Daniel immediately pulled the curtains shut.
“Don’t go near the windows.”
Julian looked terrified.
“Who sent that?”
I held up my phone.
“You tell me.”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“Yes.”
For once, he didn’t sound like a liar.
He sounded afraid.
Daniel examined the photograph on my phone.
“The metadata has been stripped.”
“Can you trace the number?”
“Not immediately.”
Julian suddenly walked toward the hallway.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
“To check the security system.”
Daniel grabbed his arm.
“No.”
Julian pulled away.
“This is my house.”
“And someone just photographed you from outside without triggering the cameras.”
Julian stopped.
Daniel was right.
The security system should have detected movement around the property.
Unless…
I looked at Julian.
“You disabled it.”
“No.”
“Then someone inside the house did.”
Nobody spoke.
The silence became unbearable.
I looked around the library.
Three of us.
But the house had seven bedrooms.
Staff quarters.
A basement.
Multiple entrances.
Anyone could have been here.
Daniel lowered his voice.
“Rebecca, we need to leave.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“Rebecca.”
“I spent ten years being lied to in this house.”
I looked at the open safe.
“I’m not leaving until I know everything.”
Julian stared at me.
“You don’t know what you’re dealing with.”
“Then tell me.”
He hesitated.
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because if I tell you, you’ll be in danger.”
I stepped closer.
“I’m already in danger.”
That finally broke him.
Julian sat down.
His shoulders collapsed.
“I met Marcus at a private investment conference two years ago.”
I stared at him.
“You met your own brother at an investment conference?”
“He was there with people I didn’t know.”
“What people?”
“Investors.”
Daniel shook his head.
“That’s not the whole story.”
Julian looked at him.
“No.”
He looked at me.
“Marcus had been laundering money through several businesses.”
My stomach tightened.
“Through Vance & Sterling?”
“Yes.”
“And you helped him?”
“At first, I didn’t know.”
I crossed my arms.
“Then what happened?”
“I discovered the transfers.”
“The same transfers Daniel found.”
Julian nodded.
“Marcus threatened me.”
“With what?”
Julian looked toward the red folder.
“With you.”
I didn’t understand.
“He said he could make it look like you were responsible for everything.”
“That doesn’t explain why you signed the documents.”
“He forced me.”
Daniel interrupted.
“People don’t normally get forced into signing millions of dollars away.”
Julian looked at him.
“You weren’t there.”
“No.”
Daniel’s voice was calm.
“But I know financial fraud.”
He pointed toward the safe.
“Those documents weren’t created yesterday.”
Julian said nothing.
I slowly turned toward the safe.
There were more documents inside.
I began pulling them out.
One by one.
Company records.
Wire confirmations.
Photographs.
Contracts.
Then I found a second folder.
This one was marked:
PROJECT STERLING
I opened it.
The first page contained a list of names.
At the bottom was a familiar one.
Marcus Vance.
But beneath his name was another.
Daniel Mercer.
I looked up.
Daniel went completely still.
“What is this?”
He didn’t answer.
“Daniel?”
He stepped closer.
“Let me see.”
I handed him the folder.
He read the page.
His expression became unreadable.
Julian stood.
“You see?”
I looked between them.
“What does this mean?”
Daniel finally spoke.
“It means someone has been investigating this company for much longer than you think.”
“Who?”
He closed the folder.
“I don’t know.”
I stared at him.
“That’s not true.”
He looked at me.
And for the first time since I hired him, I realized something.
Daniel had never been surprised by the safe.
He had been waiting for it.
“Who are you really?” I asked.
Daniel didn’t answer.
Julian whispered:
“Rebecca, don’t trust him.”
I turned toward my husband.
“Why?”
“Because Daniel wasn’t hired by you.”
My blood ran cold.
“What?”
Julian looked directly at Daniel.
“He was sent to you.”
Daniel finally sighed.
Then he reached into his coat.
He removed a small photograph.
He placed it on the desk.
It showed Julian, Marcus, and another man standing together outside a private club.
I recognized the third man immediately.
My father.
Except the photograph was dated twelve years ago.
Three years before my father supposedly died.
I couldn’t breathe.
“My father is dead.”
Daniel shook his head.
“That’s what you were told.”
Julian looked at the floor.
I stared at him.
“You knew?”
He didn’t answer.
“You knew my father was alive?”
“Rebecca…”
“You knew?”
“Yes.”
My voice broke.
“How long?”
“Ten years.”
The room seemed to spin.
Ten years.
Ten years of marriage.
Ten years of lies.
Ten years of believing my father was dead.
I looked at the photograph again.
My father wasn’t just alive.
He was standing beside Julian’s brother.
And beside the man who had supposedly been investigating Julian’s crimes.
Then my phone vibrated again.
Another unknown message.
This time there was no photograph.
Only six words.
Ask your husband who killed your father.
I looked at Julian.
He went white.
And that was when I realized the truth.
The money.
The affair.
The forged documents.
The safe.
None of them were the real story.
They were distractions.
Because Julian hadn’t been protecting himself from losing his marriage.
He had been protecting himself from something much bigger.
A murder.
And the person who knew the truth had just told me exactly where to look.
At my own husband.
