Chapter 9 - The Cookbook Holds the Ledger
Police escorted Eleanor home.
The cookbook was exactly where she said.
An old red binder filled with Anna’s handwritten recipes.
Inside the back cover was a thin packet.
The original Ravenwood ledger.
Sophia stared at her mother’s handwriting.
Amounts.
Dates.
Companies.
Names.
Daniel Price.
Victor Lane.
And one more name.
Charles Sterling.
Adrian’s face fell.
Sophia looked at him.
“Your father was involved.”
Martin examined the entries.
“Yes.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
For years, he had imagined Charles as the man who discovered a crime and
tried to fix it.
The ledger showed something harder.
Charles had participated in the early fraud.
Not knowingly at first.
Then knowingly for nearly six months.
He approved false invoices to keep Ravenwood solvent.
When the scheme expanded, he tried to stop it.
Anna forced him to confront what he had become.
Adrian whispered:
“He wasn’t innocent.”
Sophia looked at him.
“No.”
He nodded.
It hurt.
But he did not argue.
Anna’s notes showed Charles eventually returned money and documented the
fraud.
He prepared to confess.
Then he suffered a fatal stroke three months later.
Martin had always believed the stress killed him.
Daniel believed Charles left copies of everything.
That was why he kept watching the Sterlings.
That was why Anna remained dangerous.
And that was why Sophia’s existence mattered.
May you like
She was not merely the beneficiary of a fund.
She was the daughter of the woman who had preserved the evidence.
