Chapter 3 - The Broken Compass
By noon, the coastal drizzle had turned into heavy sleet that battered the cracked windows of the harbor diner.
Nora sat in a vinyl booth in the far back corner, nursing a lukewarm mug of decaf tea. Across from her sat Molly, whose face was pale and streaked with dried tears.
"They trashed the upstairs," Molly said, her voice shaking. "They tore the baseboards off the walls looking for that book."
Nora didn't reply.
She had the deck plans spread across the cracked laminate table beneath a stack of grease-stained napkins. Her father’s pencil lines revealed a five-inch false hollow hidden between the double-planked mahogany transom and the fuel tank bay.
"The boat isn't in Montreal," Nora whispered, staring at a serial number scribbled in the margin.
Molly blinked.
"What do you mean? You said it was sold eight years ago."
"My father faked the bill of sale," Nora realized, tracing the signature. "Look at the notary stamp. It was signed by an attorney named Arthur Vance."
"Cassian’s family attorney," Molly gasped.
"The Sovereign Star never left Maine," Nora said, the realization settling into her bones. "It’s been sitting inside the old Coast Guard boathouse at High Head Cove."
Before Molly could respond, the diner door chimed.
A tall figure stepped through the threshold, shaking water from an umbrella. He was dressed in a drenched wool overcoat, his dark hair plastered to his forehead.
Cassian.
He spotted her instantly.
He didn't hesitate, walking straight toward the booth with long, aggressive strides. The diner customers watched him with uneasy glances; his jaw was bruised, and fresh blood stained the collar of his white dress shirt.
"Get out of here, Cassian," Nora said, her voice like ice.
Cassian slid into the bench opposite her, pushing Molly gently to the edge of the seat.
"I told you not to run," he said, breathing hard. "Sabine’s men almost intercepted your bookkeeper at the bus terminal. My drivers had to run two of their sedans off the roadway."
"You kissed her," Nora spat out, refusing to flinch. "You had your hands on the woman who sent thugs to burn my father’s business."
Cassian’s eyes darkened with raw torment.
He reached across the table, but Nora pulled her hands back as if he were carrying fire.
"She had a sniper stationed on the roof of the civic center pointing a rifle directly at your workshop window," Cassian said, his voice dropping to a gravelly rasp. "She told me if I didn't announce our engagement last night, she would give the order to fire while your morning shift started."
Nora’s breath caught in her chest.
She remembered the strange red glare she had seen on the glass of her office window at dawn. She had thought it was just the reflection of the harbor beacon.
"So you played her game?" Nora challenged. "You gave her my bracelet?"
"She stole that bracelet from the jeweler's vault two weeks ago to prove she could touch anything I cared about," Cassian said, his voice cracking with emotion. "I had to keep her close enough to buy twenty-four hours to pull her family's shipping manifests from federal customs."
He looked down at the table, noticing the blueprints.
His eyes locked onto the serial number and his father's initials.
"You found it," he breathed.
"My father helped yours hide whatever is inside that hull," Nora said, holding his gaze. "Tell me the truth, Cassian. No more locked doors. No more 'trust me.' Tell me what is in that red ledger."
Cassian closed his eyes for a long moment.
When he opened them, the cold calculation was gone, replaced by the vulnerability she hadn't seen since the first night they met on the harbor docks.
"The ledger contains the names of every judge, port authority officer, and politician the Kessler family has paid off for thirty years," Cassian confessed. "Including the ones who signed the falsified autopsy report on my mother's drowning."
Nora felt a chill run down her spine.
"Your mother didn't drown in an accident?"
"Sabine's father locked her in the cabin of our yacht and scuttled it off Monhegan Island," Cassian said, his hands clenching into fists on the table. "My father spent the rest of his life gathering the evidence to tear them apart. And he hid it inside the one boat your father swore never to break apart."
Nora looked down at her lap, her hand hovering over her lower belly.
The web was bigger than she had ever imagined. It wasn't just corporate greed; it was a blood feud that had now trapped her and the unborn child growing inside her.
"Then we have to go to High Head Cove," Nora said firmly.
Cassian shook his head.
May you like
"It's too dangerous, Nora. I can't let you near that water."
"You don't have a choice," Nora said, standing up from the booth. "You don't know how to open that bulkhead without triggering the bilge fire suppression valves. Only a Whitcomb knows how to take that boat apart."
