Chapter 11 - The Call From My Dead FatherI couldn't answer.
I stared at the screen.
The phone kept ringing.
Michael whispered:
“Don't.”
But I did.
“Hello?”
Static.
Then a breath.
A man's voice.
Weak.
Older.
But unmistakable.
“Emma.”
I couldn't speak.
My knees nearly gave out.
“Dad?”
“I don't have much time.”
Tears filled my eyes.
“You're alive?”
“No.”
My heart stopped.
“I don't understand.”
“The recording is real.”
“Then who is calling?”
“A man using my voice.”
“Who?”
“Someone Margaret trusted.”
The line crackled.
“Listen carefully.”
I pressed the phone against my ear.
“The original trust contains a clause Margaret never knew about.”
“What clause?”
“If the heir is endangered, control transfers immediately.”
I looked at Lily's photograph.
“Then Lily…”
“Yes.”
“What do I do?”
“Find the blue ledger.”
“Where?”
Silence.
“Dad?”
His voice returned.
“In the chapel.”
Then the call ended.
I turned toward Daniel.
“There was a chapel at the old estate?”
He nodded.
“Behind the western garden.”
We returned before dawn.
The chapel had been locked for decades.
Inside, candles still burned.
Fresh flowers sat beside the altar.
Someone had been there recently.
Jonathan walked toward a stone wall.
He touched a carving.
A hidden panel opened.
Inside was a blue leather ledger.
I pulled it out.
The first page bore my father's signature.
The second contained a list of payments.
The third contained names.
Margaret.
Victor.
A hospital administrator.
A judge.
Two police officers.
And one name that made my blood freeze.
Michael.
I looked at my husband.
He didn't deny it.
“I was paid.”
“For what?”
“To watch Lily.”
My heart broke.
“You were spying on my daughter?”
“I was protecting her.”
“That's what everyone says.”
He stepped forward.
“I never hurt her.”
“You lied to me for eleven years.”
“Because every person who knew the truth was either threatened or killed.”
I stared at the ledger.
“Why didn't you leave?”
“Because your father asked me to stay.”
“Why?”
Michael looked at Jonathan.
“Because Jonathan didn't trust Margaret.”
Jonathan nodded.
“You were the only person I believed could protect Emma.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Everybody protected me by lying to me.”
Then we heard a noise behind the chapel.
Footsteps.
The door closed.
Locked.
Someone whispered outside.
“Give me the ledger.”
Margaret.
I looked at the windows.
Three figures surrounded the chapel.
No escape.
Margaret's voice grew louder.
“You don't understand what that book contains.”
I held it tighter.
“Then come inside and explain.”
She laughed.
“You'll open the last page first.”
I did.
And there it was.
A clause.
If Lily survived until her eighth birthday, the entire family empire would transfer to her.
Immediately.
No appeal.
No challenge.
And Margaret's signature appeared beneath it.
She had agreed to those terms twenty-five years earlier.
She had forgotten.
Or perhaps she had never known the clause existed.
I looked toward the door.
“Margaret!”
No answer.
May you like
Then fire appeared beneath the doorway.
She had set the chapel on fire.
