Chapter 7 - THE ACCOUNT DANIEL NEVER MENTIONED
Margaret waited until midnight.
She locked her bedroom door.
She connected the flash drive to her laptop.
The first folder contained bank statements.
The second contained emails.
The third was labeled:
D.H.
Margaret stared at it.
Daniel Harper.
Her late husband.
She clicked.
Inside was a scanned document.
An old bank statement.
Margaret recognized the account number.
She remembered it.
Daniel had opened it before their marriage.
But he had told her the account was closed.
She opened the next file.
Then another.
Then another.
Money had been deposited into the account for years.
Large amounts.
Far larger than Margaret expected.
She kept scrolling.
Then she found a transfer.
The recipient was a company she had never heard of.
The date was five months before Daniel died.
Margaret's hands trembled.
She opened the attached email.
It was from Daniel.
The message was short.
If anything happens to me, make sure Margaret receives the house.
Margaret stopped breathing.
She read it again.
Then again.
The house.
But the email had been sent to someone else.
Someone whose name Margaret recognized.
Thomas Reed.
Her attorney.
Margaret immediately called him.
He answered.
"Mrs. Harper?"
"Did you know?"
A pause.
"Know what?"
"About Daniel's account."
Thomas was silent.
Margaret's voice broke.
"How long?"
"Margaret..."
"How long?"
He finally answered.
"Since the week after his funeral."
Margaret stood.
"And you never told me?"
"I was following Daniel's instructions."
"What instructions?"
Thomas exhaled.
"He told me there was a possibility that someone would attempt to take control of the property."
"Who?"
"I don't know."
Margaret looked at the computer screen.
The answer seemed to be sitting in front of her.
Melissa.
But there was one problem.
Daniel's message had been written before Melissa ever met Ryan.
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So why had Daniel been worried about the house?
And why had he written that warning years before the woman who now controlled it ever entered their lives?
