Chapter 10 - WHAT HAPPENED THREE YEARS AGO
Emily could not move.
Victor Hale stood on the other side of the steel door, alive.
Not a ghost.
Not a memory.
Alive.
The man whose death had been reported two years earlier was standing in front of her with the same cold eyes she remembered from Daniel’s office.
Adrian stared at him through the glass.
“Open the door,” he said.
Victor smiled.
“You still give orders like the world belongs to you.”
Adrian’s voice became deadly.
“Open the door.”
Victor looked at Emily.
“She still doesn’t know, does she?”
Emily’s throat tightened.
“Know what?”
Victor stepped closer.
“Your boyfriend was never the mastermind.”
Daniel stood behind Emily.
She turned toward him.
“You brought him here.”
Daniel shrugged.
“I brought you here.”
“Why?”
“Because you have something everyone wants.”
“The files?”
“The truth.”
Adrian slammed his fist against the glass.
“Emily, listen to me. Victor is manipulating you.”
Victor laughed.
“Of course I am.”
Emily stared at him.
He continued.
“But manipulation only works when there is something real underneath it.”
Adrian’s face was unreadable.
Victor looked at him.
“Tell her.”
Adrian said nothing.
Emily turned toward him.
“Tell me.”
“Not here.”
“Then where?”
“Emily.”
“No.”
Her voice cracked.
“I am done being told to wait.”
Adrian looked at her.
She saw something in his eyes.
Pain.
Not fear.
Pain.
Finally, he spoke.
“Three years ago, Michael discovered that someone inside my organization was stealing money.”
Victor smiled.
“Keep going.”
Adrian ignored him.
“Michael believed the theft was connected to a larger operation.”
“What operation?”
“Human trafficking. Weapons. Money laundering.”
Emily felt sick.
“Daniel?”
“Daniel was involved.”
Daniel laughed.
“I was a courier.”
Emily turned toward him.
“A courier?”
“I delivered information.”
“You hurt me.”
“That was personal.”
Her face went pale.
Adrian looked at Daniel with disgust.
“Michael found evidence against the people behind the operation.”
Victor continued.
“And then Michael became a problem.”
Emily looked at Adrian.
“What happened?”
Adrian’s voice was quiet.
“Michael was killed.”
“By Victor?”
Victor smiled.
“Not directly.”
“Then who?”
Adrian said:
“I don’t know.”
Emily stared at him.
“You don’t know?”
“I was attacked that night. I lost consciousness.”
“And when you woke up?”
“Michael was dead.”
Victor laughed.
“Convenient.”
Adrian turned toward him.
“You were there.”
“Yes.”
“Then tell her.”
Victor’s smile faded.
“Your brother was going to expose everything.”
“Who killed him?”
Victor looked at Emily.
“The man who ordered it was someone Adrian trusted.”
Adrian went still.
Emily looked at him.
“Who?”
Victor said nothing.
Adrian’s phone suddenly rang.
He answered.
His face changed.
A voice spoke.
Then Adrian looked at Emily.
“Your apartment has been searched again.”
Emily felt cold.
“By whom?”
The voice on the phone answered.
Adrian listened.
Then slowly lowered the phone.
“Someone left a message.”
“What message?”
Adrian looked at Victor.
Victor smiled.
“The second file is not in the cloud.”
Emily’s heart stopped.
She remembered.
Three years ago.
The night she ran.
She had taken the original file.
Not the photographs.
The actual file.
And she had hidden it.
But where?
Suddenly, a memory struck her.
A storage locker.
A small blue box.
Her mother’s old house.
Emily whispered:
“I know where it is.”
Adrian stepped toward her.
“Where?”
She looked at him.
“Somewhere Daniel never found.”
Victor’s smile disappeared.
For the first time, he looked afraid.
May you like
And Emily understood.
Whatever was inside that file could destroy far more than Adrian Blackwell.
