Chapter 2 - The Debt That Was Never Paige’s
Paige spent the entire drive home thinking about the photograph.
Her mother had never mentioned the Drestlers.
Not once.
Ruth Hollister had spent the past six years in and out of hospitals after a complicated heart procedure left her dependent on medication and periodic monitoring. She rarely spoke about her younger years. When Paige asked, Ruth simply said, “I was busy surviving.”
Paige had assumed that was the entire story.
She was beginning to suspect it was not.
When she entered the apartment, Meadow was asleep.
Ruth was awake.
That alone was strange.
Her mother normally slept early because medication made her tired.
Ruth looked at Paige.
“You went back.”
It was not a question.
Paige froze.
“How did you know?”
Ruth’s face lost its color.
“Because you look exactly like your father did when he came home after making a dangerous mistake.”
Paige slowly closed the door.
“Mom.”
Ruth stared at her.
“What did you see?”
Paige took out the photograph.
Ruth’s hands began to shake.
She sat down.
For a long moment she said nothing.
Then she whispered, “Oh God.”
Paige knelt beside her.
“You know him.”
Ruth nodded.
“Cain Drestler.”
“And his father.”
Ruth closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
Ruth looked toward Meadow’s bedroom.
“Not tonight.”
“Mom, I work twelve hours a day because of your hospital bills. I miss time with my daughter because I’m trying to keep this family alive. And now I find out that your picture is sitting in the home of a man who has armed men guarding his doors.”
Ruth’s eyes filled with tears.
“I wanted to protect you.”
“From what?”
Ruth whispered, “The truth.”
The following morning, Cain received a report.
Paige Hollister.
Thirty-one.
Single mother.
No criminal record.
Outstanding medical debt.
Community college transfer student.
Two part-time jobs in addition to flower deliveries.
Mother Ruth Hollister.
Former bookkeeper at Drestler Maritime Services.
Cain read that line twice.
Former bookkeeper.
He remembered the name.
His father had employed dozens of accountants.
Only one had disappeared after Luca’s murder.
Ruth Hollister.
Cain stood.
“Where is my father’s old accounting archive?”
Bianca answered from the doorway.
“Locked in the warehouse basement.”
“Bring it.”
“Cain…”
“Bring it.”
Hours later, dusty files covered the conference table.
Cain found Ruth’s name.
Then Luca’s.
Then several coded entries.
Shipment numbers.
Hospital transfers.
Charitable foundations.
Payments.
At first it looked like money laundering.
Then Cain recognized something worse.
People.
Names of women and children transferred through shipping facilities under medical-relief labels.
Luca had discovered human trafficking inside the family business.
That was why he died.
Cain leaned back.
For eight years, he had believed Luca had been murdered because of a power struggle.
The truth was uglier.
His own father had ordered it.
And Ruth Hollister had been one of the people who helped Luca collect evidence.
Cain looked at Bianca.
“Why did Ruth survive?”
Bianca was silent.
“Answer me.”
“She disappeared.”
“Who helped her?”
Bianca’s face tightened.
“We thought no one.”
Cain understood.
Someone had helped her.
Someone who was still alive.
Someone who had now returned the evidence to him.
Meanwhile, Paige sat in her mother’s apartment with an old cardboard box.
Inside were photographs.
Letters.
A cheap cassette recorder.
And a key.
Ruth finally spoke.
“Your father did not leave us because he stopped loving us.”
Paige stared.
“He was trying to protect you.”
“From the Drestlers?”
“No.”
Ruth swallowed.
“From their enemies.”
She explained what she had known years earlier.
Luca Drestler had discovered that several shipping routes were being used to move vulnerable people across state lines. He had intended to expose the network.
Ruth had copied the financial records.
Paige’s father, Henry, had helped move the evidence.
Cain’s father discovered them.
Luca was killed.
Henry vanished.
And Ruth went underground.
Paige stared at the key.
“What does this open?”
Ruth looked terrified.
“A safe deposit box.”
“Where?”
“Saint Agnes Credit Union.”
Paige frowned.
“That place closed years ago.”
“Not the vault.”
Before Paige could ask more, the apartment lights went out.
Meadow woke.
“Mommy?”
Paige stood.
A window shattered.
Ruth screamed.
Paige grabbed Meadow and dropped behind the sofa.
A bullet struck the wall.
Someone was outside.
Another shot.
Then silence.
Paige held her daughter tightly.
She did not breathe until she heard tires race away.
Within six minutes, Cain was inside the apartment.
Paige stared at him.
“How did you know?”
“Your phone.”
She realized he had given her a small emergency device the previous night.
She had thought it was unnecessary.
Apparently it was not.
Cain looked around.
Broken glass.
Bullet hole.
Ruth pale on the floor.
His expression hardened.
“Who knew about the box?”
Ruth looked at him.
“They did.”
Cain crouched.
“Who?”
“Victor.”
The room went still.
Cain’s uncle.
Victor Drestler.
A man Cain had trusted since childhood.
A man who had helped him build the organization after his father died.
A man who had stood beside Luca’s coffin.
Cain rose slowly.
“Victor thought the evidence was destroyed.”
Ruth nodded.
“He was wrong.”
Paige looked at Cain.
“Why are they after me?”
“Because they think you know what your mother knows.”
“I don’t.”
“I believe you.”
The words surprised Paige.
Cain turned to Meadow.
The little girl watched him from behind her mother’s arm.
She clutched the cloth rabbit.
Cain’s expression softened for half a second.
Then he looked back at Paige.
“You are coming with me.”
Paige shook her head.
“No.”
“Someone just shot at your apartment.”
“I cannot live in your world.”
“You already entered it.”
“I have a daughter.”
“I know.”
“That is exactly why I am staying.”
Cain stepped closer.
“Your daughter is the reason you should leave.”
Paige met his eyes.
“Then help me.”
Cain stopped.
It was the first time anyone had spoken to him that way in years.
Not begging.
Not fearing.
Asking.
He nodded once.
“All right.”
That night, Paige and Meadow were moved to a secure townhouse under Cain’s protection.
Paige hated every second of it.
She hated the guarded windows.
The expensive kitchen.
The silent staff.
The way Cain seemed to appear before every problem.
But she hated one other thing more.
The way Meadow immediately liked him.
On the third night, Cain sat on the living-room floor while Meadow showed him the cloth rabbit.
“This is Mr. Bun.”
Cain stared at it.
“Looks dangerous.”
Meadow laughed.
Paige almost smiled.
It was the first peaceful moment any of them had shared.
Then Cain’s phone rang.
Bianca’s voice came through.
“We found Henry Hollister.”
Paige went rigid.
“What?”
Cain looked at her.
May you like
Then he said the one sentence that would change everything.
“He isn’t dead.”
