Chapter 10: What They Put in Leo’s Name
The investigators opened the account records in Claire’s office.
“Leo’s account was created twelve hours after his birth,” Claire said.
I stared at the date.
“Rowan hadn’t even met him.”
Dad pointed at the authorization.
“Who signed as parent?”
“Rowan did.”
Mara leaned over the page.
“What was the account for?”
Claire scrolled down.
“To receive a future transfer from the Sterling family trust.”
“But Rowan couldn’t access that trust.”
“No.
He expected Gideon to create a new one.”
Dad sat across from me.
“Selina planned to present it as a gift for Leo.”
“And once I signed?”
“The account agreement named Rowan as controller.”
My phone rang from an unknown number.
I answered on speaker.
“Phoebe,” Selina said.
Claire began recording.
“How are you calling me?”
“That is not important.”
“It is if you expect me to listen.”
Her voice softened.
“I can give you something the investigators haven’t found.”
“What do you want?”
“Tell them Rowan acted alone.”
Mara shook her head.
I looked at Claire.
She nodded for me to continue.
“What do you have?”
“The original ledger.
Every payment, every account, every person Rowan bribed.”
“You expect me to believe you kept proof?”
“I keep protection.”
“And where is it?”
“Promise me immunity.”
“I can’t promise you anything.”
“Then Leo’s account remains only the beginning.”
I gripped the phone.
“You used my newborn grandson—your grandson—as a bank account.”
“He is not my grandson.”
The room went silent.
“What did you say?”
“Rowan told me long ago that he never wanted children.
Leo was simply the condition you placed on reconciling with Gideon.”
“That’s a lie.
I never placed any condition.”
“Then Rowan lied to both of us.”
Mara closed her eyes.
Selina continued.
“Ask your husband why he delayed coming home.
He was not with me for all three days.”
The call ended.
Rowan’s seized phone provided the answer an hour later.
Claire placed a hotel receipt on the desk.
“He met with a buyer the morning after Leo was born.”
“A buyer for what?”
“Access to Sterling investment information.”
Dad read the name and stood.
“I know this man.
He has tried to obtain confidential records for years.”
“So Rowan planned to use me to reach your company?”
“And Leo to reach the trust.”
I pressed both hands against the desk.
Mara moved beside me.
“Phoebe, breathe.”
“I married someone who studied my family before he studied me.”
Dad crouched beside my chair.
“Look at Leo’s photograph.”
Claire turned my phone toward me.
Leo was asleep in his bassinet at Dad’s house under the care of the nurse from St.
Vincent’s.
“He is safe,” Dad said.
“I should be with him.”
“You will be.
But first decide what happens to the ledger.”
I lifted my head.
“We find it.”
Mara gave a sad smile.
“I know where Mom keeps the things she calls protection.”
We went to Selina’s office with the investigators.
Mara stopped before a framed photograph from the birthday dinner.
“She never displays family pictures,” she said.
“Only trophies.”
She lifted the frame.
A small key was taped behind it.
The key opened a fireproof drawer beneath Selina’s desk.
Inside lay a black ledger and forty-seven sealed envelopes.
One envelope carried my name.
I opened it.
The first page was a draft agreement dividing the expected Sterling inheritance.
Selina would receive forty percent.
Rowan would receive forty percent.
The final twenty percent had been assigned to someone named C.
Bennett.
Mara frowned.
“There is no C.
Bennett in our family.”
Dad examined the signature beneath it.
“I know who this is.”
May you like
He turned the page toward me.
The witness signature belonged to the one person who had introduced Rowan to me.
