Chapter 10 - THE MIDPOINT TRUTH
I arrived at Arthur’s office before the sun was fully up.
He was waiting for me behind his desk. Pale. Tense. His usual calm confidence was gone.
“Sit down, Adrian,” he said.
I stood before his desk. Diary in hand.
“How did you know I had this?”
Arthur looked at the book. His expression was sorrowful.
“Because I told her to write it. I told her to hide it. I told her to prepare for the worst.”
My grip tightened.
“You argued with her days before she died. Clara heard you.”
Arthur bowed his head.
“I did. I argued because I begged her to tell you everything. To name him. To run. But she was too afraid. She said Silas would destroy the children if she spoke. She chose silence to keep them safe.”
“Silas paid you,” I said. “Didn’t he? You work for him. You have all along.”
Arthur stood up slowly.
“Listen to me. And listen well. I have never worked for Silas. I have spent every day since your wife died trying to prove he killed her. I took his money. Yes. But I took it to learn his plans. To survive. To protect you. I became the traitor… so that I could find the truth.”
I stared at him.
“Prove it.”
Arthur opened a drawer and pulled out stacks of documents. Bank records. Emails. Handwritten notes.
“Silas approached me six months before your wife died. He offered me everything. Wealth. Power. A new life. In exchange for information. Access. Influence. I pretended to accept. But I told your wife immediately. We agreed I would feed him lies while gathering evidence. We were so close, Adrian. So close to destroying him. And then she died.”
Arthur paused. His voice broke.
“I failed her. I waited too long to speak. And she paid with her life.”
I looked at the records. The dates. The communications. They matched everything Arthur said.
Silas had been paying him. But Arthur had been recording every transaction. Every instruction. Every threat.
“Where is the evidence now?” I asked. “Everything you gathered?”
Arthur looked at me with eyes full of dread.
“Someone stole it. From my safe. Two days ago. The same day Vanessa was exposed. The same day you met Silas at the warehouse.”
My blood ran cold.
“Who?”
Arthur leaned forward.
“There is someone else, Adrian. Someone above Silas. Silas believes he is the mastermind. But someone is pulling his strings too. Someone who knows everything. Who watches everything. Who took my evidence. Who sent Vanessa. Who may have killed your wife.”
“Who?” I demanded.
Arthur reached across the desk and pushed a single photograph toward me.
It was old. Faded.
Three people stood together. Smiling.
My wife’s father. Beside him… a young man.
And beside them both… a woman.
I stared at her face.
I knew that face.
May you like
I saw it every day.
“Clara?” I whispered.
