Chapter 7 - The Thanksgiving Trap
The day before Thanksgiving, the Carter mansion was filled with flowers, rented furniture, and catering equipment.
Chloe moved through the house issuing orders.
Ryan remained distracted.
He had received no response from the contractors since uploading the false Guardian files. He did not know that military investigators had frozen the offshore accounts and identified every person connected to the network.
Sarah watched him from the garage doorway.
He noticed her staring.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You’ve been acting strange.”
Sarah almost smiled.
“I’ve had a strange month.”
Ryan stepped closer.
“Did you finish your project?”
“Almost.”
“Will it make money?”
“It might.”
His eyes sharpened.
“How much?”
Sarah turned away.
Ryan grabbed the suitcase before she could close it.
“Maybe we should stop pretending,” he said. “Daniel left something valuable, and you’re hiding it.”
Sarah removed his hand from the suitcase.
“You should be more concerned about what Daniel discovered.”
Ryan’s face lost its color.
“What does that mean?”
Before Sarah could answer, Chloe entered.
“Ryan, the photographer needs you.”
He stared at Sarah for another second, then followed his wife inside.
That night, George entered the garage carrying an envelope.
Inside was a bill listing everything the family claimed Sarah owed them, including food, electricity, transportation, and a fee for “temporary storage accommodation.”
The total was more than twenty thousand dollars.
Sarah looked at her father.
“You’re charging me rent for the garage?”
“We have to establish boundaries.”
“The heater is broken.”
“Then buy another one.”
“I told you it was freezing.”
George avoided her eyes.
“You’ll be leaving after the baby is born anyway.”
Sarah folded the bill and placed it in her suitcase.
“Yes,” she said. “I’ll be leaving.”
George hesitated.
For a moment, he seemed to sense something final in her voice.
“Sarah, we’re doing this because you need to become independent.”
She looked at the folding bed and the boxes surrounding it.
“I understand.”
Satisfied, George returned to the house.
Sarah waited until the door locked behind him.
Then she placed Daniel’s photograph inside the suitcase.
May you like
At sunrise, she dressed in blue, packed the last encrypted drive, and stood beside the garage door.
At precisely eight o’clock, she pressed the button.
