Chapter 6 - A Graveyard Full of Lies
Rain fell over Mount Auburn Cemetery in thin silver threads as Paige walked between the headstones.
Her mother’s grave stood beneath an old maple tree. Paige had not visited in years. Arthur had discouraged it, claiming grief should be managed privately and efficiently, as though it were another household expense.
Gabriel remained near the path with Leo. Two federal investigators, contacted through Mercer, waited beyond the cemetery gates. Paige had agreed to meet Price only if the encounter was documented.
The man waiting beside Margaret’s grave was thinner than his photographs suggested. Nathaniel Price wore a dark raincoat and carried no umbrella. Water streamed from his hair onto his collar.
“You have her eyes,” he said.
Paige stopped several feet away. “You knew my mother.”
“I did.”
“You helped destroy her.”
Price looked toward the gravestone. “I helped build a machine that destroyed many people. Margaret was the first person who made me understand what it cost.”
“Then why did you wait seventeen years to say so?”
“Because I’m a coward.”
It was not the answer Paige expected.
Price explained that after Margaret’s death, Richard had ordered him to alter the records. He complied, then discovered that the same system was being used to steal assets from elderly property owners, immigrants, and families unable to afford legal representation. When he tried to leave, Richard threatened his children.
“So you faked your death,” Paige said.
“Yes. And I kept copies of everything.”
“The second book.”
Price nodded. “Not a ledger. A set of recordings, signed agreements, and original property deeds. Enough to expose the entire network.”
“Where is it?”
“Hidden.”
Paige’s patience snapped. “People are being threatened. Evelyn was almost killed. Someone got into Gabriel’s house. If you have evidence, give it to investigators.”
Price glanced toward the cemetery gates. “I tried. Twice. Both times the people I contacted vanished.”
“Then give it to me.”
He shook his head. “Not until I know Gabriel isn’t involved.”
Paige felt a cold shock. “What are you talking about?”
“Meridian Trust moved money through Rossy businesses. That didn’t happen by accident.”
Gabriel approached, having heard enough.
“Say what you mean,” he told Price.
Price looked him in the eye. “Someone close to you helped Richard keep the operation alive after the federal investigation began. And someone is using Paige to force you into a war.”
Gabriel’s expression hardened. “Name them.”
“I don’t know who controls the accounts now.”
“Convenient.”
Price reached into his coat. Leo moved instantly, but Price withdrew only a small sealed envelope. He handed it to Paige.
Inside was a photograph of Margaret holding a toddler Paige in a sunny garden. On the back was a handwritten address and the words: Ask why the windows face east.
Paige recognized the house. It was the summer cottage where she had spent her earliest childhood vacations. Arthur had sold it after Margaret died.
“Why are you giving me this?” she asked.
“Because Margaret hid something there. She told me that if she disappeared, you would understand the clue when you were old enough.”
Before Paige could question him further, Price stepped away.
“I’ll contact you after you find it.”
Gabriel blocked the path. “You don’t get to disappear again.”
Price’s eyes filled with sudden anger. “And you don’t get to pretend your hands are clean because you love her.”
The words struck Gabriel more effectively than a weapon.
Price walked toward the gates, accompanied by the investigators. Paige watched him go, unsure whether she had just met a witness, a manipulator, or both.
The cottage stood on a rocky stretch of the Massachusetts coast. It had changed owners twice but remained largely untouched. Its current owner, an elderly retired teacher named Mrs. Callahan, agreed to let Paige inspect the property after hearing about Margaret.
Paige remembered the kitchen window. Her mother used to stand there in the mornings, watching sunlight spill across the floor. The windows faced east because Margaret loved sunrise, but the clue suggested something more.
She examined the frames, the walls, and the old wooden shutters. Nothing.
Gabriel found her sitting on the kitchen floor, frustrated.
“What did she say about this house?” he asked.
Paige smiled faintly. “That the best secrets were kept in plain sight.”
She looked toward the windows again. Sunlight fell across the floorboards in a narrow rectangle. One board was a different color from the others.
Together they lifted it.
Beneath lay a waterproof metal case containing a memory card, a bundle of letters, and a small gold locket.
Paige recognized the locket immediately. Margaret wore it in nearly every photograph. Arthur had told Paige it was lost in the accident.
She opened it. Inside was a picture of Paige as a baby and a folded strip of paper bearing four numbers.
Leo examined the memory card at the estate that night. It held recordings of meetings between Richard, Arthur, and Price. In one, Arthur begged Richard to stop threatening Margaret. In another, Richard said Margaret had become a liability.
Then came a recording that changed everything.
Arthur’s voice, shaking, said, “I won’t let you touch my daughter.”
Richard answered, “Then make sure your wife never reaches the courthouse.”
Paige listened without moving.
Her father had known. He might even have tried to resist. But he had allowed Margaret to die and then lied to Paige for seventeen years.
Gabriel reached for the playback controls. Paige stopped him.
“Let it finish.”
The final recording captured a car door slamming, Margaret breathing hard, and a man ordering her to surrender a briefcase. Then came a collision, the screech of tires, and silence.
Paige covered her mouth.
Gabriel stayed beside her until the recording ended.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
She shook her head. “Don’t apologize for something you didn’t do.”
He looked away. “There’s something I need to tell you.”
Paige turned toward him.
“Years ago,” Gabriel said, “one of my companies financed the purchase of that clinic. I didn’t know what Richard was using it for. But my signature is on the original financing documents.”
The room went silent.
Paige slowly withdrew her hand from his.
May you like
“Then you were part of it,” she whispered.
Gabriel did not deny it.
