Chapter 4 - My Father's Secret
Police found my mother's apartment empty.
The back door was open.
Her phone lay shattered beside the kitchen table.
There was no blood.
No sign of a struggle.
Only one thing was missing.
An old blue document box my father had kept locked for years.
I wanted to leave Adrian and find her myself.
He wouldn't let me.
“You're a target.”
“So is my mother.”
“And running blind helps neither of you.”
He was right.
I hated him for being right.
Adrian had improved rapidly. He could sit upright with assistance now, though nine months of immobility had weakened him severely.
When I returned from speaking with detectives, he held out his hand.
I took it.
“I'm sorry,” he said.
“This isn't your fault.”
“My family brought this into your life.”
“My father was involved before I ever met you.”
That truth hurt more.
We searched everything my father had left me.
Tax records.
Photographs.
Old letters.
Finally I remembered his watch.
It had stopped working shortly before he died.
I had kept it anyway.
Inside the case was a microscopic storage card.
My father had hidden it there.
The files contained twenty years of financial records.
Blackthorn hadn't begun with Richard.
It had begun with Adrian's father, Charles Vale.
After Charles died, Richard inherited the scheme.
My father had discovered it while working as an outside accountant.
Martin Bennett had helped him.
Then Martin betrayed him.
My father lost his company.
His reputation.
Everything.
He died believing he had failed us.
But he had preserved the evidence.
One audio file remained.
My father's voice filled the room.
“If Claire ever hears this, I'm sorry.”
I covered my mouth.
“I wanted to protect you from men who confuse wealth with permission. Martin told me the Vale family would destroy us unless I stayed quiet. I didn't believe him until it happened.”
Then another voice entered the recording.
Richard.
“You should have taken the money, David.”
My father answered, “And you should have stayed away from my daughter.”
The recording ended.
Adrian stared at me.
“What did he mean?”
“I don't know.”
Sebastian did.
He admitted Richard had followed my life for years.
Not because of me.
Because Richard feared my father had given me evidence.
My meeting Adrian at the charity event hadn't been planned.
But once Richard discovered we were dating, he panicked.
Then Adrian began investigating Blackthorn.
Two threats converged.
Adrian.
And me.
“The crash,” I whispered.
Sebastian nodded.
“Richard believed Adrian had found your father's evidence.”
“Did he sabotage the car?”
“I don't know.”
“Who does?”
Sebastian looked toward the door.
“Martin.”
My uncle.
The man I had never known existed.
We arranged a meeting.
Martin chose an abandoned office suite once owned by my father's company.
I went with Sebastian while police waited nearby.
Martin arrived carrying the missing blue box.
My mother wasn't with him.
“Where is she?”
“Safe.”
“Prove it.”
He video-called her.
She answered.
Alive.
Terrified.
But unharmed.
“I didn't take her,” Martin said. “I moved her before Richard's people arrived.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“Because I've spent twenty-five years trying to fix the mistake I made.”
He opened the blue box.
Inside was the original Blackthorn ledger.
Names.
Accounts.
Payments.
And one page that changed everything.
Richard hadn't ordered Adrian's accident.
The payment came from another account.
E.V. Holdings.
Eleanor Vale.
Adrian's mother.
I stared at the initials.
“No.”
Martin looked at me.
“That's what your father discovered before he died.”
My phone rang.
Adrian.
I answered immediately.
His voice was strained.
“Claire, where are you?”
“With Martin.”
Silence.
Then:
“Get out.”
“Why?”
“I remembered.”
My heart hammered.
“What?”
“The night of the crash.”
His next words barely came through.
“Your uncle was in the car with me.”
I looked up.
Martin was no longer standing across the room.
May you like
He was directly behind me.
And the door had just locked.
