Chapter 11 - The Ring on Conrad's Palm
My mother had worn that ring through every terrible year: the hearings, the foreclosure, the days she worked two shifts cleaning offices and then came home to sew hems for cash. She refused to pawn it, even when we ate instant noodles for a week.
Seeing it on Conrad Sterling's hand was worse than seeing a gun.
"Where is she?" I asked.
"Somewhere safe," he said. "That depends on you."
"You keep using that word like you've ever understood it."
He looked past me at the hallway. "Don't be dramatic, Mara. Your father got emotional too. That's how people get hurt."
"You stole money meant for kids."
"I took control of an organization already collapsing. Your father didn't understand the financial realities."
"Then why forge his signature?"
His face hardened. "Give me what was in Box Fourteen."
I held up the audit drive. "This is what I'm giving the authorities."
"You think they haven't seen worse?" He laughed softly. "The city thanks me at every fundraiser. Your word against mine won't fill an elevator."
I needed him talking. I slipped my thumb over the pocket of my borrowed jacket, where Jo had placed a tiny audio transmitter. It had paired to her laptop before we left the conference room.
"What about Mateo?" I asked.
The name struck him. He blinked once.
"That boy should have stayed lost," he said.
My skin turned cold. "He's alive."
"I didn't say that."
"You didn't have to."
A security guard appeared at the doorway. Conrad waved him away. "This is a conversation between people who knew Daniel."
"You didn't know my father. You knew what he could prove."
Conrad held out the ring. "Last chance. The ledger key."
I looked at the ring, then beyond him. Through the glass wall of the neighboring office, I could see Jo's phone flashing from behind the catering cart. One word appeared: GOT IT.
"You know what my father taught me?" I said. "Never hand a bully what he wants just because he knows your address."
I threw the audit drive toward the window.
Conrad grabbed for it. The drive bounced against the glass and landed at my feet. I scooped it up and sprinted through the opposite door. An alarm went off behind me.
Jo met me at the stairwell. "I heard everything," she said. "But we have a new problem."
May you like
She turned her laptop around. Someone had sent an image of Elena tied to a chair, holding today's newspaper.
Written across the bottom were four words: COME ALONE. BRING MARA.
