Chapter 12: THE WOMAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
Chapter 12: THE WOMAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
The next morning, Rebecca arrived before breakfast.
That alone told me something was wrong.
Rebecca was never early.
Not once.
She believed punctuality was important, but urgency was different.
Urgency meant someone was scared.
She placed a folder on my table.
“I found something.”
I looked at the folder.
“What?”
“Daniel’s investigator.”
I froze.
“You found him?”
She nodded.
“His name is Thomas Reed.”
“And?”
“He’s alive.”
I stared.
For five years, I believed every piece of this story was already uncovered.
Apparently not.
“Where is he?”
Rebecca looked uncomfortable.
“Claire, before I tell you that, you need to understand something.”
“What?”
“Thomas stopped investigating your family because Daniel asked him to.”
“Why?”
Rebecca opened the folder.
Inside were photographs.
My father.
My mother.
Vanessa.
And someone else.
A woman I had never seen before.
“Who is that?”
Rebecca looked at the photograph.
“That’s what we need to find out.”
The woman appeared to be in her fifties.
Professional.
Calm.
Standing beside my father outside a bank.
The date was printed below.
Two months before Daniel died.
I felt sick.
“What does my father have to do with her?”
Rebecca turned the page.
The answer was written there.
The woman’s name:
Evelyn Hart.
Occupation:
Estate planning consultant.
My stomach dropped.
“Why does that matter?”
Rebecca looked at me.
“Because Evelyn helped your father create documents.”
“What documents?”
She hesitated.
Then said:
“Documents naming him as potential guardian of Lily.”
The room went silent.
Again.
Another plan.
Another attempt.
Another hidden door.
I thought we had reached the end.
We hadn’t.
Rebecca continued.
“But there’s something stranger.”
“What?”
“Evelyn contacted me yesterday.”
I stared.
“Why?”
“She says she wants to talk to you.”
“About what?”
Rebecca opened another document.
A handwritten note.
Only one sentence.
Claire Bennett,
Your father was not the mastermind.
He was following someone else’s instructions.
I read it again.
Then again.
“Someone else?”
Rebecca nodded.
“Someone who knew Daniel was investigating.”
I looked at the photograph.
The unknown woman.
The hidden trust.
The secret documents.
The years of planning.
For the first time in five years, I felt the same fear I felt outside that hotel room.
Not because someone could take Lily away.
Because someone had been watching us long before I knew there was danger.
And now they knew I had found them.
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
A woman’s voice spoke.
“Claire Bennett?”
I said nothing.
“This is Evelyn Hart.”
My grip tightened around the phone.
“I think it’s time we talk.”
“Why?”
A pause.
Then:
“Because Daniel died believing he had stopped them.”
My heart stopped.
“But he was wrong.”
Silence.
“Who?”
Her voice lowered.
“The person who started this.”
I looked at Rebecca.
She was already reaching for her notebook.
Then Evelyn said:
“And Claire?”
“Yes?”
“Do not trust your father’s records.”
“Why?”
“Because they were altered.”
I stood frozen.
“What records?”
The woman whispered:
“Daniel’s death records.”
The call ended.
May you like
And for the first time in five years…
I wondered if Daniel’s death had really been an accident.
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