Chapter 7 - THE FIRST BOOK
Julian leaned toward her.
“What is it?”
Emily stared at Sofia’s handwriting.
“I don’t know.”
Victor exhaled impatiently.
“You just said—”
“I said I know what she meant.”
Emily looked at him.
“My father said the same thing before he died. Ask Sam about the first book.”
Julian checked the clock.
1:47 a.m.
Emily shook her head immediately.
“No.”
He almost smiled.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You looked at the clock like you were calculating how rude it would be to wake a seventy-two-year-old man.”
“Extremely rude.”
“Good.”
“So we’ll leave at six.”
“Julian.”
“Seven.”
“Eight.”
“Seven-thirty.”
Daniel said from the doorway, “I admire how quickly this became a hostage negotiation.”
At seven-thirty Christmas morning, Samuel Rowan opened his front door and found Emily, Julian, Daniel, and a box of pastries standing on his Brooklyn Heights stoop.
Sam looked at Emily.
Then Julian.
Then Daniel.
Then the pastries.
“If I’m being murdered, I appreciate the croissants.”
Emily stepped inside.
“You knew my father.”
Sam’s humor disappeared.
He closed the door.
His grandchildren were upstairs asleep.
His daughter and son-in-law were making coffee in the kitchen.
Sam led them into his study and shut the door.
Emily placed Patrick’s watch on the desk.
Sam sat heavily.
“So you found it.”
“You gave it to Sofia.”
“Yes.”
“You knew she was looking for me.”
“Yes.”
“You hired me because of her.”
Sam looked ashamed.
“Partly.”
Emily laughed.
“Partly?”
“You were the best pastry cook at the Hudson Crown.”
“That isn’t the point.”
“No.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because Sofia was dead.”
The answer quieted the room.
Sam looked toward Julian.
“And because I knew what your family had already done.”
Julian accepted the accusation.
Sam turned back to Emily.
“I was Patrick’s friend before either of us had gray hair.”
“You never said his name.”
“You hated his name.”
Emily flinched.
Sam was right.
For years, anyone who defended Patrick made Emily furious.
Defending him had felt like asking her to relive everything.
Sam continued.
“Patrick did bookkeeping for Bell & Rowan when we opened. Mostly nights. He was brilliant.”
“What was the first book?”
Sam looked toward the shelves.
“My first business ledger.”
Emily frowned.
“What does that have to do with Mercer Maritime?”
“When Patrick found the Red Seven payments, he knew the electronic records could be altered.”
Victor looked uncomfortable.
Sam noticed.
“So he copied the transfers by hand.”
“Into your restaurant ledger?” Julian asked.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Mercer people searched his office and house.”
Sam looked at Victor.
“They didn’t search mine.”
Emily felt sick.
“Where is it?”
Sam’s expression changed.
“I thought Patrick took it.”
“No. He told me to ask you.”
“That means he didn’t.”
They went to Bell & Rowan.
Christmas morning sunlight poured through the front windows.
Sam unlocked a storage room behind his office filled with decades of receipts, menus, holiday decorations, and old reservation books.
No hidden wall.
No secret safe.
Just the normal clutter of a restaurant run by a man who never threw anything away.
Sam searched one shelf.
Then another.
Finally he pulled out a thick blue accounting book.
FIRST YEAR — 1995 was written across the cover.
Emily’s heart pounded.
Sam opened it.
Restaurant invoices filled the first half.
Then, approximately two-thirds through, the handwriting changed.
Patrick’s.
Emily knew immediately.
She had seen it on birthday cards.
Lunchbox notes.
The one letter she still kept in her nightstand.
Dates.
Account numbers.
Transfers.
Red Seven.
$450,000.
$600,000.
$350,000.
Nine payments.
Total: $2.4 million.
Julian leaned forward.
“There.”
Beside each transfer Patrick had written initials.
V.M.
Victor Mercer.
Everyone looked at him.
Victor, who had insisted on coming despite Julian’s objections, stood near the door.
“I told you I moved the money.”
Sam turned the page.
At the bottom Patrick had written:
AUTHORIZED BY R.M.
Julian stared.
“R.M.?”
Nobody spoke.
Emily slowly turned toward Rosa’s absence.
Rosa Mercer.
Julian looked at Victor.
“You said my father ordered it.”
“He did.”
“Then why does Patrick say my mother authorized the transfers?”
Victor’s face hardened.
“Because she did.”
Emily felt the truth shift again.
Julian stepped closer.
“Why?”
Victor looked away.
“I’m done speaking for Rosa.”
Sam turned another page.
Half had been torn out.
Emily touched the ragged edge.
“What was here?”
Sam’s face fell.
“I don’t know.”
Victor did.
They could all see it.
Julian grabbed his uncle’s arm.
“What was on that page?”
Victor pulled free.
“Proof that cannot help any of you now.”
Emily held the ledger.
“My father went to prison to protect whatever was written there.”
Victor’s expression cracked.
“Yes.”
“Protect what?”
“Not what.”
His eyes moved to Julian.
“Who.”
Julian went still.
Victor continued.
“Patrick could have cleared himself before trial.”
Emily whispered, “How?”
“He had the original authorization.”
“Then why didn’t he use it?”
Victor looked at her.
“Because we showed him photographs of you leaving college.”
Emily stopped.
Victor’s voice lowered.
“He pleaded guilty because Dominic told him that if he embarrassed the Mercer family, you and your mother would pay for it.”
Sam swore under his breath.
Emily’s eyes burned.
Her father had not admitted guilt because he was guilty.
He had chosen shame because he thought shame would keep her alive.
Julian looked physically ill.
Victor continued.
“The missing page named the person who signed the authorization.”
“Rosa?” Emily asked.
Victor said nothing.
Julian stared.
“My mother signed it.”
Victor finally spoke.
“Yes.”
Emily closed the ledger.
There was no satisfaction.
Only exhaustion.
And then a small voice came from the restaurant doorway.
“Papa?”
Everyone turned.
Rosa stood there with Lily.
Emily’s heart dropped.
Lily had heard enough.
Her face was pale.
She looked at Julian, then Emily.
“Are the police going to take Papa?”
Julian immediately crouched.
“No.”
But Lily did not look at him.
She looked at Emily.
Children always knew where the real fear lived.
“If you tell everybody the truth…”
May you like
Her eyes filled.
“…do I lose my dad?”
