PART 5: THE WOMAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
Emily ran through the church doors.
For a second, nobody moved.
Then Detective Carter shouted:
“Stop her!”
Two officers immediately chased after her.
I stood frozen beside Lily.
My daughter was still clinging to my dress.
“Mom…”
I looked down at her.
“Stay with me.”
“But why is Emily running?”
I didn't know how to answer.
Because only seconds earlier, I had believed Emily was the person Marcus trusted.
The woman who had helped me when I couldn't sleep.
The woman who had brought Lily soup when she was sick.
The woman who had sat beside me during the funeral and cried with me.
And now she had run.
Not because she was afraid.
Because Marcus had been afraid of her.
I looked toward David.
“What did Marcus know?”
David shook his head.
“I don't know.”
“You were his attorney.”
“Yes.”
“And he never told you?”
“He told me he had evidence against several people.”
He looked toward the doors.
“But he never told me Emily was one of them.”
A loud crash came from outside.
Then someone shouted.
The church fell silent.
A minute later, Detective Carter returned.
Alone.
My heart dropped.
“Where is she?”
“She got into a car.”
“Did you catch her?”
“No.”
“Did you see where she went?”
“Yes.”
He looked at me.
“She was heading toward your house.”
I felt sick.
“My house?”
He nodded.
“Which means we need to get there before she does.”
I looked at Lily.
“No.”
Carter frowned.
“Mrs. Hale?”
“I’m not leaving my daughter.”
“You're not.”
He gestured toward the officers.
“We'll take you both somewhere safe.”
But before I could answer, Lily suddenly spoke.
“Mom.”
I turned.
“Dad said something.”
“What?”
She looked at the smartwatch.
“Before the funeral, Dad told me that if you ever looked scared, I should give you the red key.”
I stared at her.
“What red key?”
Lily reached into her coat pocket.
She pulled out a tiny red key.
My heart stopped.
“Where did you get that?”
“Dad gave it to me three days before the accident.”
I took it from her.
I recognized it immediately.
It was the key to Marcus's private office.
The office he had always kept locked.
The office I had never entered without him.
David stared at the key.
“Marcus gave that to Lily?”
“Yes.”
I looked at him.
“What does it open?”
David hesitated.
“I don't know.”
Detective Carter stepped closer.
“Then we're going to find out.”
* * *
Twenty minutes later, we arrived at Marcus's office building.
The police had already secured the area.
His company was closed.
Employees stood outside in small groups, whispering.
Everyone knew something terrible had happened.
But nobody knew how deep it went.
We entered the building.
The elevator doors opened on the executive floor.
Marcus's office was at the end of the corridor.
I stood in front of the door.
The red key trembled in my hand.
I inserted it.
Click.
The lock opened.
The room smelled exactly like him.
Leather.
Coffee.
His cologne.
For one painful second, I imagined he would walk through the door.
“Claire?”
I almost answered.
Then I remembered.
He was gone.
I walked inside.
Everything was exactly where he had left it.
His desk.
His chair.
The photograph of me and Lily.
A coffee cup.
A stack of documents.
Detective Carter began searching the room.
David went straight toward the bookshelf.
“Marcus had a hidden compartment here.”
I turned.
“How do you know?”
“He told me about it.”
He removed three books.
Then pressed something behind the shelf.
A small section clicked open.
Inside was a black metal box.
My heart pounded.
“What is that?”
David pulled it out.
There was no lock.
Only a fingerprint scanner.
He looked at me.
“Try Marcus.”
I placed my finger on the scanner.
Nothing happened.
David tried his.
Nothing.
Detective Carter looked at Lily.
“Maybe he gave the access to someone else.”
Lily stepped forward.
“Dad said it was for Mom.”
I placed Lily's hand on the scanner.
Nothing.
Then she looked at me.
“Mom, he said your wedding ring.”
I froze.
“My ring?”
She nodded.
“He told me your ring was important.”
I stared at the ring Marcus had given me fourteen years ago.
My hands shook as I removed it.
There was a tiny mark inside the band.
A symbol I had never noticed.
I pressed the ring against the scanner.
The box opened.
Everyone stepped closer.
Inside was a single envelope.
And a photograph.
I picked up the photograph.
My breath stopped.
It showed Marcus standing outside a restaurant.
Beside him was Richard.
And beside Richard…
was Emily.
But that wasn't what terrified me.
The photograph had been taken six months before Marcus's accident.
On the back was a handwritten note.
THEY HAVE BEEN WORKING TOGETHER FOR YEARS.
I looked at David.
“Then why did Marcus say Emily was trying to protect us?”
David didn't answer.
Detective Carter took the photograph.
“Because perhaps she was.”
I frowned.
“What?”
He turned the photograph over.
“There is something else.”
Under the first sentence was another line.
ONE OF THEM CHANGED SIDES.
My heart raced.
“Which one?”
We didn't know.
Then I opened the envelope.
Inside was a letter from Marcus.
My name was written on the front.
I unfolded it.
Claire,
If you're reading this, I'm probably gone.
I had to stop.
My vision blurred.
I continued.
There are things I couldn't tell you because telling you would have put you in danger.
Richard betrayed me.
But Emily saved me once.
I looked up.
David's eyes were fixed on the letter.
I continued reading.
The problem is that I don't know if she saved me because she cared…
or because she needed me alive.
My heart sank.
Emily knows who started everything.
She knows who created the shell companies.
She knows who ordered the surveillance.
And she knows who was inside our house the night before the accident.
I stopped reading.
“The night before?”
Detective Carter nodded.
“Keep going.”
My fingers trembled.
The final paragraph was only three lines.
Claire, there is only one person I trust completely.
It isn't Richard.
It isn't Emily.
I stared at the words.
Then turned the page.
There was a final sentence.
It's you.
Tears filled my eyes.
Marcus had trusted me.
Even when everyone else had turned against me.
Even when he knew he might die.
He had trusted me to find the truth.
Then something fell from inside the envelope.
A small memory card.
Detective Carter picked it up.
“What is this?”
David looked at it.
“I think that's the final piece.”
Before we could examine it, my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
“Hello?”
No response.
Then a woman's voice whispered:
“Claire…”
I froze.
It was Emily.
“Where are you?”
A pause.
“Somewhere you can't find me.”
“Why did you run?”
Her breathing was uneven.
“Because if I stayed, they would kill me.”
“Who?”
Silence.
Then Emily whispered:
“Richard isn't the one who ordered the accident.”
My heart stopped.
“Then who did?”
Her voice dropped.
“The person who ordered it…”
A pause.
“…is someone you're protecting without knowing it.”
“Who?”
The line went dead.
I stared at the phone.
Detective Carter looked at me.
“What did she say?”
I slowly lowered the phone.
“She said Richard didn't order the accident.”
Carter's expression hardened.
“Then who did?”
I looked down at Marcus's letter.
And suddenly, I remembered something.
One detail from the morning of the accident.
Something I had completely forgotten.
Marcus hadn't been driving alone.
Someone had called him moments before he left.
And that person had told him to change his route.
I knew exactly who had made that call.
My own mother.
I looked at Detective Carter.
“I think I know where we need to go.”
He asked:
“Where?”
I whispered:
“To my mother's house.”
But before we could leave, the lights in Marcus's office suddenly went out.
The door slammed shut.
And from somewhere inside the darkness…
a woman's voice whispered:
“Claire.”
I froze.
It was Emily.
But she wasn't on the phone anymore.
She was standing inside the room.
And she was holding a gun.
