Chapter 4 : An Unlikely Weapon
The next morning, the mountain sky was a bruised, heavy purple, threatening snow.
Inside the cabin, the atmosphere was suffocating. Grace had spent the night reviewing the photocopies Arthur left.
"It’s a bluff," Grace said, rubbing her temples. "Partially. Thomas didn't buy Daniel. But he did pay off a medical administrator to rush the sealed records. If this gets out, it’s not human trafficking, but it is a felony. It will destroy Thomas's legacy, and the PR fallout for Daniel's company would be catastrophic."
"So we pay him," Daniel said, staring blankly at the fireplace. "I have the money. I’ll liquidate my shares. I won't let him ruin Dad's memory."
"No," I said fiercely. "You give a blackmailer a penny, they will drain your blood for the rest of your life. Arthur will come back next year for three million. Then five."
"Eleanor is right," Grace said. "We can't pay. But we need leverage. We need something to destroy Arthur’s credibility before he can release these documents. We need to know where the original journals are, or if he has something worse hiding in his closet."
I looked at the flames crackling in the hearth. I thought about the phone call. The terror in the voice of the woman who had tried to ruin me.
"There is only one person who knows Arthur Reed’s secrets," I said.
Daniel looked up. "Mom... no."
"She warned us," I said. "She called you. She didn't have to."
"She’s a convicted felon, Mom! She lied to us for a year!"
"And who taught her how to lie, Daniel?" I asked quietly. "Arthur did. She knows his playbook because he forced her to read it."
Two hours later, Grace and I were walking through the heavy steel doors of the Colorado State Penitentiary. Daniel refused to come. I didn't blame him.
The visiting room smelled of bleach and despair.
When Melissa was brought out, she looked nothing like the polished, diamond-sharp woman who had stood on my porch. She looked small. The prison uniform swallowed her. Her hair was braided tightly, and the dark circles under her eyes mirrored Daniel's.
She sat behind the plexiglass, picking up the heavy black phone. I picked up mine.
"You came," she said, her voice rough.
"You called," I replied.
She looked down at her hands. "Did he show up?"
"Yes. He wants two million dollars. He has letters Rebecca wrote. He's threatening to ruin Thomas's reputation and Daniel's company."
Melissa let out a bitter, knowing sigh. "The red journals. He kept them in a fireproof safe. He used to read them to me when he was drunk, just to remind me how much my mother hated him... and how much he owned her."
"We need leverage, Melissa," Grace said, leaning into the microphone. "We need something on him. He's on parole. If we can prove he's committing extortion, or if he possesses something illegal, he goes back to federal prison for the rest of his life."
Melissa looked up at me. Her eyes were conflicted. "If I help you... what do I get? A letter to the parole board? Reduced sentence?"
"Nothing," I said flatly.
Melissa blinked, shocked.
"You don't get a reward for cleaning up the monster you let back into our lives," I told her, my voice unwavering. "You do this because it is the right thing to do. You do this because he is the man who broke your mother, the mother you claim to mourn. You do this because for once in your life, Melissa, you can be something other than his daughter."
Tears welled in her eyes, spilling over her pale cheeks. She pressed a hand against the glass.
"He’s terrified of going back to maximum security," she whispered. "He's not as smart as he thinks. He uses a burner phone for his extortions, but he keeps his main ledger—the physical proof of his offshore accounts and blackmail targets—on him at all times. It's a small black notebook. If the police catch him with it, he's done. But you have to trap him. You have to make him bring it out."
"How?" Grace asked.
"You make him think he won," Melissa said. "You offer him a physical trade. The journals for the money. Make him arrogant. When Arthur thinks he's the smartest man in the room, he gets sloppy."
She looked directly into my eyes.
"Eleanor," she said softly. "Tell Daniel... tell him I'm sorry. I really did love him. That wasn't a lie."
"I'll tell him," I said.
May you like
As the guard escorted her away, I realized something profound. Melissa was no longer our enemy. She was just another casualty of Arthur Reed.
And now, it was time to end him.
