Chapter 15 - WHAT WAS HIDDEN IN THE WALL
Belle returned to Dorchester with federal agents.
The basement apartment looked destroyed.
Bullet holes.
Broken glass.
Evidence markers.
Micah stayed with Owen in the armored vehicle.
Belle entered with Naomi and Renick.
Callum’s words repeated in her head.
Inside your apartment for seven years.
She looked at the wall where Micah had found the metal box.
Agents removed the baseboard.
Nothing.
They cut drywall.
Pipes.
Insulation.
No ledger.
Renick frowned.
“Maybe he lied.”
Belle looked around.
“Owen didn’t live here.”
“No.”
“So why would the ledger be here?”
Naomi said, “Who owned the building seven years ago?”
Belle thought.
“Mr. Avery.”
Records were pulled.
The property had belonged to Avery Holdings.
Before that?
A shell company.
Before that?
Kavanaugh Coastal Properties.
Renick went still.
“My father.”
Belle stared.
“This building was his?”
“Apparently.”
Naomi looked at the floor plans.
“The apartment had a different layout.”
A wall had been added.
Micah’s bedroom.
Agents scanned it.
Behind the closet was a steel cavity.
Renick opened it.
Inside lay a black leather book stamped with a lighthouse.
The ledger.
Belle stared.
All this time.
Behind Micah’s clothes.
Behind his drawings.
Behind the tiny bed where he slept.
A secret powerful men killed for had been inches from her child.
Naomi took custody.
Renick did not object.
Belle noticed.
“You’re letting the FBI have it?”
“I’m done burying things.”
She believed him.
Maybe.
Later, Owen brought Micah inside.
The boy stared at the damage.
“My books.”
Belle hugged him.
“We’ll replace them.”
Micah frowned.
“You said old books are better.”
Belle laughed.
Then cried.
Owen stood nearby.
Micah looked at him.
“Are you coming home?”
Silence.
Belle looked at Owen.
He did not answer quickly.
Good.
He finally said, “Only if your mom wants me there.”
Micah looked at Belle.
The question was too large.
She said, “We’re going to figure out what home means.”
Micah accepted that.
Children sometimes handled uncertainty better than adults.
Renick entered.
Brinley was with Maeve.
Isla remained under protection.
Patrick and Callum were in federal custody.
Declan had contacted Naomi through an attorney.
He wanted immunity.
Renick looked exhausted.
“Belle.”
“What?”
“I bought the building.”
She stared.
“You what?”
“This morning.”
“Why?”
“So nobody can force you out while repairs happen.”
Anger rose.
“I don’t need charity.”
“It isn’t.”
“What is it?”
“Restitution.”
“For what?”
“My family put the ledger here.”
“That wasn’t you.”
“My father’s decisions became my inheritance.”
Belle folded her arms.
“You can’t buy forgiveness.”
“I know.”
“Good.”
“The deed is in your name.”
Belle blinked.
“What?”
“The whole building.”
Owen coughed to hide a laugh.
Belle glared at both men.
“You bought me an apartment building?”
Renick looked uncomfortable.
“I was advised cash might be insulting.”
“So you chose real estate?”
“It seemed practical.”
Belle stared.
Then laughed.
She could not stop.
After everything, the absurdity broke through.
Renick almost smiled.
Micah whispered to Owen, “Is he always weird?”
Owen said, “Apparently.”
Renick heard.
“So are you.”
For the first time, the four of them existed in the same room without immediate danger.
Then Naomi entered.
That moment ended.
“We have a problem.”
Renick sighed.
“Of course.”
Naomi held a folder.
“The ledger confirms Patrick and Callum sold protected identities.”
“Good.”
“Not good.”
She placed a photograph on the table.
Declan Kavanaugh.
“He says he has evidence that Cormac’s network included someone we haven’t identified.”
Renick frowned.
“Who?”
Naomi looked at Belle.
“Someone connected to Owen.”
Belle’s stomach tightened.
“What does that mean?”
Owen went still.
Naomi opened the folder.
A photograph from twelve years earlier.
Owen stood beside a woman.
Belle recognized her.
Her mother.
Eleanor Ashford.
Belle stared.
“That’s impossible.”
Her mother had died when Belle was nineteen.
Naomi turned over the photograph.
A date.
Three years after Eleanor’s supposed death.
Belle looked at Owen.
He had gone pale.
“You knew.”
Owen shook his head.
“I didn’t know she was your mother.”
“What?”
“She used another name.”
“What name?”
Owen’s voice dropped.
“Bianca Avery.”
Belle stared.
Avery.
The former building owner.
Naomi spoke quietly.
“We think your mother may have created the shell company that hid the ledger.”
Belle could not breathe.
“My mother was a school secretary.”
Owen looked at the photograph.
“No.”
He shook his head.
“She was Cormac Kavanaugh’s intelligence broker.”
Renick stared.
Belle felt the floor disappear beneath her.
Seven years ago she had learned her husband died.
Yesterday she learned he lived.
Today she learned her dead mother may have lived too.
Micah looked at everyone.
May you like
“Does anybody in this family actually die when they say they do?”
Nobody answered.
