Chapter 5 - What Sarah Locked Away
The brass key opened a deposit box in the hotel’s original basement
office.
Ethan had not entered that room since Sarah died.
Dust covered the desk. An artificial wreath Sarah bought during their
first profitable Christmas still hung crookedly on the wall.
Inside a locked drawer was a red ledger.
The first page was dated seven years earlier.
Sarah’s handwriting.
Ethan sat down.
She had recorded complaints from immigrant employees, unexplained
housing charges, intimidation by contractors, and a company called North
Star Labor Services.
North Star had existed before Sarah died.
That meant the scheme was older than Victoria’s promotion.
A note in the margin read:
ETHAN DOESN’T KNOW. NOT YET. I NEED PROOF BEFORE I PUT THIS ON HIS
SHOULDERS.
He felt betrayed for half a second.
Then ashamed.
Sarah had been dying when she wrote some of these pages.
She had carried this alone.
Rosa stood in the doorway.
“You knew?”
“Some.”
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
“She was afraid you would burn the company down trying to fix it.”
“That sounds like me.”
Rosa smiled sadly. “It sounded like her too.”
The ledger named a lawyer: Franklin Webb.
Ethan knew him.
Franklin had handled Sarah’s estate.
He also handled Victoria’s.
Ethan called him.
No answer.
Grace searched corporate records.
North Star was owned through three LLCs. The final registered agent was
Franklin Webb.
Ethan felt the conspiracy tighten around his family.
At breakfast, Lily decorated pancakes with whipped cream while Mateo sat
beside her.
“You made a snowman,” Mateo said.
“It’s a rabbit.”
“It has three heads.”
“It’s art.”
For a few minutes, Ethan listened to them argue about pancake anatomy.
Then Elena Ruiz arrived.
She looked exhausted but determined.
Mateo ran into her arms.
“Mama!”
She held him so tightly he squeaked.
“I’m sorry,” she cried.
“You came back.”
“I always come back.”
Ethan turned away to give them privacy.
Elena later told him North Star controlled apartments rented to
vulnerable hotel workers. Employees were charged inflated rent through
payroll. Anyone who complained lost shifts or received immigration
threats, even when legally documented.
“Who runs it?” Ethan asked.
“I only saw Caleb.”
“Victoria?”
Elena hesitated.
“I saw her at one meeting.”
“Doing what?”
“Arguing.”
That surprised him.
“With Caleb?”
“With a man I didn’t recognize. She said, ‘You promised children would
never be involved.’”
Ethan frowned.
“So she knew something.”
“Yes.”
“But maybe not everything.”
Elena nodded.
Ethan hated complications. Villains were easier when they stayed
villains.
That afternoon, Victoria requested a private meeting.
“I know about Sarah’s ledger,” she said.
“How?”
“Because she showed it to my husband.”
Ethan’s late brother, Michael.
Ethan went still.
“Michael knew?”
“He was helping her.”
“Then why did nothing happen?”
Victoria’s eyes filled with anger.
“Because Michael died.”
Michael had supposedly died in a car accident five years earlier.
Victoria placed a photograph on the desk.
It showed Michael outside a warehouse with Franklin Webb and Caleb
Mercer.
On the back Sarah had written:
IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO MICHAEL, START WITH FRANKLIN.
Ethan looked up.
Victoria whispered, “You’ve spent years thinking I hated Sarah.”
“You did.”
“I hated that she kept digging after Michael begged her to stop.”
“Why?”
“Because three days before his crash, Michael told me North Star wasn’t
stealing wages to make money.”
“What was it doing?”
May you like
Victoria’s voice dropped.
“Funding someone’s attempt to take Bellweather away from you.”
