remembered the camera.
The soup.
The purse.
The thefts.
Everything suddenly fit.
Tyler had stolen from me because Vale forced him.
But Tyler had also deliberately left clues.
The camera.
The photograph.
The recording.
He had been trying to lead us here.
I whispered:
"You wanted us to find the ledger."
Tyler opened his eyes.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because I knew I couldn't beat Vale."
He looked at Caleb.
"But you could."
Vale suddenly shouted.
"Enough."
He raised his gun.
I stepped forward.
"You won't shoot."
He smiled.
"Why not?"
"Because you don't know where the second copy is."
His smile disappeared.
"There is no second copy."
I pointed toward the ceiling.
"There is."
Vale's face went pale.
I had no idea if it was true.
I was bluffing.
But it worked.
For one second.
That was enough.
My mother grabbed the lamp.
She threw it.
The basement went dark.
Gunshots exploded.
Tyler tackled one guard.
Caleb grabbed the other.
Vale ran.
We chased him upstairs.
He burst through the back door.
Caleb followed.
Then a car screeched away.
Gone.
We stood in the yard.
Tyler leaned against the wall, bleeding.
Caleb looked at him.
"You knew all along."
Tyler nodded.
"I knew only one thing."
"What?"
"Vale wasn't afraid of the ledger."
"Then what is he afraid of?"
Tyler looked at me.
"The person whose name is on the final page."
We opened the ledger.
The final page was blank.
Almost.
A faint fingerprint had been stamped in red ink.
Underneath it was a single name.
Marlene Carter.
Caleb stared at his mother.
She collapsed to her knees.
May you like
Then whispered:
"I killed your father."
