Chapter 12 - No one spoke.Marlene looked at Caleb.
"I didn't kill him because I wanted him dead."
Caleb's voice was shaking.
"Then why?"
"Because he was going to kill you."
"That's not an answer."
"He discovered the truth about Northstar."
My mother sat beside her.
"He wanted to expose everything."
Marlene nodded.
"Vale threatened to take Caleb."
She swallowed.
"He said they would disappear him the same way they disappeared Tyler."
Tyler looked away.
"So you killed him."
Marlene cried.
"He came to me that night."
She described the argument.
Caleb's father had planned to go to the authorities.
Marlene panicked.
She called Vale.
Vale arrived.
But he didn't kill Caleb's father.
Marlene did.
One push.
One fall.
One moment that destroyed everything.
"He hit the stairs."
She covered her face.
"I thought he was dead."
But he wasn't.
He had survived long enough to tell her something.
He had hidden the ledger.
And he had named the one person who could destroy Northstar.
Me.
"Why me?" I asked.
Marlene looked at my mother.
"Because your mother was the one person Northstar couldn't control."
Then my mother revealed the final secret.
She had never worked for Northstar.
She had worked against it.
She infiltrated their network.
She helped Caleb's father build evidence.
She knew where the money moved.
But someone betrayed her.
Marlene.
I looked at her.
"You gave me to Northstar."
"I didn't know what they would do."
"You gave them my name."
"Yes."
My chest tightened.
"Why?"
"Because they threatened Caleb."
Tyler suddenly stepped forward.
"Enough."
Everyone turned.
Tyler was holding a phone.
"I have the live stream."
"What?"
"I sent the ledger to every news station that accepted unknown files."
Caleb stared.
"How long ago?"
"Twenty minutes."
My mother smiled.
"Good."
Marlene looked terrified.
"Vale will come for you."
Tyler nodded.
"He already has."
The front door slammed.
We froze.
Footsteps.
Several people.
Caleb locked the kitchen door.
Tyler looked through the window.
"Police."
My stomach dropped.
"Vale?"
Tyler shook his head.
"No."
He looked again.
Then his face changed.
"It's federal."
Agents stormed the house.
A woman in a dark suit entered.
"Nobody move."
She flashed a badge.
"FBI."
Caleb stepped forward.
"Who are you?"
"Agent Nora Bennett."
She looked at the ledger.
"Please tell me that's what I think it is."
Tyler handed it over.
She opened it.
Her expression changed.
"We've been looking for this for thirteen years."
I stared at her.
"How?"
She looked at my mother.
"Your mother contacted us years ago."
My mother nodded.
"But why now?"
Agent Bennett answered:
"Because Northstar finally made a mistake."
"What mistake?"
She turned the ledger over.
"Three days ago, someone accessed the master account."
I frowned.
"Who?"
Agent Bennett looked at Caleb.
"Your husband."
My blood ran cold.
Caleb stared.
"I never accessed anything."
Agent Bennett pulled out a screenshot.
An authentication record.
A fingerprint.
A digital signature.
Everything pointed to him.
May you like
Then she said:
"The access happened from inside this house."
