For several seconds, Laurel couldn’t speak.

“Your sister?”

Elias nodded.

“Adriana North.”

“But you said she’s missing.”

“She disappeared six years ago.”

Laurel looked again at the security image.

The woman had Laurel’s hairstyle.

Her black evening dress.

Even her distinctive silver earrings.

But something was wrong.

The shoulders were narrower.

The posture was different.

And when Laurel enlarged the image, she noticed a tiny detail.

The woman was wearing a ring on her right hand.

A ring shaped like a small silver compass.

Elias stared at it.

His expression changed.

“That’s hers.”

Laurel looked at him.

“You’re sure?”

“I gave it to her on her twenty-first birthday.”

“Then why would she impersonate me?”

Elias said nothing.

Laurel’s heart pounded.

“Why would your missing sister steal a donor database?”

Elias looked toward the ballroom.

“Because someone has been using charitable organizations to move money through shell companies.”

Laurel frowned.

“What?”

“Northline discovered irregularities involving several nonprofit vendors eighteen months ago.”

“And?”

“Every trail led back to WadeLogic.”

Preston.

Again.

Laurel felt sick.

“You’re telling me Preston used my scheduling system to steal from charities?”

“We don’t know the full extent yet. But his software was used to process fraudulent vendor payments.”

Laurel gripped the edge of a table.

“And my mother?”

Elias’s face softened.

“She found the first suspicious transaction.”

Laurel remembered her mother’s strange questions.

The canceled dinners.

The sudden anxiety whenever Preston’s name appeared.

Then she remembered something else.

Three weeks before her mother’s final hospitalization, Evelyn had called Laurel late at night.

She had sounded frightened.

“Laurel, sweetheart, if Preston asks you to sign anything else, promise me you won’t.”

Laurel had been angry.

She had accused her mother of interfering.

They hadn’t spoken for four days.

The memory nearly broke her.

“Did someone hurt her?” Laurel whispered.

Elias took a careful breath.

“Her medical records attribute her death to natural causes. I have no evidence that anyone harmed her.”

“Then why was Russell Vane threatening me?”

“Because your mother left behind records that could expose him.”

Laurel looked up.

“What records?”

Elias hesitated.

“That’s what we’ve been trying to locate.”

Before Laurel could answer, Camille approached.

Her silver gown was torn near the hem.

Mascara streaked one cheek.

“I need to tell you something.”

Laurel turned.

Camille looked at Elias.

“Preston didn’t bring me here because he wanted to show Laurel his new girlfriend.”

Laurel stared at her.

“What?”

“He brought me because he wanted someone to distract her.”

Camille swallowed.

“He said Laurel would be too upset to notice anything happening around her.”

Elias went still.

“What was supposed to happen?”

Camille looked toward the service corridor.

“A woman was supposed to take Laurel’s place.”

Silence.

Laurel felt a chill.

“Did you know about the stolen database?”

“No. I swear.”

“Then what did you know?”

Camille hesitated.

“Preston said a woman would be collecting something from the records room.”

Elias asked, “Did he give you her name?”

Camille nodded.

“Adriana.”

Elias closed his eyes.

Laurel looked at him.

“Your sister is working with Preston?”

“I don’t know.”

But he looked as though he feared the answer.

Suddenly, June’s phone rang.

She answered.

Her expression changed.

“Security found the woman.”

Laurel stood straighter.

“Where?”

“In the underground parking garage.”

They hurried downstairs.

Two security officers stood beside a black sedan.

The rear door was open.

Inside lay a blond wig.

A black dress.

And Laurel’s missing event tablet.

But no Adriana.

One officer approached Elias.

“Sir, the woman escaped through the loading dock.”

Elias looked inside the car.

Then stopped.

A small silver compass ring lay on the seat.

Beside it was an envelope.

His name was written across the front.

Elias opened it.

Inside was a photograph.

A young woman stood outside a hospital with Evelyn Hensley.

Both were smiling.

Laurel stared.

“My mother knew Adriana?”

Elias turned the photograph over.

There was a handwritten message.

She saved my life once. Now I have to save her daughter.

Laurel’s breath caught.

“Save me from what?”

A voice answered from behind them.

“From the man who brought you here.”

Everyone turned.

Adriana North stepped out from behind a concrete pillar.

Her blond wig was gone.

Dark hair fell around her shoulders.

She was thinner than the photographs Elias had shown Laurel.

Older.

Exhausted.

But unmistakably his sister.

Elias took a step toward her.

“Adriana.”

She shook her head.

“Don’t come closer.”

His expression crumpled.

“Six years.”

“I know.”

“We thought you were gone.”

“I had to disappear.”

“Why?”

Adriana looked at Laurel.

“Because I discovered what Russell Vane was doing.”

Laurel felt her pulse quicken.

“What was he doing?”

“Using stolen software and nonprofit payment systems to move money into private accounts.”

“Preston’s software?”

“Your software.”

Adriana’s voice broke.

“Your mother figured it out before anyone else.”

Laurel covered her mouth.

“Why didn’t she tell me?”

“Because Russell threatened to ruin your life if she did.”

Elias stared at his sister.

“Why didn’t you come to me?”

Adriana looked devastated.

“Because Russell convinced me someone inside Northline was protecting him.”

“Who?”

Adriana swallowed.

“Your chief financial officer.”

Elias went still.

“Martin Bell?”

She nodded.

“And Preston Wade has been working with him.”

Laurel looked toward the elevator.

“Where is Preston now?”

Nobody answered.

Then Elias’s phone vibrated.

A message appeared.

Unknown number.

ONE MILLION DOLLARS. MIDNIGHT. NO POLICE.

Attached was a photograph.

June Parlow.

Laurel’s assistant.

Bound to a chair inside a dark room.

Laurel gasped.

A second message arrived.

BRING THE ORIGINAL CONTRACT AND THE HOSPITAL RECORDS.

Elias stared at the screen.

Then a third message appeared.

AND BRING LAUREL.

SHE’S THE ONLY ONE WHO KNOWS WHERE THE FINAL FILE IS.

Laurel shook her head.

“I don’t know what they’re talking about.”

Adriana looked at her.

“Yes, you do.”

Laurel stared.

“What?”

“Your mother hid the evidence in something you would never throw away.”

Laurel’s mind raced.

Her mother’s photographs.

Her recipe books.

Her old letters.

Then she remembered the last birthday gift Evelyn had given her.

A small wooden music box.

Laurel had never opened its locked compartment.

Because the key had disappeared.

She looked at Adriana.

“The music box.”

Adriana’s eyes filled with tears.

“She told me you’d remember.”

Laurel reached into her handbag.

Inside was a tiny brass key she had carried for months.

A key she had found sewn into the lining of her mother’s old coat.

She had never known what it opened.

Until now.

But when she turned toward Elias, she saw something that made her stop.

He was looking at the key.

And his expression wasn’t surprise.

It was recognition.

Laurel whispered:

“You’ve seen this before.”

Elias said nothing.

Then she understood.

He had known about the music box all along.

And suddenly, she wasn’t certain which side he was on.

Read Part 5: Click here