Chapter 7 - THE HOUSE ON THE HUDSON
Daniel escaped Emerald Tower through a freight tunnel connected to an adjacent building.
By the time police arrived, he was gone.
So was the notebook.
That should have meant we lost.
Emma disagreed.
“He only has one part.”
“What does that mean?”
“The notebook contains account numbers and transaction dates. It doesn’t contain the passwords.”
“Where are those?”
She looked at Liam and Lucas.
My heart sank.
“No.”
“Not on them.”
“Emma.”
“In something I gave them.”
She called the twins over.
“Do you remember the birthday box Grandma gave you?”
Liam nodded.
“The treasure box.”
“Where is it?”
“At home.”
Emma’s apartment was under police surveillance.
Returning there would be dangerous.
My father offered another option.
A family house forty miles north of Manhattan.
The Hudson property.
I hated the place.
I had spent most of my childhood there.
My father called it peaceful.
I remembered it as the house where business calls interrupted birthdays and employees were dismissed for spilling wine.
But it had one advantage.
Daniel believed the property had been sold years ago.
It had quietly remained inside a trust under my mother’s maiden name.
We arrived after dark.
The boys immediately loved it.
To them, the enormous old house was an adventure.
To me, it was a museum of everything I had spent adulthood trying to escape.
Emma found an old photograph of me at age six.
Liam pointed.
“That’s me.”
“No,” Lucas argued. “That’s Daddy.”
They stared at the picture.
Then at me.
Then back at the picture.
“You had funny hair,” Liam announced.
Emma laughed.
It was the first time I had heard that laugh in five years.
Something in my chest hurt.
Later, after the boys went to sleep, Emma and I sat in the kitchen.
“I used to imagine this,” I said.
“What?”
“Having children.”
She stared at me.
“You told me you didn’t want them.”
“I told you I didn’t have time for them.”
“That’s worse.”
“I know.”
She smiled faintly.
“At least you’re learning.”
I looked at her.
“Was there ever anyone else?”
Her expression changed.
“That isn’t your business.”
“You’re right.”
She watched me for a moment.
“No.”
The answer came quietly.
“No one serious.”
I looked down.
“I didn’t ask because I think you owed me anything.”
“Then why?”
“Because I need to know how much of the last five years I destroyed myself.”
Emma’s eyes softened.
“You didn’t destroy all of it.”
“I chose work over you.”
“Yes.”
“I wasn’t there when the boys were born.”
“You didn’t know.”
“I made it easy for people to keep me from knowing.”
She did not argue.
I reached across the table.
This time, she let me take her hand.
“I’m sorry.”
“I know.”
“I don’t expect that to fix anything.”
“Good.”
“But if we survive this, I want a chance to become someone they can trust.”
Emma squeezed my fingers.
“Start with tomorrow.”
A floorboard creaked in the hallway.
We both turned.
My father stood near the stairs.
He looked at our hands, then away.
“I owe Emma an apology.”
Emma immediately released me.
Thomas entered the kitchen.
“You owe me more than one.”
“Yes.”
He sat.
“I thought I was protecting Jason from becoming me.”
I stared at him.
“That makes no sense.”
“You loved her.”
He looked at Emma.
“That frightened me.”
“Why?”
“Because I loved Jason’s mother.”
I had rarely heard him speak about her.
“When she left,” he continued, “I decided love made men careless.”
“No,” I said. “You made her leave because you treated her like an inconvenience.”
His mouth tightened.
“I know that now.”
“You knew it then.”
He nodded.
Maybe that was the closest he could come to honesty.
“I saw you becoming successful. I convinced myself the best thing I could do was remove anything that might make you choose differently.”
Emma’s face remained cold.
“So you erased your grandsons.”
“Yes.”
The word barely came out.
“I cannot repair that.”
“No,” I said. “You can’t.”
Thomas nodded.
“I’ll testify.”
“About what?”
“Everything. Emma. Daniel. The communications I intercepted. The accounts I failed to investigate quickly enough.”
“That could destroy your reputation.”
“My reputation appears to have cost this family enough.”
Before I could respond, Liam appeared at the doorway.
“Grandpa?”
Thomas froze.
It was the first time one of the boys had called him that.
Liam rubbed his eyes.
“Lucas can’t find the treasure box.”
Emma stood immediately.
“What?”
“He put it under the bed. Now it’s gone.”
Every adult in the room went still.
I ran upstairs.
The bedroom window stood open.
Cold air moved the curtains.
The small wooden box was gone.
Marcus checked the grounds.
No intruder appeared on cameras.
That meant someone inside the house had taken it.
There were six security staff.
Two household employees.
My father.
Claire.
Emma.
Me.
And the boys.
Marcus gathered everyone downstairs.
Then Liam whispered something.
“I saw the shoe man.”
“What?”
“The man with shiny shoes.”
I crouched.
“When?”
“Before bedtime.”
“Where?”
“Outside.”
“Did you see his face?”
Liam nodded.
“His picture is downstairs.”
We followed him into the library.
He walked straight toward a framed photograph taken fifteen years earlier at Miller Meridian’s first office.
My father stood beside me.
Daniel stood on the left.
Marcus stood on the right.
Liam raised his finger.
He wasn’t pointing at Daniel.
He was pointing at Marcus.
The man I had trusted to protect my family.
May you like
Marcus slowly reached inside his jacket.
And locked the library door.
