Chapter 5 - My Brother's Warning
Thomas arrived at the mansion after midnight.
I was waiting in the library, wrapped in a thick sweater, with a doctor nearby and Adrian's security team stationed outside the door.
When Thomas entered, I barely recognized him.
His hair was longer. A pale scar crossed his eyebrow. He walked with a slight limp.
But his eyes were the same.
“Emily?”
I stood too quickly and winced.
He rushed toward me.
“Don't move. You're hurt.”
I threw my arms around him anyway.
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
I had spent eleven years believing my brother had abandoned me. I had blamed myself for not noticing how unhappy he had been before he disappeared.
Now he was standing in front of me, alive.
“You're here,” I whispered.
“I'm sorry.”
“Where have you been?”
Thomas pulled back, his eyes wet.
“Running.”
“From whom?”
He looked toward Adrian.
“The people who killed Dad.”
Adrian shut the library door.
Thomas explained that our father had discovered a hidden financial network involving corrupt executives, politicians, and a criminal organization known as the Black Circle.
The group used legitimate businesses to move money, conceal assets, and intimidate anyone who threatened its operations.
Adrian's father had once been involved in the network. When he tried to withdraw, his brother, Victor Blackwood, took control.
Victor was Adrian's uncle.
He had also been the man who arranged our father's fatal car crash.
“Dad had copied the records,” Thomas said. “He hid them somewhere only you could find.”
“Where?”
“I don't know. He told me he left a clue in your childhood home.”
“That house was sold years ago.”
“Not the house,” Thomas said. “The old music box.”
My breath caught.
I had owned a small wooden music box as a child. My father gave it to me on my tenth birthday. After his death, Michael had encouraged me to donate many of my old belongings.
I had kept the music box.
It was in storage.
“Why didn't you contact me?” I asked.
Thomas's face crumpled.
“I tried. But Victor's people found me. They told me that if I approached you, they would kill you. I thought staying away was the only way to protect you.”
“And Michael?”
Thomas looked at Adrian.
“Michael started asking questions about Dad's estate about a year ago. Then he began contacting Victor's people. I believe they promised him money to help them locate the missing records.”
The room went silent.
The insurance money wasn't merely a fortune.
It was leverage.
If Michael killed me and made it look like an accident, he would receive the cash he needed to pay his debts and satisfy the people financing him.
But the deeper purpose was to ensure that I could never reveal what my father had hidden.
Adrian leaned forward.
“Where is the music box now?”
“An old storage unit in Denver,” I answered.
Thomas nodded.
“Then we need to get there before Victor does.”
Adrian immediately reached for his phone.
But before he could make the call, every light in the mansion went dark.
A gunshot cracked somewhere downstairs.
Thomas grabbed my hand.
Adrian drew a weapon from beneath his coat.
May you like
And from the darkness came a voice.
“Emily Carter. Your husband sends his regards.”
