Chapter 6 - The Father Emily Never Knew
Emily had believed her father was an accountant.
That was true.
It was simply not the whole truth.
For six years, Michael Harper had worked as a forensic auditor.
His clients were usually insurance companies and regional banks.
Then, seventeen years earlier, Richard Carter hired him privately.
Carol remembered little about the assignment.
Michael had become secretive.
He traveled frequently.
He received phone calls late at night.
Then he quit.
Six months later, he died in a highway accident.
Emily had been nineteen.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Carol sat at the kitchen table.
“Because your father told me not to.”
“Before he died?”
“Yes.”
Daniel leaned forward.
“What exactly did he say?”
Carol closed her eyes.
“He said if anything happened to him, I should keep Emily away from the Carter family.”
Silence.
Emily almost laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because it was impossible.
“I married into the Carter family.”
“I know.”
“You met Daniel.”
“I know.”
“And you never said anything?”
Carol’s eyes filled.
“When you introduced him, I nearly fainted. But Richard Carter was dead by then. Your father had been gone for years. You were happy.”
“Mom.”
“I thought whatever happened had ended.”
Daniel stood near the window.
His face had lost color.
“My father died two months before Emily and I met.”
Carol nodded.
“That’s why I convinced myself it was safe.”
Emily looked at Daniel.
Their meeting suddenly felt less accidental than it had one hour earlier.
Thomas knew her father’s history.
Had he?
Emily tried to remember every conversation.
Thomas had asked about her parents.
Her father’s name.
His job.
At the time, it had seemed ordinary.
Maybe it was not.
“Thomas knew who I was,” Emily whispered.
Daniel turned.
“What?”
“The café. He didn’t meet me by accident.”
The realization arrived slowly.
“He knew my father worked for yours.”
Daniel shook his head.
“We don’t know that.”
“Yes, we do.”
Emily stood.
“He gave me an envelope meant for you. Three weeks later, I met you at an event organized by the Carter Foundation.”
Daniel’s expression changed.
The education event.
The place they had met.
Thomas could easily have known Daniel would attend.
Emily felt sick.
“He sent me there.”
“No.”
“He must have.”
Daniel crossed the kitchen and took her arms gently.
“Listen to me. Even if Thomas arranged for you to attend that event, he did not make us spend four years together.”
Emily looked up.
“He might have put me in your path.”
“Maybe.”
“He might have used me.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“Then we find out why.”
They did not go to Union Station that day.
The mystery had changed.
Daniel wanted records from Carter Group.
Emily wanted the truth about her father.
Together they returned to the city.
Daniel accessed archived employment files.
Michael Harper’s name did not appear.
That was suspicious.
Private consultants were still supposed to have contracts.
Payment records.
Tax filings.
Nothing.
Then Emily remembered something.
Her father kept paper copies of almost everything.
The attic.
Again.
They returned the following morning.
After three hours of searching, Rachel found a folder taped beneath the bottom drawer of an old filing cabinet.
Inside were invoices.
Michael Harper had been paid by a company called Northbridge Advisory.
Not Carter Group.
Daniel recognized the name.
“It was one of my father’s private holding companies.”
Emily read the invoices.
The work descriptions were vague.
Financial review.
Asset verification.
Internal compliance analysis.
Then she found the final invoice.
SPECIAL INVESTIGATION, PROJECT ROOK.
Emily stopped.
“Rook.”
Daniel took the paper.
The same word appeared on Thomas’s files.
Rook Holdings.
Project Rook.
The connection existed nearly two decades before Thomas’s accusations.
There was also a handwritten note.
Michael’s writing.
RICHARD THINKS THE MONEY IS LEAVING THROUGH A FAMILY ACCOUNT.
Emily felt her pulse rise.
Daniel read over her shoulder.
“What family account?”
Another note.
INITIALS V.C. APPEAR REPEATEDLY. IMPOSSIBLE. SHE IS ONLY NINETEEN.
May you like
Emily and Daniel looked at each other.
Victoria had been nineteen when Michael investigated Richard’s finances.
