Chapter 4 - The House Nobody Knew About)
The final letter was not the only secret.
After landing, Elena did not go to the hotel.
She went to an address Margaret had given her.
The house stood at the end of a quiet road outside Los Angeles.
It looked abandoned.
But someone was living there.
Elena entered with Margaret beside her.
Inside, they found boxes of documents.
Photographs.
Old business records.
And a wall covered with photographs of Elena's father.
Margaret stopped.
"Your father knew this place."
Elena stared at the photographs.
One showed her father standing beside another man.
She recognized him.
"That's Julian's father."
Margaret nodded.
"They were business partners."
Elena's pulse quickened.
"My father never told me."
"Apparently, there was a reason."
They searched through the boxes.
Then Elena found a photograph of herself as a child.
On the back was a handwritten sentence.
Protect her from the Carters.
Elena stared at it.
"Why would my father write that?"
Margaret took the photograph.
"I don't know."
Then they heard footsteps upstairs.
Margaret immediately turned off the lights.
Someone was inside.
A door opened.
A man's voice called out.
"Elena?"
She froze.
The voice was familiar.
But impossible.
The man appeared at the top of the stairs.
He was older.
Gray-haired.
Tired.
And Elena recognized him instantly.
"Daniel?"
Her father's former business partner looked at her with tears in his eyes.
"You shouldn't have come here."
"Why?"
"Because Julian knows about this house."
Elena's stomach dropped.
"How?"
May you like
Daniel looked toward the window.
"Because he was here last night."
