Scarlett’s POV
When the journal first split open under my hands, I thought it was just a record. Meetings, dates, names. I almost fooled myself into believing I had already found the treasure. But Charles… Charles never left things simple.
The truth was buried deeper.
I sat cross-legged on the rug, pages spread around me like a madwoman’s altar. My head was pounding, but my fingers wouldn’t stop. They traced numbers, lines, loops of handwriting I had once dismissed as nonsense. And then, it clicked.
The so-called “names” weren’t names at all. They were ciphers, letters rearranged into anagrams. Anthony had been disguised as “Nothany,” David as “Vaddi.” His reach had been masked under silly, forgettable words that only meant something if you knew how Charles thought.
Then there were th
