Chapter 4 - The Man in the Hallway.
Connor switched off the apartment lights and motioned for Faith to stay back.
The knock came again, harder this time.
"Emergency maintenance. Open the door."
Faith called the building manager from her phone.
The manager answered from downstairs and said no work order existed.
Connor quietly photographed the shadow beneath the door.
"We're calling security," he announced.
The footsteps retreated toward the stairwell.
By the time the manager arrived, the hallway was empty.
Security footage showed a man wearing a maintenance jacket and a baseball cap.
His face remained hidden, but his left wrist carried a distinctive silver watch.
Connor had seen that watch before.
It belonged to Grant Mercer, Evelyn's longtime driver.
Faith sank onto the sofa.
"Your mother sent someone into my home."
"We don't know that yet."
"You recognized him."
Connor hated the fear in her voice and hated himself more for asking her to wait for proof.
They moved the ledger to a safe-deposit box and spent the night at a small hotel under Faith's middle name.
Noah slept between them, cooler after his medicine.
At dawn, Connor received an email from the board of Hale Development.
He had been suspended pending an internal investigation into unauthorized access to financial records.
Evelyn called seconds later.
"Come home and this can still be contained," she said.
"Did you send Grant to Faith's apartment?"
"Grant has worked for this family for twenty years."
"That was not my question."
"Your problem is not Grant. Your problem is the woman turning you against your own family."
Connor ended the call.
Faith stood beside the window, wearing the same necklace and a borrowed hotel robe.
"She will take your job next," she said.
"She already tried."
"Then take me and Noah out of this."
Connor looked wounded, but Faith continued.
"I will not let my son become evidence in a war between you and your mother."
"You are not evidence."
"Yesterday, I was washing dishes to prove I deserved a chair at her table."
Connor had no answer.
Faith packed their small bag.
Before leaving, she checked the room safe.
The photocopy of the ledger was gone.
Only Connor and Faith knew the access code.
Then Faith noticed a folded hotel receipt beneath the safe door.
Someone had written a message across the back.
THE NEXT COPY WILL COST YOU MORE THAN A JOB.
Connor read it in silence.
At the bottom was a tiny green fingerprint made with the same ink Evelyn used in her fountain pen.
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THE NECKLACE AT THE SINK
