Chapter 5 - THE MAN WHO KNEW HER FAMILY'S SECRET
Emily called the number back.
It went straight to voicemail.
She searched the name.
Nothing useful.
Daniel answered when she called him.
“I found someone.”
“Who?”
“Jonathan Reed.”
Daniel became quiet.
“Where did you hear that name?”
“He called me.”
“Did he say why?”
“He said he knew what my family had been paying for.”
Daniel paused.
“Don't meet him alone.”
“I wasn't planning to.”
Twenty minutes later, Emily met Daniel at a quiet café.
She showed him the financial records.
Daniel studied them.
“There are transfers to a company called Whitmore Holdings.”
“That sounds like Ryan.”
“It isn't.”
Emily looked confused.
“What do you mean?”
“Your brother's company was called Whitmore Capital.”
Emily stared at him.
“Then what is Whitmore Holdings?”
Daniel scrolled.
“That's the strange part.”
The company was registered eighteen months before the mortgage on Diane's house.
Emily's stomach tightened.
“Who owns it?”
Daniel looked at the screen.
“That's hidden behind a corporate structure.”
Emily whispered,
“Can we find out?”
“Yes.”
Her phone rang.
Unknown number again.
This time, Emily answered.
Jonathan Reed spoke.
“You're asking the right questions.”
“Who are you?”
“Someone who made the mistake of trusting your family.”
“What does that mean?”
“You're not the person they were taking money from.”
Emily frowned.
“What?”
“They've been using your identity.”
Daniel sat forward.
Jonathan continued.
“And there's something else.”
“What?”
“Your mother didn't refinance her house to save your brother.”
Emily's heart pounded.
“Then why?”
Jonathan's answer was almost a whisper.
“She refinanced it because someone was paying her to keep quiet.”
The call ended.
Emily stared at the phone.
Daniel slowly said,
“About what?”
Emily shook her head.
“I don't know.”
Then another message arrived.
One photograph.
A document.
At the bottom was Diane Whitmore's signature.
May you like
And beneath it was a name Emily hadn't seen in years.
Her father's.
