Chapter 5 - THE FILE MY MOTHER HIDI couldn't speak.
My mother had been dead for years.
I'd spent my entire life believing she'd died in a tragic accident.
Now Elena was telling me she'd been murdered.
And Daniel had apparently spent fifteen years searching for me.
“Why wasn't this investigated?”
“It was,” Elena said.
“And?”
“They closed the case.”
“Why?”
She looked at my father.
“Because someone paid them to.”
My father turned away.
I stared at him.
“You paid them?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
My father didn't respond.
Elena opened the metal box again.
“Your mother left evidence.”
A flash drive appeared.
My name was written on it.
Clara.
We connected it to an old laptop.
The screen lit up.
There was one video file.
Recorded fifteen years earlier.
A woman appeared on screen.
My mother.
She looked terrified.
She sat in a dark room.
“Clara,” she said.
I stopped breathing.
“If you're seeing this, I'm probably already dead.”
My hand covered my mouth.
“I need you to know that I never abandoned you.”
Tears filled my eyes.
“I was trying to protect you.”
My mother looked directly into the camera.
“Your father knows about the account.”
She paused.
“He knows about the trust.”
I glanced at my father.
He stared at the screen.
My mother continued.
“The money was never supposed to belong to him.”
She leaned closer.
“But that's not what scares me.”
The video flickered.
Then she whispered:
“Your father is not the only person who wants the money.”
The screen went black.
I stared.
“What does that mean?”
Elena looked at my father.
He was pale.
Then the laptop chimed.
A second file appeared.
No title.
I opened it.
A scanned document.
A DNA report.
Daniel Mercer.
Biological father.
99.99%.
I looked at my father.
He sank into a chair.
“I never wanted this.”
“You never wanted me to know.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because if Daniel found you, he'd take you away.”
“He had that right.”
My father rubbed his face.
“You don't understand what he was involved in.”
“Then explain.”
He stared at the floor.
“He wasn't just wealthy.”
I waited.
“He was part of a private investment group.”
“So?”
“They were laundering money.”
Elena immediately shook her head.
“That was the lie used to frame him.”
My father looked at her.
“You still believe him?”
“I saw the records.”
“What records?”
Elena opened another file.
“Daniel's money was being moved through companies controlled by your father.”
I froze.
My father stood.
“That's impossible.”
“You signed the documents.”
“Those signatures were forged.”
Elena smiled.
“That's exactly what Daniel said.”
Suddenly, a car door slammed outside.
Everyone froze.
Another car arrived.
Then another.
My father looked toward the window.
His face drained.
“Who is that?”
He whispered:
“They found us.”
Elena grabbed the laptop.
“Who?”
My father didn't answer.
A knock came at the front door.
Three slow knocks.
Then a man's voice.
“Clara.”
I knew the voice.
I'd heard it once before.
Through an old recording my mother had made.
Daniel.
He called again.
“Clara, I'm not here to hurt you.”
Elena whispered:
“Don't open that door.”
My father's hand moved toward the lock.
I grabbed his arm.
“No.”
He looked at me.
“Trust me.”
I pulled the door open.
A man stood outside in the snow.
Older than the photograph.
But unmistakably the same face.
His eyes landed on mine.
He stopped breathing.
Tears filled his eyes.
“Clara.”
I stared at him.
He whispered:
May you like
“My daughter.”
Then a gunshot exploded from somewhere in the darkness.
