They reached the river before dawn.

No one spoke.

Nora sat beneath a tree, soaked from crossing the water.

Her hands were shaking.

Not from the cold.

From anger.

Samuel was gone.

Jonathan had escaped.

And the iron box was empty.

She looked at her mother.

“You knew.”

Clara sat across from her.

“I knew the ledger wasn’t there.”

Nora stared.

“Then why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I needed you to believe it was.”

“Why?”

“So Jonathan would believe it too.”

Silas looked at Clara.

“You used him.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s been searching for the real ledger for twenty years.”

Nora slowly stood.

“Where is it?”

Clara looked at her.

“I don’t know.”

Nora’s face hardened.

“Don’t.”

Clara shook her head.

“I truly don’t.”

“Then who does?”

Clara was silent.

Elizabeth finally spoke.

“Thomas.”

Nora looked at her.

“My grandfather is dead.”

“Yes.”

“Then how could he have it?”

Elizabeth looked toward the mountains.

“He didn’t leave it somewhere.”

“He left it with someone.”

Nora understood.

“Who?”

Elizabeth’s eyes filled with tears.

“Your mother.”

Nora turned to Clara.

Clara nodded slowly.

“Your grandfather gave it to me the night before he died.”

“Where is it?”

“I hid it.”

“Where?”

Clara reached inside her coat.

She removed a small wooden box.

Nora recognized the carving immediately.

The same mountain.

The same line beneath it.

The same symbol as her pendant.

Clara placed it in Nora’s hands.

“Your grandfather told me never to open it.”

Nora stared.

“And you obeyed him?”

“Yes.”

“For twenty years?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because he told me that one day you would come back to the mountains.”

Nora’s eyes filled with tears.

“He knew?”

“He hoped.”

Clara touched her face.

“He always believed you would become stronger than all of us.”

Nora opened the box.

Inside was a single key.

And beneath it—

a folded piece of paper.

She unfolded it.

There were only six words.

The chapel remembers what the house forgot.

Nora’s blood ran cold.

“The old chapel.”

Silas immediately understood.

“The one beneath the mountain?”

Clara nodded.

“Yes.”

Daniel looked at her.

“You knew about it?”

“I knew where it was.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Because Jonathan was watching every road leading back there.”

Nora looked at the key.

“What does it open?”

Clara shook her head.

“I don’t know.”

Elizabeth suddenly stood.

“There is something else.”

Everyone turned.

Elizabeth walked toward Nora.

“Your grandfather didn’t hide the ledger in the chapel.”

“Then what did he hide?”

Elizabeth looked at the pendant around Nora’s neck.

“He hid the person who could read it.”

Nora frowned.

“What does that mean?”

Elizabeth’s expression changed.

“You.”

Nora stared at her.

“Me?”

“Your grandfather taught you numbers when you were little.”

“I barely remember.”

“He wasn’t teaching you mathematics.”

Nora’s breathing stopped.

“He was teaching you a code.”

Memories surfaced.

Her grandfather sitting beside the fireplace.

Old books.

Rows of numbers.

Symbols.

Letters.

He had called them games.

She had been six.

He had laughed whenever she solved them.

Nora whispered,

“The lessons.”

Elizabeth nodded.

“You already know how to read the ledger.”

Silas looked at her.

“But she doesn’t have it.”

Clara spoke quietly.

“She doesn’t need the whole ledger.”

She pointed at the fragment Jonathan had taken.

“He has enough to lead himself to the first page.”

Nora looked at the river.

“And he will.”

“Yes.”

“Then we have to reach the chapel first.”

Daniel stood.

“We can’t.”

Nora looked at him.

“Why?”

“Because Jonathan knows about it.”

Clara shook her head.

“He knows about the chapel.”

She looked at Nora.

“But he doesn’t know the entrance.”

Nora touched the pendant.

“Do you?”

Clara smiled sadly.

“No.”

“Then who does?”

A voice answered from behind them.

“I do.”

Everyone turned.

Samuel stood at the edge of the trees.

His coat was torn.

Blood covered one side of his face.

Nora ran toward him.

“Samuel!”

He caught her before she fell.

For a moment, neither spoke.

Then Nora punched him in the chest.

“You idiot.”

Samuel laughed weakly.

“I deserved that.”

“You disappeared.”

“I had to.”

“I thought you were dead.”

“So did Jonathan.”

Nora looked at him.

“How did you escape?”

Samuel’s smile disappeared.

“I didn’t.”

Nora frowned.

“What?”

“I was never captured.”

He looked toward Clara.

“She sent me away.”

Clara nodded.

“Samuel has been working inside Jonathan’s network for years.”

Nora stared.

“You were spying on him?”

“Yes.”

Samuel reached inside his coat.

He pulled out a small envelope.

“He has a map.”

Nora opened it.

The map showed the mountains.

A red line ran through the forest.

It ended beneath the old chapel.

Samuel pointed to a mark.

“This is the entrance.”

Nora looked up.

“And Jonathan?”

Samuel’s face hardened.

“He’s already on his way.”

Silas checked his rifle.

“How long?”

Samuel looked at the sky.

“Less than a day.”

Nora folded the map.

For years, the mountains had been the place where her family buried its secrets.

Now they were going back.

Not to uncover another ghost.

But to end the story.

Nora looked at her mother.

At Elizabeth.

At Daniel.

At Samuel.

Then at Silas.

“We go tonight.”

Clara shook her head.

“Nora, if Jonathan reaches the chapel first—”

“He won’t.”

“You don’t know that.”

Nora looked down at the key in her hand.

“I know something else.”

“What?”

She closed her fingers around it.

“My grandfather spent his entire life hiding the truth.”

She looked toward the mountains.

“My mother spent hers protecting it.”

“Samuel spent years risking everything to expose it.”

Nora took a breath.

“And now it’s my turn.”

Far away, beyond the ridge, a single gunshot echoed through the mountains.

Jonathan had begun his journey.

And this time—

he wasn’t running from the Whitmores.

He was hunting them.