Chapter 6 - Kendrick didn't speak for almost a minute.The room felt suffocating.
Willa watched him absorb the accusation.
“Do you think you killed Elena?”
Kendrick looked at her.
“No.”
“But someone wants you to.”
“Yes.”
Barrett tried to sit up.
“Kendrick.”
“Quiet.”
Kendrick walked toward the wall of photographs.
He noticed the dates.
Every photograph had been taken without his knowledge.
Penny at the park.
Elena leaving a hospital.
Kendrick meeting Barrett.
Willa entering the mansion.
Someone had been watching them for years.
He picked up one photograph.
A date was written on the back.
One day before Elena died.
Willa took it.
The photograph showed Elena talking to an unknown man.
Willa recognized him instantly.
“That’s my father.”
Kendrick turned.
“Your father died in the fire.”
Willa shook her head.
“He didn't.”
Barrett stared at the photograph.
“I thought he was dead.”
“He was alive,” Willa whispered.
She suddenly remembered.
A fragmented memory.
A room.
Her father's hands.
His voice.
“Never trust the eagle.”
Willa gasped.
Kendrick looked at her.
“What?”
“The symbol.”
The eagle on the pendant.
“The eagle wasn't protecting us.”
She pointed at it.
“It belonged to my father's enemies.”
Barrett's expression changed.
“No.”
Willa looked at him.
“My father wasn't Ashford security.”
Barrett went silent.
“He was working for the people who attacked the mansion.”
Kendrick's eyes narrowed.
“Then why would Elena trust him?”
Willa whispered.
“Because she didn't know.”
A hidden drawer opened when Willa pressed a loose section of the wall.
Inside was a handwritten notebook.
Elena's diary.
Kendrick took it.
He turned the pages.
The first entries were harmless.
Then the writing became frantic.
They're inside the family.
Someone is feeding them information.
I can't tell Kendrick.
If he knows, they'll kill him.
Then one final entry.
If I die, find the girl.
She will know the truth.
Kendrick looked at Willa.
“The girl?”
Willa nodded.
“My sister.”
But there was another line.
Kendrick read it aloud.
“Don't tell her who she really is until Penny remembers.”
He looked at his daughter.
Penny stood perfectly still.
“Penny.”
She walked toward him.
“Do you remember?”
“Yes.”
“Remember what?”
“The night Mommy disappeared.”
Kendrick crouched.
“What happened?”
Penny whispered:
“She fought with Daddy.”
Kendrick's face tightened.
“With me?”
“No.”
Penny pointed at the mirror.
“With the man who looked like you.”
Everyone froze.
Willa turned toward the mirror.
A reflection of Kendrick.
But behind him...
A man's shadow.
Willa spun.
Nothing.
Then the mirror cracked.
A tiny black device fell out.
A camera.
Kendrick stared.
Someone had been watching this room.
The entire time.
He crushed it.
Then his phone rang.
An encrypted message appeared.
ONE HOUR.
THE GIRL.
THE LEDGER.
COME ALONE.
A location followed.
An abandoned church in Brooklyn.
Willa read it.
“You can't go alone.”
Kendrick looked at her.
“I wasn't planning to.”
“You'll take your men?”
“No.”
He picked up his gun.
“You're coming.”
Willa stared.
“Why?”
“Because they asked for the girl.”
“Me?”
Kendrick shook his head.
“No.”
He looked at Penny.
“They asked for the girl who knows where the ledger is.”
Willa's face hardened.
“And that isn't me.”
Penny suddenly spoke.
“Yes.”
Everyone turned.
The child pointed at Willa.
“You're the one Mommy was talking about.”
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Then she added:
“You just forgot.”
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