Midnight in the Library
Chapter 06 - Midnight in the Library
Rain swept across the estate when Olivia returned. Ethan opened the side door himself. Neither of them mentioned that it was the entrance they had used years earlier when they came home late from their first date, laughing as they tried not to wake his parents.
Now they moved through the dark house like strangers.
The old library had belonged to Richard. Floor-to-ceiling shelves covered every wall, and a brass globe stood beside the fireplace. Olivia turned the globe until three engraved lines aligned. A hidden latch clicked.
Ethan stared. “My father showed you this?”
“He trusted me with the company’s history.”
The words carried no cruelty, but he felt their weight.
Behind the shelving was a narrow stairway leading to a climate-controlled archive. They found tax records, handwritten board minutes, and boxes of contracts. The ledger they needed should have been in cabinet seven.
The cabinet was empty.
A sound came from upstairs.
Ethan switched off his flashlight. Footsteps crossed the library, followed by the scrape of a drawer. Someone else was searching the room.
Olivia’s phone vibrated. A message from Noah appeared: Victor’s car just entered the property.
Ethan stepped toward the stairs, but Olivia caught his sleeve. “We need evidence, not a confrontation.”
They waited until the footsteps faded. When they emerged, the library had been disturbed, and Richard’s desk stood open. On the carpet lay a torn strip of old accounting paper.
Olivia picked it up. The page number was visible: 214.
Ethan remembered a habit of his father’s. Richard stored important documents in pairs, but he never put matching copies in the same place. The company’s first headquarters had been converted into the Whitmore Maritime Museum. Richard’s original office remained preserved there, including his locked filing cabinets.
Victor had taken one ledger. The second might still exist.
As they prepared to leave, Ethan noticed Olivia shivering. He removed his coat and offered it. She looked at him for a moment before accepting—not as a wife accepting comfort, but as one person acknowledging another’s small act of decency.
At the side door, Ethan said, “I’m sorry about the frame. I should have asked what happened.”
“You should have asked about everything.”
“I know.”
“No, you’re beginning to know.”
The distinction silenced him.
Olivia stepped into the rain, then turned back. “Victor will move quickly now. The board vote is in five days.”
Ethan nodded. “Then we reach the museum first.”
May you like
From an upstairs window, Eleanor watched Olivia’s car disappear through the gates. She lifted her phone and made a call.
“They found the archive,” she said. “End this before the vote.”
