Chapter 5 - The AccountLucy refused to tell me where the account was.
She kept saying she was protecting me.
I told her I no longer needed protection.
I needed the truth.
Eventually she gave me a name.
A bank.
And a safe-deposit box number.
My father's name was attached to it.
The next morning, Daniel and I went there.
The bank manager checked my identification.
Then looked at me strangely.
“Your father specifically left instructions concerning this box.”
“What instructions?”
“If Jenny Carter appears in person, give her the entire contents.”
My throat tightened.
“You were expecting me?”
The manager nodded.
“Eventually.”
He led me downstairs.
The box contained three things.
A black notebook.
A USB drive.
And an envelope labeled:
FOR THE DAY THEY TRY TO TAKE HER HOUSE.
I laughed nervously.
“They knew this would happen.”
Daniel stared at the envelope.
“Dad knew Mom would try?”
“I don't know.”
I opened it.
There was a letter.
Jenny,
If you've reached this point, your family has probably attempted to take the house. That means the trust is no longer safe.
I kept reading.
The house is not your inheritance. It is your shield.
My heart hammered.
There is a second property.
Daniel leaned in.
And a company.
I looked up.
“What company?”
The next line answered.
Your mother has spent years using both.
I felt sick.
Dad had been building something secretly.
The notebook contained transactions.
Large transfers.
Political donations.
Business acquisitions.
Real estate.
Names I recognized from our town.
And one name appeared over and over.
Steve Turner.
My sister's husband.
I looked at Daniel.
“Steve?”
He stared at the page.
“That's impossible.”
Steve ran a consulting company.
At least, that's what everyone believed.
The notebook showed something different.
Steve had received money from a family holding company years before he married Lucy.
And the holding company was controlled by Mom.
I flipped through the pages.
Then I found the most recent entry.
PAYMENT TO STEVE TURNER: $250,000
Date: three months earlier.
The same time he began talking about moving closer to the city.
The same time Lucy started asking about my house.
I felt ice spread through my chest.
They hadn't accidentally assumed I would let them move in.
They had planned it.
The USB drive contained videos.
Old family footage.
Dad speaking directly to the camera.
“I know they'll hate me for this.”
He paused.
“But Jenny has to know the truth.”
Then he mentioned a company called Northbridge Holdings.
A company I had never heard of.
He explained that the family had accumulated property over generations.
But Mom had been quietly selling assets.
Dad discovered it.
And he believed she was hiding the money.
Then the video froze.
One sentence remained on the screen.
DO NOT TRUST LUCY.
I stared at it.
Daniel slowly said, “Maybe Dad didn't know everything.”
“Maybe.”
We left the bank.
Outside, Lucy was waiting.
She stepped from a black SUV.
I froze.
“How did you know where we were?”
She looked at me.
“I followed you.”
My anger surged.
“Why?”
She began crying.
“Because someone is following me too.”
Daniel frowned.
“Who?”
Lucy looked around.
May you like
Then whispered:
“The person who killed Dad.”
