Chapter 3 - Gideon Discovered Lydia Had Been Investigating His Own Company
The memory card contained thirty-seven files.
Most were encrypted.
Three opened.
The first was a bank statement.
The second was a photograph.
The third was a voice recording.
Lydia's voice.
Gideon listened alone.
“If something happens to me, I need this recorded.”
Her breathing was uneven.
“Gideon doesn't know.”
“He can't know until I know who inside the foundation is involved.”
A pause.
“I found the missing funds.”
“They aren't being stolen for personal profit.”
“They're being moved.”
Another pause.
“To a private account in Switzerland.”
Gideon's jaw tightened.
Then Lydia whispered the sentence that changed everything.
“The money is financing something much worse.”
The recording ended.
Gideon played it again.
Then again.
He had built the Witmore Foundation to help families.
If someone had been using it to fund something criminal, he needed to know.
Daniel entered.
“We got another file.”
“What?”
“A video.”
They played it.
Lydia stood in a parking garage.
She looked exhausted.
And frightened.
A man stood across from her.
His face was obscured.
His voice was altered.
“You should stop.”
Lydia shook her head.
“You killed Daniel Mercer.”
The man laughed.
“And no one proved it.”
Gideon froze.
Daniel Mercer had been one of his employees.
He had supposedly died of an overdose six months earlier.
The video ended.
Gideon stared.
“Find everything on Mercer.”
Daniel nodded.
Then Evelyn Shaw walked into the room.
She looked annoyed.
“You wanted me?”
Gideon studied her.
“Yes.”
“About Lydia?”
“Yes.”
Evelyn sat.
“I heard she's in a coma.”
“She is.”
“How terrible.”
Gideon placed the memory card on the table.
“Lydia recorded something.”
Evelyn's face changed.
Only slightly.
But Gideon saw it.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You knew she was investigating the foundation.”
“Everyone knew.”
“She found thirty-two million dollars missing.”
“I’m aware.”
“Where did it go?”
Evelyn smiled coldly.
“Are you accusing me?”
“I'm asking.”
“Then ask your auditors.”
“Lydia was one of them.”
“Then perhaps she made a mistake.”
Gideon leaned forward.
“She almost died.”
Evelyn shrugged.
“Accidents happen.”
Silence.
Gideon's expression hardened.
“Get out.”
Evelyn stood.
“Gideon.”
“What?”
“You should let this go.”
“Why?”
“Because some secrets aren't worth uncovering.”
She left.
Daniel looked at him.
“That was a confession.”
“No.”
Gideon stared at the door.
“It was a warning.”
Meanwhile Norah sat beside Lydia's bed.
She had started drawing.
A house.
A road.
A man.
A red box.
Gideon looked at the drawing.
“What is the box?”
Norah shook her head.
“Daddy said not to tell.”
“Does your mother know?”
“Yes.”
“Where is it?”
Norah hesitated.
“Under the old tree.”
Gideon remembered the park.
The tree near the bench.
He suddenly understood.
The park wasn't random.
Lydia had sent Norah there because something was hidden there.
He called Daniel.
“Get a team to Sheridan Park.”
They found a small metal container buried beneath the oldest oak.
Inside were passports.
Bank records.
And photographs.
One photograph showed Gideon.
Another showed Lydia.
Another showed a man Gideon recognized.
Evan Reed.
Thomas Reed's older brother.
Evan had been assumed dead.
But the final photograph was the one that mattered.
It showed Lydia with a man Gideon had never seen.
Norah stared when she saw it.
“That’s him.”
“Who?”
“The other man.”
Gideon looked closer.
The photograph had been taken outside the Witmore Foundation.
The man was standing beside Evelyn Shaw.
Gideon's stomach dropped.
“Evelyn knew him.”
Norah nodded.
“Mommy called him Mr. Gray.”
Daniel searched.
Mr. Gray was an alias.
The real name was Nicholas Gray.
Former private security contractor.
Former employee of Gideon's father.
And suspected in three unsolved murders.
Gideon felt something dark awaken.
He had believed his enemies were outside.
They were inside.
That night, he moved Norah to his private residence.
She refused to sleep alone.
He allowed her to sleep in the guest suite with two security officers outside.
At 2:00 a.m., Norah appeared in his doorway.
“Can't sleep?”
She shook her head.
Gideon sat up.
“Come here.”
She sat beside him.
“My mama told me something.”
“What?”
“She said if anything happened to her, I should find the man who lost his little girl.”
Gideon stopped breathing.
“Why?”
“She said he would understand.”
His throat tightened.
“How did she know about Juniper?”
Norah looked confused.
“She said her name.”
Gideon's eyes filled.
“She knew my daughter?”
Norah nodded.
“She showed me a picture.”
Gideon couldn't move.
Lydia had known Juniper.
But how?
The question would haunt him until morning.
Because in the photograph found in the park, Lydia stood beside a little boy.
May you like
On the back was written:
For Gideon, so he knows Juniper was not alone.
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