Chapter 4 - THE RECORDINGThe room smelled like dust and cold metal.
A single desk stood in the center.
Three monitors covered one wall.
The screen in the middle turned on as soon as we entered.
Claire's face appeared.
She was sitting exactly as she had in the photograph.
Except her wrists weren't tied.
Her expression was calm.
She was recording herself.
“If you're watching this, Mark, I'm already gone.”
My heart pounded.
Rachel covered her mouth.
Claire continued.
“You probably don't understand why I'm doing this.”
She looked directly into the camera.
“Do not trust anyone who tells you I'm dead.”
I stepped toward the screen.
“Claire…”
The recording continued.
“I found evidence that someone inside our family has been laundering money for years.”
A list of names appeared.
Evelyn.
A man named Jonathan Reed.
A company called Harrison Holdings.
And one final name.
Mark Ellison.
My own.
I stared at the screen.
Rachel turned toward me.
“No.”
Claire spoke again.
“Mark, your name is on the records because someone has been using your identity.”
A new folder appeared.
Bank statements.
Passports.
Property documents.
All carrying my signature.
But I had never signed them.
“I believe someone is preparing to frame you,” Claire said.
“For what?”
The screen changed.
Photographs of dead men.
Missing persons.
Financial transfers.
Then police reports.
My stomach twisted.
Claire's voice became quieter.
“The reason I waited until our wedding was because I needed them to believe you knew nothing.”
I stepped back.
“Why the wedding?”
“Because the legal documents would transfer ownership of the Ellison estate after our marriage.”
Rachel suddenly looked at me.
“Transfer what?”
Claire continued.
“They need you married.”
A new document appeared.
A marriage agreement.
Hidden within the legal language was a clause transferring control of a trust.
My family trust.
Worth more than forty million dollars.
The beneficiary section had been altered.
If I died after marriage, everything would pass to Evelyn.
I felt sick.
Claire's expression hardened.
“Someone is planning to kill you after the ceremony.”
Rachel began crying.
Claire looked into the camera one last time.
“And there's something else.”
She paused.
“I discovered why my father disappeared.”
I leaned closer.
“He didn't die.”
The screen went black.
Then one final sentence appeared.
HE IS IN THIS HOUSE.
Rachel screamed.
I spun around.
The room behind us was empty.
Then we heard footsteps.
Above us.
Someone was walking across the floorboards in my house.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
I grabbed the flashlight.
Rachel whispered:
“Did Claire say your father?”
I nodded.
The footsteps stopped.
May you like
A second later, the basement door slammed shut.
We were locked inside.
Related Stories
