Chapter 6 - WHAT HAPPENED TO MARGARET
The accident had always been a closed chapter.
Margaret had died during a rainy night outside Chicago.
Her car had left the road.
Police had ruled it an accident.
Oscar had accepted it because there had been nothing else to believe.
Jared had been twenty-eight.
He had spent months grieving.
Then years.
Now Lauren was telling him everything he remembered might have been built on a lie.
Jared demanded proof.
Lauren pointed toward the locked case.
"The proof is inside."
Oscar stared at the case.
"Why didn't you open it?"
"I don't have the key."
Jared searched the room.
Nothing.
Then Oscar noticed a small envelope taped beneath a shelf.
His hands shook as he removed it.
Inside was a key.
There was one sentence written on the envelope.
Only Oscar can open this.
Oscar inserted the key.
The lock clicked.
Inside were three things.
A cassette recorder.
A stack of photographs.
And a handwritten ledger.
Jared picked up the recorder.
The batteries were already inside.
He pressed play.
Static filled the room.
Then Margaret's voice.
Jared immediately recognized it.
His mother sounded frightened.
"If you're hearing this, Oscar, something happened."
Oscar covered his mouth.
Margaret continued.
"I found the transfers."
Jared looked at Lauren.
"Which transfers?"
The recording continued.
"Money is being moved from our company through accounts we don't control."
Oscar whispered, "No..."
Margaret named several people.
One was Richard Vale.
Another was an accountant.
Another was someone Jared had never heard of.
Then Margaret said something that made Jared's blood run cold.
"The person closest to us is helping them."
The recording stopped.
Jared stared at the machine.
"That's it?"
Lauren nodded.
"There's another tape."
"Where?"
"We don't know."
Oscar looked at the ledger.
The pages were filled with numbers.
Dates.
Account codes.
Initials.
And one repeated symbol.
A small black circle beside certain transactions.
Jared recognized the dates.
They matched his monthly transfers.
His father had been unknowingly funding the same network his mother had discovered decades earlier.
But one question remained.
Why had the transfers continued after Margaret died?
Jared looked at Lauren.
"Who knew about this?"
Lauren didn't answer.
"Lauren."
She finally said, "Your mother left instructions."
"For who?"
"For me."
Jared stared.
"How?"
"She contacted me six months before she died."
Oscar looked stunned.
"You knew my wife?"
"Yes."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because she made me promise."
Oscar stepped away.
"What did she ask you to do?"
Lauren's eyes filled with tears.
"Protect Jared."
Jared went still.
"From whom?"
May you like
Lauren looked toward the doorway.
"From his own family."
