CHAPTER 8 — THE LETTER THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING
I returned to my father's house.
There was one place I hadn't searched.
His old library.
Behind a row of books was a hidden compartment.
Inside was a small recorder.
I pressed play.
My father's voice filled the room.
“If you're hearing this, Daniel, then I was right.”
I stopped breathing.
“My son, I am sorry.”
The recording continued.
“I discovered that someone close to you has been secretly transferring money from the family company. I initially suspected Michael.”
A pause.
“But Michael wasn't the only one.”
My hands began to shake.
“I discovered that Claire knew.”
I closed my eyes.
“No…”
My father continued.
“She didn't steal the money. She protected the person who did.”
I sat down.
Then came the final revelation.
“The person responsible is not your brother.”
A name followed.
I almost dropped the recorder.
It was the name of the one person I had never suspected.
My business partner.
Thomas.
Thomas had been my father's closest adviser.
He had been my mentor.
He had attended my wedding.
He had watched Emily grow up.
And he had been the person helping me manage the company after my father's death.
My father had discovered that Thomas had created the trust as part of a larger financial scheme.
The forty million dollars wasn't simply an inheritance.
It was money that had been moved illegally.
Money Thomas had planned to reclaim through Emily.
My father had discovered everything.
And before he could expose Thomas, he died.
The official cause had been heart failure.
But now I wondered.
Had my father really died naturally?
The recording ended with one sentence:
“Daniel, if anything happens to me, don't trust the person who tells you they are protecting you.”
I immediately thought of Claire.
She had spent months saying she was protecting Emily.
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But had she been protecting Emily?
Or had she been protecting herself?
