Chapter 2 - Anna's Last WarningNobody spoke for several seconds.
The fire crackled behind us.
Lucy was crying against my mother's shoulder.
I couldn't stop staring at the note.
Caroline wiped her face.
“Michael, let me explain.”
“Not yet.”
“But you don't understand the context.”
“Then give me the context.”
She opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
I looked down at Anna's handwriting again.
There was more.
The second sentence read:
If I cannot explain everything myself, ask your mother about the second copy.
I looked at Mom.
She closed her eyes.
Caroline whispered, “No.”
That one word was enough.
I turned to my mother.
“What second copy?”
Mom didn't answer immediately.
She looked at Lucy.
Then at Caroline.
Then at me.
“Your wife gave me another scrapbook.”
My stomach dropped.
“When?”
“Three days before she died.”
Caroline's breathing changed.
I noticed.
“You said you never had another scrapbook.”
“I was trying to protect Lucy.”
“From what?”
Mom's voice lowered.
“From the truth.”
Caroline stepped toward her.
“Your daughter was paranoid.”
Mom looked directly at her.
“That's not what she said.”
Caroline shook her head.
“She was under enormous stress.”
“Why?”
Silence.
I looked between them.
“Someone tell me what is going on.”
Mom finally said, “Anna believed someone was stealing from Lucy's trust.”
Lucy looked up.
“My trust?”
I immediately crouched beside her.
“You don't need to worry about that.”
But Mom kept talking.
“She didn't know how much had been taken. She only knew money was disappearing.”
“How much?”
“She didn't know.”
“Who had access?”
Mom looked at Caroline.
Caroline shook her head.
“No.”
I stared at her.
“You knew?”
“I knew Anna suspected something.”
“But she suspected you?”
Caroline's eyes filled with tears.
“No.”
Then she looked away.
That wasn't an answer.
I went upstairs to my office and opened the filing cabinet.
For years, I had trusted our family accountant.
Every statement.
Every tax filing.
Every trust report.
I pulled the latest document.
Lucy had inherited money from Anna's father, placed into a protected trust.
The balance should have been close to four million dollars.
I checked the last statement.
Then the previous one.
Then another.
My hands went cold.
There were withdrawals.
Small at first.
Twenty thousand.
Thirty-five.
Fifty.
They had been spread across years.
Not enough to trigger an obvious alarm.
But together they formed a pattern.
Nearly six hundred thousand dollars was missing.
I heard footsteps.
Caroline stood in the doorway.
“Michael.”
“You knew.”
She looked down.
“I knew there were discrepancies.”
“How long?”
“I don't know.”
“Try again.”
She closed the door.
“I found out two years ago.”
I laughed once.
It wasn't funny.
“And you didn't tell me?”
“I was going to.”
“When?”
“When I understood what was happening.”
“What was happening?”
She looked at the files.
“It wasn't me.”
“I didn't say it was.”
Her face fell.
That silence told me she had been expecting the accusation.
“Who was it?”
She hesitated.
“I thought it was someone inside the accounting firm.”
“You thought?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did you stop looking?”
“I didn't.”
She walked closer.
“Michael, Anna believed everyone around her was lying.”
“You're avoiding the question.”
“No.”
She looked toward the hallway.
“Someone told her things.”
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
“Caroline.”
She finally whispered a name.
“Grant.”
I frowned.
“Victor Grant?”
She nodded.
Our family's former financial adviser.
He had handled some of Anna's investments.
He had also disappeared from our lives shortly after Anna's death.
“Why did you never mention him?”
“I was afraid.”
“Of Grant?”
Caroline looked at me.
“Of what he knew.”
A floorboard creaked behind us.
We turned.
Lucy was standing in the doorway.
Her eyes were swollen from crying.
“Daddy?”
I rushed toward her.
“What is it?”
She stared at the damaged scrapbook.
“Mommy wrote something here.”
She pointed to a page that had survived the fire.
I knelt.
There were four words beneath a photograph.
Written in tiny letters.
He wasn't alone.
I looked at Caroline.
She had stopped breathing.
Then my mother spoke from behind us.
“Michael.”
I turned.
May you like
She was holding something wrapped in an old scarf.
“I think you should see what Anna gave me the night before she died.”
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