CHAPTER 5 The Woman Everyone Misjudged
The library erupted into stunned silence.
For a long moment, no one spoke.
The forensic officer looked from Ruiz to Richard before repeating himself.
"The fingerprints inside the steel box belong to Elena Howard."
Richard's face tightened.
"What do you mean... inside the box?"
"The lid, the notebook, the false bottom, and several of the USB drives all carry her prints."
Mrs. Howard slowly lowered herself into a chair.
"So Elena... knew about all of this?"
Ruiz didn't answer immediately.
He had expected Elena's fingerprints.
What mattered wasn't whether they were there.
It was when they got there.
"How old are the prints?" he asked.
The technician frowned.
"We can't determine the exact date."
Ruiz nodded.
"Then fingerprints alone prove nothing."
He looked around the room.
"They tell us Elena handled the evidence."
"They do not tell us she created it."
Vanessa smiled.
Finally.
Something had shifted in her favor.
Richard stood motionless.
His mind was racing.
Claire.
The diary.
The pregnancy.
The hidden engagement ring.
Now Elena.
How much had his wife known?
How much had she kept from him?
He suddenly remembered the sealed envelope the nurse had given him at the hospital.
Open only if I survive.
It was still in the inside pocket of his jacket.
He slowly removed it.
Ruiz glanced at him.
"You haven't opened it?"
Richard shook his head.
"I wanted Elena to tell me herself."
He looked down at the envelope.
"But maybe she already did."
He carefully unfolded the letter.
The handwriting was unmistakably Elena's.
Richard,
If you're reading this, it means I survived.
If I didn't...
then Detective Ruiz already knows what to do.
Richard swallowed.
The next sentence struck him harder than he expected.
Before you judge me...
please finish reading.
He continued.
I lied to you.
Many times.
Vanessa almost laughed.
There it was.
The confession.
But Ruiz remained perfectly calm.
He had read enough investigations to know that the first sentence was rarely the important one.
Richard continued reading.
I lied because the truth would have gotten us both killed.
I knew someone inside this family was hunting every woman who came close to you.
Claire wasn't the first.
I was never supposed to become the second.
Ruiz's eyes narrowed.
"Not the first..."
He whispered the words to himself.
"So there was another woman."
Vanessa's confidence faltered.
Another woman?
She had never heard that name before.
Had Elena discovered something even she didn't know?
Richard kept reading.
Three months after our wedding,
I found letters hidden inside your father's old study.They belonged to a woman named Sophia.
Mrs. Howard gasped.
"No..."
Richard looked up.
"You know that name?"
She slowly nodded.
"Sophia Morgan."
The room waited.
Mrs. Howard's voice trembled.
"She was engaged to Richard's older brother..."
"...before he died."
Ruiz looked up sharply.
"I thought Richard was an only child."
Mrs. Howard closed her eyes.
"He was."
"After Daniel died."
Silence settled over the room.
Richard whispered,
"I had a brother?"
Mrs. Howard looked at him in disbelief.
"You don't remember?"
Richard stared back.
"No."
Ruiz felt the pieces beginning to shift.
He had spent four months investigating financial crimes, attempted murder, and corporate corruption.
Now the case had become something far stranger.
A forgotten brother.
A missing fiancée.
A dead girlfriend.
A pregnant wife nearly murdered.
This wasn't coincidence.
This was a pattern.
Across town...
Elena slowly pushed herself upright in the hospital bed.
Pain shot through her abdomen.
The nurse rushed over.
"You need to stay down."
"I'm fine."
"You had major surgery."
"I said..."
Elena winced.
"...I'm fine."
The nurse sighed.
"No, Mrs. Howard."
"You are many things."
"Fine isn't one of them."
Before Elena could answer, Detective Brooks entered the room carrying a laptop.
"I think you'll want to see this."
He placed it on the bedside table.
The screen displayed one of the hidden camera recordings from the mansion.
Date:
Six days before the fall.
Elena pressed play.
The recording showed Vanessa entering the library late at night.
She believed she was alone.
She pulled a small key from her purse.
Unlocked Richard's liquor cabinet.
Removed a tiny bottle.
Then...
She poured several drops of a clear liquid into a whiskey decanter.
Brooks frowned.
"What is that?"
Elena's face remained expressionless.
"I don't know."
"But Claire wrote about unlabeled medicine."
She looked at Brooks.
"Have that bottle tested."
Back at the mansion...
Ruiz received the laboratory's preliminary report.
He opened the file.
His expression changed instantly.
Richard noticed.
"What?"
Ruiz looked up slowly.
"The blood found on Claire's scarf..."
Everyone leaned forward.
"...isn't Claire's."
Vanessa blinked.
"What?"
"The DNA belongs to..."
Ruiz stopped reading.
Then looked directly at Richard.
"...your brother."
The room exploded with confusion.
"My brother?" Richard repeated.
"I don't even remember having one!"
Mrs. Howard burst into tears.
"I'm so sorry."
Richard turned toward her.
"Mother..."
"What happened to Daniel?"
She covered her face.
"I told everyone he died in a car accident."
Ruiz quietly asked,
"And the truth?"
Mrs. Howard whispered,
"He disappeared."
At that exact moment...
A forensic officer rushed into the library carrying another recovered hard drive.
"We cracked the encryption."
Ruiz looked up.
"What's on it?"
The officer swallowed.
"A video."
"Play it."
The screen flickered.
Black.
Static.
Then...
A date appeared.
Four Years Earlier
The camera overlooked an underground parking garage.
A young woman walked into frame.
Claire.
She looked frightened.
Seconds later...
A man approached her.
His face remained hidden beneath a hood.
He handed her an envelope.
She opened it.
Her entire body froze.
Then she whispered five words that silenced the room.
"Daniel Howard is alive."
The video ended abruptly.
No explanation.
No faces.
No answers.
Only another mystery.
Richard stared at the frozen screen.
His voice was barely audible.
"If Daniel is alive..."
"...who was buried in his grave?"
The question lingered unanswered.
But somewhere far from the mansion...
Inside the abandoned warehouse...
The elderly man watching the security feeds smiled once again.
He reached into a drawer.
Inside lay an old family photograph.
Two young boys stood beside their parents.
One was Richard.
The other...
Daniel.
The old man gently traced Daniel's face with a finger.
Then he whispered to the empty room,
"They're finally looking for you."
A phone buzzed on the desk.
He answered without greeting the caller.
A calm voice spoke from the other end.
"They've found the video."
The old man chuckled.
"Good."
"And Vanessa?"
"She's losing control."
He nodded.
"She served her purpose."
There was a brief silence.
Then the caller asked,
"Should we eliminate Elena before she remembers everything?"
The old man's smile slowly faded.
"No."
"Not yet."
He looked once more at the photograph of the two brothers.
"When Elena remembers..."
May you like
"...she'll lead us to Daniel herself."
End of Chapter 5
