Chapter 5 - The Cipher Key
The next morning, Raven Hill was a hive of controlled activity.
Caterers rushed back and forth through the service doors, florists arranged dark red roses in silver vases along the grand dining table, and extra security personnel lined the driveway. The mood was somber, heavy with the artificial grief of a powerful syndicate pretending to mourn a prince they had helped destroy.
Upstairs in the East Wing, I locked the bedroom door from the inside. Evelyn sat up in bed, her face clear and focused, the catatonic persona completely discarded the moment we were alone.
“We don't have much time,” Evelyn signed quickly, her hands moving with frantic precision. “Tonight, Silas Vance and June Callaway will attempt to finalize the transfer of Julian’s remaining overseas logistics accounts.”
I gasped silently. “Silas Vance? The head of security?”
“Silas was the one who sabotaged Julian’s car,” Evelyn signed, her eyes burning with pure, icy rage. “June was his informant inside the domestic staff. Julian discovered that Silas was working with the rival syndicate in Boston to sell off our shipping routes. When Julian threatened to reveal the ledger to Ronan, Silas eliminated him.”
“Does Ronan know?” I signed back.
“Ronan suspects everyone, but he lacks the hard proof,” Evelyn explained. “Julian hid the primary digital ledger inside an encrypted server vault beneath the old lighthouse on the estate's northern cliff. The key to decrypting that ledger is written in the cipher Julian gave you.”
I reached into my pocket and pulled out a small, worn leather notebook I had kept hidden inside my clothing for four years—Julian’s encrypted journal.
Evelyn’s hands trembled as she saw the notebook. I laid it on her bed, opening it to the final page, where a series of complex alphanumeric strings and geometric symbols were written in Julian’s elegant handwriting.
“Look at the first line,” Evelyn signed, pointing her thin finger at the symbols. “It's a double-transposition cipher based on the falcon grid. The grid key is my date of birth combined with the coordinates of the northern lighthouse.”
Working swiftly together on a pad of paper, using the sign language alphabet as our decoding matrix, Evelyn and I began translating the final message Julian had left behind.
Letter by letter, the scrambled text began to reveal its true form:
TO RONAN: THE SNAKE SITS AT YOUR RIGHT HAND. SILAS VANCE TRADED THE BOSTON ROUTES FOR TEN MILLION IN OFFSHORE WEALTH. THE PROOF IS IN VAULT 4 AT THE LIGHTHOUSE. PROTECT MAYA AND MY UNBORN CHILD.
I stared at the last two words on the paper, my breath catching in my throat.
My unborn child.
Julian had known I was pregnant before he died. He had known about Poppy.
"Maya..."
A weak, frail voice suddenly sounded in the room.
I froze, snapping my head up.
May you like
Evelyn Cain was looking directly at me, her lips moving, speaking out loud for the first time in four long years. Her voice was thin, dry like autumn leaves, but filled with absolute clarity.
"Where... is my grandchild?" Evelyn whispered, tears spilling over her wrinkled cheeks. "Where is Julian's baby?"
