Chapter 5 - The Message From The Past
The phone on Emily’s hospital table displayed one sentence: "I know you finally found the file." When I opened the hidden account connected to that phone, I discovered my father’s private records. But one document inside revealed a name I never expected: "Victor Hale." I finally understood my best friend had been hiding the truth for years.
I stared at the phone.
Neither Emily nor I moved.
The screen stayed bright.
Waiting.
The message was still there.
I know you finally found the file.
My eyes moved toward Emily.
Her face had lost all color.
"Emily."
She looked terrified.
"Where did this phone come from?"
She didn't answer.
Instead, she looked at the door.
Then the window.
Then back at me.
Like she was checking if someone was watching.
"Daniel..."
Her voice was weak.
"You need to leave."
I froze.
"What?"
"Take the phone and leave."
"No."
I shook my head.
"Not this time."
Her eyes filled with tears.
"Please."
I leaned closer.
"For three months, I thought you left me because you didn't love me anymore."
She closed her eyes.
"I know."
"I thought you found someone else."
"I know."
"I thought I was the reason everything fell apart."
Her lips trembled.
"Daniel..."
"No."
My voice cracked.
"I'm done not knowing."
The monitor beside her bed continued beeping.
Slow.
Steady.
Like it was counting every second we had left.
"You said my father was killed."
Emily looked down.
"Yes."
"You said he discovered someone stealing from him."
She nodded.
"Yes."
"Who?"
She didn't answer.
That was the same silence.
The same silence that had followed me for months.
But this time, I refused to accept it.
"Who, Emily?"
She looked at me.
Then whispered:
"Your company."
I froze.
"My company?"
She nodded slowly.
"Your father's company."
I stepped back.
"My father built that company."
"I know."
"He trusted everyone around him."
Emily looked away.
"That's why he died."
The words hit me harder than I expected.
I looked at the phone again.
The message.
The unknown sender.
The hidden file.
Everything was connected.
"Who sent this phone?"
Emily's fingers tightened around the blanket.
"I don't know."
"But you know what it means."
She didn't deny it.
That scared me more.
I picked up the phone.
The screen unlocked immediately.
No password.
No protection.
Like whoever left it wanted me to find everything.
The first thing I saw was an account.
A private cloud storage.
Thousands of files.
Photos.
Documents.
Audio recordings.
My father's name appeared everywhere.
Arthur Carter.
My father.
The man everyone remembered as a successful businessman.
I opened the oldest file.
A scanned document appeared.
A financial report.
At first, it looked normal.
Numbers.
Transactions.
Signatures.
Then I noticed something.
A name repeated again and again.
Victor Hale.
My hand stopped moving.
Victor.
My best friend.
My business partner.
The man who stood beside me when I buried my father.
The man who told me my father’s death was just a tragic accident.
I looked at Emily.
"You knew."
Her eyes filled with tears.
"I suspected."
"When?"
"Before our wedding."
I stared at her.
"Before?"
She nodded.
"Daniel, I found documents while helping you organize your father's old office."
My chest tightened.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I tried."
"Then why didn't you?"
Her eyes became painful.
"Because every time I tried, something happened."
"What do you mean?"
She looked at the door.
"Someone broke into our apartment."
I stopped.
"What?"
"Someone searched through my things."
"When?"
"Two weeks before our wedding."
I felt my stomach turn.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I was scared."
"You should have told me."
"I wanted to."
Her voice cracked.
"But then Victor showed me something."
I froze.
"What?"
She swallowed.
"Messages."
My heart sank.
"What messages?"
"Messages between you and another woman."
I stared at her.
"What?"
"He showed me pictures."
I shook my head.
"That's impossible."
"I know that now."
The room became silent.
Because suddenly everything made sense.
The arguments.
The distance.
The divorce.
Someone had been controlling what we believed.
Someone had been feeding us lies.
"Victor made you think I betrayed you."
She nodded.
"And he made you think I betrayed you."
I couldn't speak.
Because it was true.
The entire foundation of our marriage had been built on a lie.
I opened another file.
A video.
Recorded five years earlier.
The date was one month before my father's death.
I pressed play.
The screen showed my father's old office.
He was sitting behind his desk.
Older.
Tired.
But alive.
My breath caught.
I hadn't seen him move in years.
"Arthur Carter."
My father's voice filled the room.
"If you are watching this, something has happened to me."
I looked at Emily.
She covered her mouth.
My father continued.
"I discovered someone inside my company has been moving money through private accounts."
He paused.
"I trusted this person."
My hands tightened.
"I treated him like family."
The video shook slightly.
My father's expression became serious.
"The person responsible is not working alone."
A folder appeared on the desk.
My father opened it.
Inside were documents.
Names.
Numbers.
Evidence.
Then he said:
"The person closest to Daniel is the one I fear most."
The video stopped.
I stared at the frozen screen.
My heart was pounding.
Closest to me.
Victor.
But there was another possibility.
Someone else.
Someone I hadn't considered.
The video continued.
My father turned the page.
Then he looked directly into the camera.
"Daniel, if you see this, you need to know one thing."
I leaned closer.
"Trust no one who tells you they are protecting you."
The screen went black.
No ending.
No explanation.
Just darkness.
Emily started crying quietly.
"I tried to tell you."
I looked at her.
"Why didn't you show me this?"
Her face changed.
Fear returned.
"Because I never had the chance."
"What do you mean?"
She looked at me.
"The night I was going to show you..."
She stopped.
"The night you signed the divorce papers."
I remembered.
That night.
The papers were already prepared.
She sat across from me.
Silent.
Broken.
I thought she didn't care.
But now...
She was trying to save me.
A notification appeared on the phone.
A new message.
Both of us looked down.
The sender had changed.
This time, there was a name.
Not unknown.
Not hidden.
A name I recognized.
My hands went cold.
Because the message came from Victor.
It said:
Daniel, you need to stop searching before Emily tells you what happened the night your father died.
I stared at the screen.
Another message arrived immediately.
A photo.
A photo of my father.
Standing beside someone.
Someone I had never seen before.
Someone holding the same file Emily found.
Under the picture were five words:
You know this person.
I zoomed in.
My breathing stopped.
Because the person standing beside my father was not Victor.
May you like
It was someone I had trusted even more.
The hospital room door slowly opened behind me.
