Chapter 15 - The Studio with Cracked Mirrors
The studio had been closed for years. The front windows were boarded, and weeds had grown through the pavement. Lena stood outside, remembering the smell of rosin, floor polish, and her mother’s hand fixing the ribbon on her shoe.
Margaret unlocked the door.
Inside, the old mirrors were still cracked. The piano had been removed. Dust covered the barre.
Lena walked to the center of the floor.
“One. Two. Three.”
She could almost hear her mother counting.
Evelyn found a loose panel beneath the barre. Behind it was a metal box. The final ledger lay inside, wrapped in a faded ballet costume.
There were also letters from Thomas Carter, addressed to the daughter he would never meet. Lena opened the first one.
He wrote about music, about his sister Evelyn, about wanting to build a life where no child had to choose between food and lessons. He had left a small trust for Lena, not because he expected her to become rich, but because he wanted her to have choices.
Lena cried silently.
Margaret held her.
“I should have told you.”
“You were trying to keep me alive.”
“I should have trusted you.”
Lena nodded. “We both should have had the chance to choose.”
Alexander examined the ledger. It included names, payments, dates, and instructions. Some entries connected the Blake family to judges and police officials. Others showed that Victoria’s father had arranged false identities for people moved through the shipping business.
At the bottom was a page marked with a red line.
The page listed a current police commander, a federal investigator, and Marcus Hale.
Alexander looked up.
“Marcus?”
The security chief had disappeared.
A message came through Alexander’s phone.
BRING THE LEDGER TO THE OLD THEATER. COME ALONE. OR YOUR MOTHER DIES.
A photograph followed.
May you like
Marcus stood beside Peter Blake.
And behind them, tied to a chair, was Victoria.
