Chapter 9 - The Man Who Was Never an Adviser
The fire was real.
That was the first thing I understood.
Not a warning.
Not a threat.
Not a picture designed to scare me.
Real.
My apartment was burning.
I stared at the screen.
The image showed the hallway outside my door covered in smoke.
The walls were black.
The lights were flickering.
Everything I owned was inside that place.
My clothes.
My photographs.
The few things I had left from my mother.
Gone.
But that wasn’t what terrified me.
It was the message.
You have five minutes to leave the house.
Not my apartment.
The house.
They weren’t telling me to escape the fire.
They were telling me someone was coming.
Someone who knew where we were.
Emmett saw my face.
“What happened?”
I handed him the phone.
He read the message.
His expression changed immediately.
“Everyone move.”
Nobody questioned him.
Not even Evelyn.
That was when I realized something.
For the first time since this started, Emmett wasn’t reacting.
He was leading.
The billionaire who had spent hours discovering betrayal after betrayal was finally becoming the man everyone feared.
Not because he was angry.
Because he was focused.
“Rafferty,” he said.
The older man nodded.
“I know.”
“Secure the back exit.”
“Already doing it.”
“Evelyn, stay with Mara.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“I’m not a child.”
“No.”
His voice softened.
“But you are the reason they are here.”
That stopped her.
Because it was true.
The hidden daughter.
The forgotten sister.
The secret that could destroy everything.
Rafferty moved through the house.
Emmett grabbed the notebook from the table.
“Your father’s records.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“You believe me now?”
He looked at her.
“I believe that someone wants us dead.”
It wasn’t forgiveness.
Not yet.
But it was the beginning of something.
We moved toward the back hallway.
Every sound felt louder.
Every step.
Every breath.
Every small movement outside.
I hated that I had become someone who listened for danger.
Someone who checked windows.
Someone who wondered if every stranger already knew my name.
Before this, my biggest worry had been whether I could pay my rent on time.
Now people were trying to kill me because I found a recording.
Because I pressed a button.
Because I was standing in the wrong place at the right moment.
Emmett looked at me.
“You should have left.”
I looked at him.
“What?”
“When this started.”
He looked away.
“You should have taken the money, quit, and disappeared.”
I almost laughed.
“You offered me money?”
“No.”
“Exactly.”
For the first time in days, something almost like a smile appeared on his face.
Almost.
“You’re impossible.”
“I’ve been called worse.”
“I believe that.”
The sound of glass breaking interrupted us.
Everyone stopped.
A window.
Not far away.
Rafferty returned quickly.
“Someone is inside.”
Emmett’s expression hardened.
“How many?”
“I don’t know.”
That answer was worse.
Because Rafferty always knew.
A person like him counted exits.
Measured threats.
Prepared for situations before they happened.
If he didn’t know, it meant the enemy was already ahead.
Evelyn grabbed the notebook.
“We need to leave.”
Emmett looked at her.
“Where?”
“Somewhere my father prepared.”
Rafferty stared at her.
“You know about that?”
She nodded.
“There was another location.”
“Where?”
Evelyn looked toward the hallway.
“The old Howerin chapel.”
Nobody spoke.
Emmett frowned.
“My father’s abandoned chapel?”
“Yes.”
“Why would he hide something there?”
Evelyn looked at him.
“Because nobody visits the place where everyone thinks the dead are buried.”
The sentence stayed with me.
Because it sounded exactly like something his father would do.
Hide truth where nobody wanted to look.
We moved quickly.
The old house had become a battlefield.
A place that was supposed to protect us.
Now every room could contain someone waiting.
Rafferty opened the back door.
The road outside looked empty.
Too empty.
Emmett stopped.
“What?”
Rafferty raised his hand.
Everyone froze.
Then we heard it.
An engine.
Slow.
Approaching.
A black SUV appeared at the end of the road.
No headlights.
Moving quietly.
Rafferty cursed under his breath.
“They found us.”
Emmett looked around.
“How much time?”
“Not enough.”
That was when I noticed something.
The old shed beside the house.
A small wooden building nobody had used in years.
But the door was slightly open.
I pointed.
“There.”
Everyone looked.
Rafferty shook his head.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because it wasn’t open before.”
That sentence made my skin crawl.
Someone had opened it.
Recently.
Emmett looked at the approaching SUV.
Then at the shed.
“We don’t have a choice.”
Rafferty disagreed.
“We don’t know what’s inside.”
Emmett looked at him.
“We already know what happens when we stay.”
Nobody argued.
We moved toward the shed.
Slowly.
Quietly.
The door creaked as Emmett pushed it open.
Inside was darkness.
Dust.
Old tools.
Nothing else.
At first.
Then Evelyn noticed something.
“The wall.”
Everyone looked.
Behind a stack of wooden boxes was a section of the wall that didn’t match.
Different wood.
Different color.
A hidden door.
Emmett stepped closer.
His hand touched the surface.
Then stopped.
Because carved into the wood were words.
Not old.
Fresh.
Recently scratched.
For Emmett. When they come for the truth.
Nobody breathed.
Rafferty whispered:
“Your father.”
Emmett opened the hidden door.
Inside was a small room.
A room that shouldn’t exist.
There were files.
Photographs.
Hard drives.
A small recorder.
Everything his father had hidden.
Everything someone had killed to keep secret.
Emmett walked inside.
I followed.
Because somehow, after everything, I knew this was where the truth was.
He picked up the first file.
The label made him freeze.
Project Evelyn.
He opened it.
Then another document fell out.
A photograph.
A woman.
A man.
A child.
Emmett looked at it.
His face changed.
“What?”
He handed it to me.
The picture showed Emmett’s father.
Evelyn.
And a third person.
A person I recognized.
Not from my life.
From the recordings.
From the bridge.
From every secret.
The person standing beside them was Warren Pike.
But he was much younger.
And he wasn’t working for the family.
He was part of it.
Emmett whispered:
“No.”
Rafferty stepped forward.
“What?”
Emmett turned the photograph over.
There was writing on the back.
A date.
A location.
And one sentence.
Warren was never your father’s adviser.
May you like
The room became silent.
Then the lights went out.
