Chapter 4 - The Blue Ledger Is Still Here
Emma had searched the mansion for six weeks without finding the ledger.
She admitted that openly.
Daniel was angry she entered his home under false pretenses.
Emma accepted that.
“I should have told you.”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t know if you were part of it.”
That answer hurt.
It was also reasonable.
Daniel had inherited the mansion, family company, and trusts connected
to the missing money.
From Emma’s perspective, he might have been another person benefiting
from Laura’s disappearance.
Daniel did not demand trust he had not earned.
Instead, he asked where Laura believed the ledger was hidden.
“In your mother’s music room.”
Daniel’s mother Margaret had died ten years earlier.
The room remained almost untouched.
Behind the piano, Emma found a loose wooden panel.
Inside was a narrow safe.
Daniel knew the combination.
His mother had used the same four digits for everything.
The safe contained photographs, letters, and a blue leather ledger.
Victoria whispered:
“Don’t open it.”
Daniel turned.
“Why?”
Her answer was barely audible.
“Because my father’s name is in it.”
The ledger recorded transfers from Laura’s trust into Whitmore
Development projects.
Some entries were signed by Richard.
Others by Charles Vale.
Then Daniel found Victoria’s name.
A $600,000 transfer had been made to her eight years earlier.
Victoria immediately said she never knew where the money came from.
Daniel checked the description.
EDUCATION AND HOUSING SETTLEMENT — V. VALE.
Victoria had used the money to buy her first apartment and launch her
design company.
She had always told Daniel it came from her father’s life insurance.
Maybe Charles lied to her.
But the ledger contained another entry.
Three years later:
V. VALE — CONFIDENTIALITY EXTENSION.
$250,000.
This transfer occurred after Charles died.
Victoria could not blame her father for authorizing it.
May you like
Daniel looked at her.
“What were you being paid to keep quiet about?”
