It is also a reckoning for my son.”

Chapter 17 — The Reckoning Beneath the House

“The land beneath the Lake House,” Hollis read, “holds more than its deed suggests.

Buried in the cellar, sealed against time, are the original paper ledgers of Hale Enterprises — the true books, the ones that were never shown to any auditor or any court.

They record everything.

Every bribe I paid.

Every official I bought.

Every shadow transaction by which I turned a small cruelty into a large fortune.