Chapter 12 - My Father’s Secret“No.”
The word came out before I could stop it.
Michael took the page.
His face went pale.
“What does this mean?”
Evelyn read the document.
Then she looked at me.
“Your father believed he was responsible.”
“For the murder?”
“Not directly.”
“Then why sign it?”
She looked at the next page.
A confession.
I read it.
Robert had been nineteen.
He had argued with his father about the trust.
He had discovered the hidden accounts.
Daniel had joined him.
Their father attacked Robert.
Robert pushed him.
He fell.
But he wasn't dead.
The fire was started later.
By someone else.
Robert had spent decades believing that his shove had caused the death.
But the medical evidence proved otherwise.
His father had been alive after Robert fled.
Someone else had entered the room.
Someone who had access.
Someone who wanted the old trust destroyed.
A handwritten note sat below the confession.
I never learned who lit the match.
But I know who profited.
I looked at Evelyn.
“Who profited?”
She turned the page.
There was a name.
A corporation.
ELMSTONE HOLDINGS.
I knew that name.
Everyone in town did.
It owned half the commercial buildings downtown.
“Who owns it?”
Evelyn looked at me.
“Pike.”
Samuel Pike.
The attorney.
The man who had been handling my family’s money for decades.
The same man who had walked into my mother’s house hours ago.
The same man who had filed a claim against Sage.
It couldn't be coincidence.
Then the USB drive began to glow.
Not literally.
My laptop notification lit up.
A file had been added.
REMOTE UPLOAD COMPLETE.
Someone had accessed the drive remotely.
We all froze.
The new file was labeled:
WATCH THIS BEFORE YOU TRUST NOAH.
I clicked.
A surveillance video appeared.
Noah was sitting in a parking garage.
Across from him was Samuel Pike.
Pike slid a folder across the hood of a car.
Noah opened it.
His expression changed.
Then Pike said something.
The audio was faint.
We turned up the volume.
“You promised to deliver the girl.”
Noah looked furious.
“I promised to get Sage out.”
Pike leaned forward.
“And that's why your father died.”
The video ended.
Sage stared at me.
“Mom?”
I couldn't answer.
Noah had lied.
Or at least he had withheld something.
My phone buzzed.
A text from Noah.
I read it.
DO NOT TRUST WHAT YOU JUST SAW.
Another message arrived.
HE KNOWS YOU'RE IN THE BOX ROOM.
Then:
LOOK BEHIND YOU.
I turned.
May you like
Nobody was behind me.
But the fire door was slowly opening.
