Chapter 7
The police took Laura’s journal.
I kept staring at the empty safety deposit box.
Three years earlier, Laura had been afraid.
She had carried that fear alone because she wanted to protect me.
Now I knew why our last week together had felt different.
She checked the locks twice every night.
She asked me to update my will.
She insisted that Emily’s trust could never be controlled by Mark.
I thought she was being cautious.
I had kissed her and told her she worried too much.
The memory filled me with shame.
Officer Ramirez sat across from me.
“Daniel, Laura made choices based on what she knew at the time. So did you.”
“I should have seen it.”
“You were supposed to trust your brother.”
“I trusted the woman who may have helped him.”
“That is what skilled manipulators depend on.”
The flash drive was encrypted.
The police technology unit began working on it.
The financial records showed that Mark had stolen nearly two million dollars before Laura died.
Peter Collins had helped hide the transfers through construction contracts.
Then the theft stopped for six months after the accident.
It resumed shortly before Rebecca met me.
Rebecca had not wandered into my life.
She had been sent back into it.
That evening, the district attorney charged Mark with fraud, forgery, conspiracy, and evidence tampering.
Rebecca and Judith were charged with forgery and conspiracy related to the guardianship scheme.
The investigation into Laura’s death remained open.
Peter Collins had vanished.
His car was found at the airport.
There was no record of him boarding a commercial flight.
The man who drove Judith away from the chapel was also missing.
The Collins family had spent years preparing escape routes.
At Olivia’s house, Emily sat at the kitchen table drawing.
She had drawn herself between Laura and me.
Laura had wings.
I sat beside her.
“Do you want to talk about today?”
“No.”
“That’s okay.”
She colored another wing.
Then she asked, “Is Rebecca in jail?”
“For now.”
“Will she get out?”
“She might be allowed to go home while the case continues.”
Emily pressed the crayon too hard.
It snapped.
“She’ll come here.”
“She is not allowed near you.”
“She doesn’t follow rules.”
The simple truth frightened me more than anything a lawyer had said.
“You won’t be alone,” I promised.
Emily looked at the broken crayon.
“Rebecca used to stand outside my room.”
“When?”
“At night.”
“Why?”
“She said she was checking if I was asleep.”
“Did she come inside?”
“Sometimes.”
“What did she do?”
“Looked through my things.”
“Did she take anything?”
Emily nodded.
“My mommy box.”
Laura had made a wooden memory box for Emily.
It contained birthday letters, hospital bracelets, photographs, and the necklace Laura wore on her wedding day.
I thought it had been misplaced during renovations.
“When did Rebecca take it?”
“A long time ago.”
“Did you see where she put it?”
“In her car.”
I called Ramirez.
Police searched Rebecca’s apartment.
They found the memory box beneath her bed.
Inside were Laura’s letters and photographs.
The necklace was missing.
They also found copies of my financial records, Emily’s school schedule, and a list of medications that could cause confusion, memory loss, and emotional instability.
Beside that list was a calendar.
Several dates were marked.
Each date matched a night when Rebecca had prepared me a special drink because she said I looked stressed.
I remembered waking with headaches.
I remembered forgetting conversations.
I remembered Rebecca telling me I had agreed to things I could not recall.
My stomach turned.
She had not only planned to claim I was unstable.
She had been trying to make me believe it.
A doctor ordered blood and hair tests.
Most substances would no longer appear in blood, but hair could preserve evidence for months.
While I waited for the results, Naomi called.
“The company board scheduled an emergency vote tomorrow.”
“To remove Mark?”
“To remove you.”
“On what grounds?”
“The forged resolution gave Mark temporary control. Before his arrest, he appointed two new board members linked to the Collins family.”
“Can they do that?”
“Not legally. But if they vote before we obtain an injunction, they may empty accounts or transfer assets.”
“I’ll be there.”
“Reporters will be there too.”
“Good.”
The next morning, I entered the company headquarters with Naomi beside me.
Employees lined the lobby.
Some looked worried.
Some looked ashamed.
Many had seen the edited chapel video.
My communications director approached.
“Daniel, the board asked security not to admit you.”
“This is my company.”
A security supervisor stepped forward.
Then he removed his access badge and handed it to the director.
“I won’t remove him.”
Two other guards did the same.
One by one, employees began clapping.
The sound grew.
Not everyone believed Rebecca’s story.
Mark had underestimated the people who had worked beside me for years.
Inside the boardroom, Peter Collins’s attorney occupied his chair.
The two newly appointed members joined by video.
Naomi placed a court order on the table.
The judge had frozen all board changes made under the forged resolution.
Mark’s authority was void.
The new appointments were canceled.
The Collins representatives began shouting.
Then our technology director entered with a sealed report.
He had traced the company records found in Mark’s car.
Mark had created hidden accounts.
But he had not acted alone.
The access logs showed repeated approvals from Peter Collins.
They also showed one approval from Rebecca.
Six days before our wedding, she had authorized a transfer of eight hundred thousand dollars using credentials stolen from my home computer.
The board voted unanimously to suspend every Collins-related account and restore my authority.
But before the meeting ended, an alarm sounded.
Someone had accessed the company’s remote server.
Thousands of files were being deleted.
The location traced to a warehouse owned by Peter Collins.
Officer Ramirez sent units there.
I followed despite his warning.
The warehouse stood near the river.
Police surrounded it.
Inside, they found rows of computers, shredded documents, and the black car used at my house.
Peter was not there.
The man who drove Judith was found unconscious in a back room.
He was alive.
A security camera showed Peter leaving minutes earlier with a metal case.
As officers searched, my phone rang.
It was Mark calling from jail.
“You need to listen,” he said.
“How did you get this number?”
“My attorney arranged the call.”
“What do you want?”
“Peter is going after Emily.”
My blood went cold.
“Why?”
“Laura’s letter.”
“What letter?”
“The one in the safety deposit box.”
“There was a letter for Emily.”
“Peter thinks it contains account codes.”
“It is sealed in police evidence.”
“He doesn’t know that.”
“How would he know a letter exists?”
“Rebecca told him.”
“Where is Peter going?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
Mark’s voice broke.
“He is worse than you think. Laura found out too late.”
“You helped him.”
“I thought we were stealing money. I didn’t know he would touch the car.”
The world narrowed.
“What did he do to Laura’s car?”
“I didn’t see it.”
“What did he do?”
Mark began crying.
I remembered Laura’s warning.
Do not trust Mark, even if he cries.
“Tell me where Peter is.”
“I need protection.”
“My daughter needs protection.”
“If I testify against Peter, he will kill me.”
“If you stay silent, you are helping him reach Emily.”
Mark breathed heavily.
Then he whispered an address.
It was Olivia’s house.
I called her immediately.
No answer.
I called the security guard.
No answer.
May you like
Then Emily’s smartwatch sent an emergency alert.
Her location was moving rapidly away from Olivia’s neighborhood.
