The path along Lake Briar was barely wide enough for one person. Rain had turned the pine needles slick beneath our shoes, and Samuel struggled with the document cases while Daniel's damaged leg forced him into an uneven, painful pace.
Behind us, flashlights moved through the trees.
Carter kept looking back.
"How far?"
"Quarter mile," Daniel said.
"You said half."
"We've already covered some."
"You sure?"
"No."
Even frightened, my father was apparently incapable of pretending certainty.
I found that strangely comforting.
A shout came from behind us.
They had discovered the rear exit.
"Move," Samuel said.
Daniel stumbled.
I caught his arm.
His weight nearly pulled both of us down.
Carter returned immediately and took Daniel's other side.
For half a second, the two men looked at each other.
My husband.
My father.
A relationship neither had expected to exist.
"Can you walk?" Carter asked.
Daniel nodded.
"Then lean on me."
"I don't need—"
"Apparently stubbornness is genetic."
I almost laughed.
Daniel looked at me.
"He's funny."
"Occasionally."
Carter gave me a wounded look.
Under different circumstances, it might have felt like our old life.
The thought hurt.
We continued.
The road appeared beyond the trees several minutes later.
An old pickup sat near a boat launch.
Daniel pointed.
"Mine."
"You drove that here?" Samuel asked.
"Nobody watches an eighteen-year-old Ford."
"Apparently somebody did."
Daniel ignored him.
He gave Carter the keys.
"My leg won't handle this road quickly."
Carter took them.
We climbed inside.
Samuel and Daniel squeezed into the back seat while I sat beside Carter.
The engine coughed twice before starting.
"Your getaway vehicle needs work," Carter said.
Daniel leaned forward.
"It was designed for fishing."
Carter accelerated.
Branches scraped both sides as we climbed toward the main road.
A vehicle appeared behind us just as we reached the pavement.
"Left," Daniel said.
Carter turned right.
"What are you doing?"
"Not taking directions from the man whose cabin just got raided."
Daniel stared at him.
Samuel laughed.
"He's got you there."
Carter drove south for two miles, then turned onto a narrow county road.
The pursuing headlights remained behind us.
"They're still there," I said.
Carter increased speed.
The pickup shook violently.
Daniel gripped the seat.
"Try not to kill us before Richard gets the opportunity."
"Helpful."
Samuel opened one document case.
"What are you doing?"
"Making sure we didn't carry empty boxes through a forest."
Inside were plastic sleeves containing old certificates, notarized agreements, and handwritten schedules.
Daniel leaned forward.
"The original Blackwell-Sterling shares are there."
I looked back.
"Enough to prove ownership?"
"Enough to force a court to examine everything."
"Not enough to automatically give me the company."
"No."
I appreciated that he didn't romanticize it.
The road split.
Carter took another turn.
The headlights behind us disappeared.
Nobody celebrated.
Five minutes later, Samuel said, "Pull over."
"Why?"
"Because we need to know how they tracked us."
Carter stopped beside an abandoned farm stand.
We searched everything.
Phones.
Shoes.
Document cases.
Daniel's coat.
Carter removed his Sterling access badge and snapped it in half.
Samuel placed the pieces inside a metal trash barrel.
"That may not be enough."
"What else?"
I remembered my handbag.
It was still at the Sterling house.
Nothing.
Then Carter froze.
"Our rental account."
"What?"
"My car isn't here. Dad knows Samuel's vehicle from creditor meetings."
Samuel nodded.
"He could've gotten the plate."
"But how would Martin know the cabin?"
Daniel answered.
"Someone told him."
That brought us back to the same question.
Who?
My phone regained signal.
Twenty-three notifications appeared.
Missed calls from Madison.
Two from Eleanor.
Four from Richard.
One from Elias.
And a voicemail from Aunt Marjorie.
My hands went cold.
I played it.
"Audrey, call me immediately. Please. I know you're angry, and you have every right to be, but Daniel is alive and there are things you don't understand. Do not trust anyone until you speak to me."
The message had been left forty minutes earlier.
I stared at the screen.
"She knows he's alive now."
Daniel looked away.
"She already knew."
"I mean she knows I found him."
Samuel frowned.
"Who told her?"
I called.
Marjorie answered on the first ring.
"Audrey."
"Who told you where I was?"
Silence.
"Answer me."
"Are you with Daniel?"
"Yes."
A sound escaped her.
Half sob.
Half relief.
"Put him on."
"No."
"Audrey."
"No more instructions. Who told you?"
"I spoke to Elias."
Daniel's face changed.
I put the phone on speaker.
"When?"
"About an hour ago."
Elias knew we were heading to Vermont.
My stomach tightened.
"What exactly did he tell you?"
"That you found Daniel's letter and were going to Lake Briar."
Samuel cursed quietly.
Daniel stared out the window.
"Did you tell anyone else?"
"No."
"Richard?"
"God, no."
"Martin Keene?"
"Who?"
I believed her confusion.
"Nobody?"
"No."
Daniel held out his hand.
I gave him the phone.
"Marjorie."
Silence.
Then my aunt started crying.
"Daniel."
"Did Elias contact you from his office?"
"I don't know."
"Think."
"He called my cell."
"What number?"
"His."
Daniel closed his eyes.
"Did you mention Thomas Vale?"
"No."
"The cabin?"
"Only after he mentioned it."
Daniel handed the phone back.
"Tell her we'll call later."
Marjorie heard him.
"Daniel, don't you dare disappear again."
Something passed across his face.
"I won't."
I ended the call.
Samuel looked at him.
"Elias."
Daniel said nothing.
Carter shook his head.
"Maybe his phone was monitored."
"Maybe," Daniel said.
"You already suspected him."
"I suspected everyone."
"That's not evidence."
"No."
I looked at my father's metal box.
"What about the recorder?"
Daniel turned.
"What recorder?"
"The one in the box."
His expression sharpened.
"What did it look like?"
"Small. Black."
"Show me."
Samuel opened the box.
I found it beneath the notebooks.
Daniel took it carefully.
"I didn't leave this."
The hairs on my arms rose.
"Then who did?"
He examined the device.
"This is newer than anything in the cabin."
Carter leaned closer.
"Could Martin have planted it?"
"Before we arrived?"
Samuel shook his head.
"Someone entered yesterday."
Daniel pressed a button.
A small screen lit.
There were three audio files.
The earliest was dated yesterday afternoon.
We listened.
At first, only footsteps.
A drawer opening.
Paper shifting.
Then a man's voice.
"Red notebook isn't here."
Another man answered.
"It has to be."
I recognized the first voice.
Martin Keene.
The second was unfamiliar.
Martin spoke again.
"Richard said Blackwell kept everything."
The other man laughed.
"Richard doesn't know half of what Blackwell kept."
A pause.
Then Martin asked, "What about the daughter?"
My stomach tightened.
The second man answered.
"Leave Audrey alone unless she gets the trust."
Carter looked at me.
Martin said, "And if she does?"
"Then everything changes."
The recording ended.
Nobody spoke.
I played the second file.
More movement.
Then the unknown man again.
"Take the notebook. Leave the recorder."
Martin asked, "Why?"
"Because Daniel will find it."
"And?"
"He needs to understand Elias can't protect him anymore."
Daniel went pale.
Samuel whispered, "Jesus."
The recording ended.
Carter looked at my father.
"That sounds like somebody wants you to suspect Elias."
"Or wants me to know the truth."
"Which is?"
Daniel rubbed his face.
"I don't know."
The third recording was shorter.
Martin's voice.
"Richard wants the original shares destroyed."
The unknown man answered.
"Richard wants many things."
"He says the daughter can't be allowed to control the debt."
"She already does."
"She doesn't know how."
"She'll learn."
Then one final sentence.
"If Richard won't settle, Blackwell takes Sterling."
The recording ended.
I stared at the device.
"That person works with Blackwell Capital."
Samuel nodded slowly.
"Sounds like it."
"Who would know I control the trust?"
"Elias. Trustees. Certain counsel."
"Who are the other trustees?"
Daniel looked at Samuel.
Samuel answered.
"Me."
I stared at him.
"And?"
He hesitated.
"Eleanor."
Carter turned so quickly he struck the door.
"My mother?"
"Yes."
I felt the betrayal before understanding it.
"Eleanor is a trustee of my father's trust?"
Daniel nodded.
"Since 2009."
"And nobody thought that was worth mentioning today?"
"She was supposed to be inactive unless Elias and Samuel were unable to serve."
"Does Richard know?"
"No."
"Are you sure?"
Daniel's face tightened.
"No."
Carter stared out into the dark.
"My mother knew about Blackwell Capital."
Samuel said, "She knew a trust existed. I don't know how much Elias told her."
"She knew enough to become trustee."
Daniel looked at Carter.
"I asked her."
"When?"
"Years ago."
"While she was still living with my father?"
"Yes."
Carter laughed bitterly.
"This family is unbelievable."
I couldn't disagree.
My phone rang again.
Elias.
This time I answered.
"Where are you?"
His voice was urgent.
"Why?"
"Samuel's car triggered an alert near Lake Briar."
I looked at Samuel.
"What alert?"
"One of the firm's investigators monitors known Sterling vehicles."
Daniel mouthed, Don't tell him anything.
I said, "We're safe."
"Is Daniel there?"
"Why?"
"Audrey."
"Did you tell Richard we were going to Lake Briar?"
"No."
"Martin Keene arrived."
Silence.
"Martin?"
"Yes."
"Are you certain?"
"I heard him."
Elias swore.
"Listen to me. Do not go back to the cabin."
"We weren't planning to."
"Where are the original shares?"
My stomach tightened.
I looked at Daniel.
He heard the question.
"Why are you asking?"
"Because if Martin was there, that's what he wanted."
"How do you know?"
"Because Richard has been trying to locate them for years."
"You didn't answer."
"Audrey, I need you to trust me."
I looked at the recorder in my hand.
"Elias can't protect him anymore."
"No."
"What?"
"I said no."
"Audrey—"
"I'm done trusting people because they ask."
I ended the call.
Carter looked at me.
"Where do we go?"
Daniel answered.
"Not Maine."
"Why?"
"If someone found Lake Briar, Thomas Vale is compromised."
Samuel said, "My place in Albany."
"No."
"Why?"
"You're a trustee. Assume you're watched."
Carter looked at me.
"We need somewhere none of them know."
I thought.
Then I remembered the wedding.
One guest Richard had barely acknowledged.
My mother's oldest friend.
A retired judge named Rebecca Sloan.
She lived outside Saratoga and had known me since childhood.
Richard had met her once.
He had no reason to connect her to any of this.
"I know somewhere."
Daniel studied me.
"Do you trust this person?"
"I trust her more than anyone in this truck."
Nobody objected.
Two hours later, Rebecca opened her front door wearing slippers and holding a fireplace poker.
She stared at me.
Then Carter.
Then Samuel.
Then her eyes reached Daniel.
The poker fell against the floor.
"Daniel?"
My father whispered, "Hello, Rebecca."
She slapped him too.
Apparently Samuel had started a trend.
Then she pulled him into a hug.
I looked away.
Rebecca's house became our temporary war room.
She locked the gates, disabled the driveway lights, and made coffee strong enough to dissolve metal.
We spread the documents across her dining table.
She examined the original share certificates.
Then the forged transfer.
Then the handwriting analysis.
Finally, she looked at me.
"What do you want?"
Nobody had asked me that all day.
Not what Richard wanted.
Not what Daniel planned.
Me.
I looked at my father.
"Truth."
Rebecca nodded.
"After that?"
I thought of the slap.
The stolen company.
The employees Richard had used as a shield.
The trust.
The thirty-million-dollar debt.
"I want Richard unable to do this to anyone again."
Daniel looked at me.
Rebecca tapped the debt agreement.
"Then don't rush."
"Why?"
"Because the debt gives you leverage. The ownership documents give you a claim. The assault gives you evidence of his behavior. But leverage disappears when people know exactly how you'll use it."
Carter sat beside me.
"What would you do?"
Rebecca looked at him.
"I'd let Richard think Audrey is still deciding."
My phone buzzed.
A message from Richard.
We need to talk before you make a mistake that destroys both families.
Rebecca read it.
"Good."
"Good?"
"He thinks he's still negotiating."
She slid the phone back.
"Keep him thinking that."
Then Daniel found something inside the second document case.
A sealed corporate envelope.
He stared at the date.
"What?"
"I didn't put this here."
We opened it.
Inside was a copy of a Sterling board resolution from six months earlier.
Carter read it.
His face drained.
"What is it?"
He looked at me.
"My father authorized the sale of the original Blackwell properties."
"Can he?"
"Not if your ownership claim is valid."
"When does the sale close?"
Carter looked at the date.
"Monday."
Three days away.
Rebecca leaned back.
"Then Richard isn't merely trying to hide the past."
She pointed at the resolution.
"He's trying to sell the evidence before Audrey can reclaim it."
I looked at my father.
The old fight had suddenly acquired a deadline.
If we waited, Richard could move the properties that had built his fortune.
If we acted, he would know exactly how much evidence we possessed.
Rebecca folded her hands.
"You have until Monday morning to decide whether you're willing to go to court against your father-in-law."
I looked at Carter.
He understood the real question.
Going after Richard now could save what belonged to my father.
It could also destroy Carter's family and possibly our two-day-old marriage.
Carter reached for the board resolution.
Then he looked at me.
"File."
One word.
No hesitation.
"My father doesn't get another twenty-two years."
