Chapter 5
I almost dropped the phone.
Daniel moved beside me.
“Put it on speaker.”
Rebecca heard him.
“Daniel is there.”
It wasn’t a question.
“Yes.”
“Then this conversation is already dangerous.”
Daniel leaned toward the phone.
“Where have you been?”
“Surviving your family.”
“You stole from the company.”
Rebecca laughed softly.
“So that’s what they told you.”
I closed my eyes.
“Stop. Both of you.”
Silence.
I asked the only question that mattered.
“What does Ryan have?”
“The red case.”
Daniel looked at me.
“How do you know?”
Rebecca ignored him.
“Emily, your father didn’t die because of money.”
My knees weakened.
Daniel reached for the receiver.
I pulled it away.
“What are you saying?”
“He died because he discovered what your grandfather did.”
Daniel snapped, “Enough.”
Rebecca’s voice sharpened.
“Still protecting dead men, Daniel?”
“I’m protecting Emily.”
“No. You’re protecting the story that made you important.”
I stared at him.
“What story?”
Daniel shook his head.
“She’s manipulating you.”
Rebecca said, “Ask him why your father called him instead of the police.”
“I already did.”
“Did he tell you where he was when he got the call?”
I looked at Daniel.
His silence answered.
“Where were you?”
He rubbed his forehead.
“Driving.”
“Where?”
“Emily.”
“Where?”
Rebecca answered for him.
“Five minutes from your father’s house.”
My breath caught.
Dad had died after his car went through a guardrail on a private road near the estate.
Daniel had always said he was across town.
“You lied about that too?”
“I was trying to reach him.”
“Why?”
“He sounded afraid.”
Rebecca interrupted.
“Because someone had already been inside his house.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“You don’t know that.”
“Yes, I do.”
“How?”
Rebecca paused.
“Because I was there.”
The room went silent.
I couldn’t breathe.
“You were with my father the night he died?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“He called me.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“That’s impossible.”
“We had been speaking privately for months.”
“You expect her to believe that?”
“I have letters.”
My pulse hammered.
“What was in the red case?”
Rebecca exhaled.
“Proof.”
“Proof of what?”
“That the Carter trust was built using money your grandfather stole from people who trusted him.”
Daniel swore.
“That’s a lie.”
“Some of it,” Rebecca continued, “came from his business partners. Some came from employees’ retirement accounts. And some came from land he acquired through companies designed to hide who was buying.”
I pressed my fingers to my temple.
“This sounds insane.”
“It sounded insane to your father too.”
“What changed his mind?”
“He found ledgers.”
“In the red case?”
“Copies.”
Daniel paced.
“If those existed, regulators would have found them decades ago.”
“Unless the people investigating were paid.”
Daniel stopped.
Rebecca continued.
“Your father confronted our father. They fought. He came to me because I had spent years trying to prove it.”
“You were accused of stealing four million.”
“I moved four million.”
“That’s stealing.”
“I moved it into an account your grandfather couldn’t touch.”
“For yourself?”
“For the employees he had cheated.”
Daniel scoffed.
“Convenient.”
“I never spent a dollar.”
I didn’t know whom to believe.
Then Rebecca said something that made my blood freeze.
“Emily, there is a photograph inside the red case.”
“What photograph?”
“Your husband knows.”
“How?”
“He contacted me two months ago.”
My hand tightened around the phone.
“No.”
“He found my number while researching your family.”
Daniel went still.
Rebecca’s voice softened.
“He wanted to know how much your inheritance was worth.”
I felt sick.
“What did you tell him?”
“Nothing at first.”
“At first?”
“He kept calling.”
“Why didn’t you warn me?”
“Because I didn’t trust you.”
That hurt.
“You haven’t seen me since I was twelve.”
“Exactly.”
Daniel grabbed the phone.
“If Ryan has the case, where is he taking it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then what good are you?”
Rebecca laughed once.
“Ask his mother.”
I frowned.
“Diane?”
“She’s the one who found me.”
“When?”
“Six months ago.”
My stomach twisted.
Rebecca continued.
“She came to my apartment pretending she wanted information about your family history.”
“Why?”
“Because Ryan had already decided he was going to marry you.”
The air left my lungs.
Daniel looked furious.
Rebecca’s final words were nearly a whisper.
“They didn’t marry into your family by accident, Emily.”
The line went dead.
I stood motionless.
Then I turned my phone back on.
Twenty-seven missed calls.
Most from Ryan.
Three from Claire.
And one voicemail from Diane.
I played it.
Her voice was smug.
“You embarrassed my son tonight. That was a mistake. Meet us tomorrow at noon if you want your father’s documents back.”
A pause.
May you like
Then she added,
“And come alone, unless you want the truth about your father posted online.”
