Chapter 3 - Emma’s Last MessageSadie could not feel her hands.
She stared at the black screen.
The words remained.
HE IS THE REASON I DIED.
Callum stood behind her.
For once, he did not tell her what to do.
He knew there was nothing he could say that would make the accusation disappear.
Sadie turned.
“Did you kill her?”
“No.”
The answer came immediately.
“Then explain.”
“I can’t.”
Her laugh was brittle.
“That is not an explanation.”
Callum walked toward the desk.
“Because the truth is worse than you think.”
Sadie followed.
“What does that mean?”
Callum inserted the flash drive into another computer.
A hidden directory opened.
Files.
Photographs.
Transaction records.
Names.
Dates.
Hundreds of them.
Sadie stared.
“What is this?”
“The ledger.”
“You said you never had it.”
“I said I buried it.”
She looked at him.
He continued.
“The Saint Gabriel Ledger was not a financial ledger. It was a record of every person, payment, shipment, and political favor connected to a criminal network operating through Chicago.”
“And you were part of it.”
“I inherited it.”
“That is not the same thing.”
“It is when you inherit the people who come with it.”
Sadie scrolled.
Then froze.
Her sister’s name appeared.
EMMA MILLER.
Next to it was a payment.
$250,000.
Recipient: C. Russo Holdings.
Date: October 11, 2016.
Three days before Emma died.
Sadie turned the monitor toward him.
“What is this?”
Callum studied the screen.
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“Yes.”
“You paid her.”
“No.”
“Then why is your company name here?”
“My company was used as a shell.”
“By whom?”
He looked at the list.
“Vincent Hale.”
Sadie recognized the name.
Her father had once mentioned it.
A businessman.
A philanthropist.
A man who disappeared from Chicago society after an accounting scandal.
“You know him.”
“I knew him.”
“Is he alive?”
Callum looked at her.
“That depends on who you ask.”
Sadie swallowed.
“Why was Emma paid?”
“I don’t know.”
“What happened that night?”
Callum walked to the window.
“For ten years, I believed Emma was trying to expose the organization.”
“She was.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Because I received a message from her.”
Sadie moved closer.
“What message?”
Callum stared into the city.
“She told me she had found something in the ledger.”
“What?”
“The name of the person running the entire operation.”
“And?”
“I went to meet her.”
“Where?”
“A warehouse by the river.”
Sadie waited.
Callum’s expression hardened.
“When I arrived, Emma was already there.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“She told me she was afraid.”
“Of whom?”
“She wouldn’t say.”
“Then what?”
“We heard a car.”
Callum stopped.
Sadie whispered, “And?”
“Someone shot her.”
Sadie’s eyes filled.
“You were there.”
“Yes.”
“You watched her die.”
“I tried to stop the bleeding.”
“Did you call an ambulance?”
Callum looked at her.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because the police were already on their way.”
“That makes no sense.”
“They were waiting outside.”
Sadie stared.
“Someone had arranged it.”
Callum nodded.
“Emma knew she was going to die. She left something for me.”
“What?”
“The truth.”
He returned to the computer.
There was another encrypted folder.
“I never cracked it.”
Sadie looked at him.
“You have had ten years?”
“Yes.”
“And you never hired someone?”
“I did.”
“Why didn’t they open it?”
“Because every person who tried died.”
Silence.
Sadie stared at the locked folder.
Then she remembered something.
Her sister had always hummed when she was nervous.
One old tune.
A children’s song.
Sadie leaned toward the keyboard.
“Move.”
Callum stepped aside.
She entered a sequence of letters.
The folder opened.
He stared.
“You knew the password?”
“No.”
“Then how…”
Sadie was crying now.
“Emma did.”
The folder contained one video.
One image.
One audio file.
And one document.
Sadie opened the document first.
Only three lines appeared.
CALLUM DID NOT KILL ME.
BUT HE KNOWS WHO DID.
AND HE HAS BEEN PROTECTING THAT PERSON FOR TEN YEARS.
Sadie looked at Callum.
His face was like stone.
“You knew.”
Callum did not answer.
“You knew who killed my sister.”
“I suspected.”
“You protected them.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“From who?”
Callum’s phone rang.
He answered.
“What?”
His chief security officer spoke for five seconds.
Callum’s eyes shifted toward the windows.
“Lock the building.”
He hung up.
Sadie felt her stomach drop.
“What happened?”
Callum looked at the street.
“There are six armed men surrounding the building.”
“Why?”
His phone buzzed again.
This time, a message.
A photograph.
Sadie and Callum standing together in the penthouse.
Taken from somewhere inside.
Beneath it:
YOU OPENED THE WRONG FILE.
Callum slowly raised his gun.
“There’s a traitor upstairs.”
A gunshot exploded from the hallway.
The bullet tore through the door.
Callum grabbed Sadie and pulled her to the floor.
Another shot.
Then another.
Callum whispered into her ear.
“Whatever happens, do not let go of me.”
Sadie held onto his sleeve.
“Why?”
He looked into her eyes.
May you like
“Because the person coming through that door knows exactly how your sister died.”
The door handle began to turn.
