Chapter 13 - THE LAST THING HER FATHER HID
Emily spent the next week searching.
Not for money.
For truth.
She found old company records.
Court documents.
Bank statements.
Letters.
Photographs.
Every piece connected to one mysterious event.
The collapse of her father's company.
The official story had always been simple.
Her father made bad investments.
He lost everything.
He disappeared.
Diane raised the children alone.
But the documents showed something else.
Her father had discovered fraudulent transactions inside the company.
He had tried to expose them.
Then he vanished.
Emily found one final document.
A property deed.
The property belonged to her father.
It had never been sold.
It had been transferred into the trust.
The address was in Charlotte.
Emily recognized it.
An old warehouse she had passed hundreds of times.
Daniel looked at the document.
“What do you think is there?”
“I don't know.”
They drove there that evening.
The building looked abandoned.
Inside, dust covered the floor.
Old boxes filled the back room.
Emily found a locked metal cabinet.
The key was taped beneath a shelf.
Inside was a collection of tapes.
Photographs.
Documents.
And one envelope.
Emily opened it.
The letter was dated two weeks before her father's disappearance.
Emily,
If you found this, then everything I feared has happened.
You must understand something.
Your mother will tell you she betrayed me because she had no choice.
She is partly right.
Your brother will tell you he was protecting the family.
He is partly right.
Jonathan will tell you he was protecting me.
He is also partly right.
But none of them knows the entire truth.
Emily stopped reading.
Daniel looked at her.
“Keep going.”
The letter continued.
The person you should fear is not the person who took the money.
It is the person who knows why the money was taken.
Emily's hands shook.
There was one final sentence.
When you discover what happened to the original account, you will understand why I disappeared.
The letter ended there.
No explanation.
No name.
No answer.
Emily looked at the tapes.
“There's more.”
They found an old player.
The first tape contained only static.
The second showed her father sitting at a desk.
Older.
Tired.
Frightened.
He looked directly into the camera.
“If Emily ever sees this…”
He paused.
Then said,
“Tell her I never left her.”
The recording stopped.
Emily covered her mouth.
Then the player clicked.
A second recording began automatically.
Her father's voice returned.
“But if Charles is still alive…”
The screen went black.
May you like
A sound came from behind them.
The warehouse door slammed shut.
