Chapter 3 - My Wife's Locked Office
Lena's old office had been locked since the week she died.
I had never opened it.
Not because I couldn't.
Because I couldn't bear to.
That afternoon, I stood outside the door.
Ethan was beside me.
“You want me here?”
“Yes.”
He unlocked it.
The room smelled like dust and lavender.
Her desk remained exactly as she had left it.
A half-finished notebook.
A dried flower.
A photograph of us.
A coffee mug with a crack along the handle.
I walked to the desk.
My hands trembled.
I opened the first drawer.
Pens.
Receipts.
Nothing.
Second drawer.
Charity documents.
Third.
Nothing.
Then Ethan noticed something.
“Boss.”
He pointed beneath the desk.
A small metal box was attached underneath.
I crouched.
“What is that?”
“I don't know.”
We removed it.
It required a key.
I searched Lena's desk.
Nothing.
Then I remembered something.
Her bracelet.
After her funeral, I had put it in my bedside drawer.
I went upstairs.
The bracelet had a tiny key attached to its clasp.
I brought it down.
The key fit.
Inside the box was a flash drive.
And a handwritten note.
Daniel, if you're reading this, I didn't trust the people around us.
My heart stopped.
I plugged in the drive.
There were spreadsheets.
Names.
Transfers.
Dates.
And recordings.
Lena had been investigating Blackwell Domestic Services.
She had discovered the same theft.
But there was more.
The stolen money wasn't simply being transferred to Victor.
It was being routed through several shell companies.
Then into political donations.
Then into construction projects.
Then back into Blackwell accounts.
Money was being washed through my own empire.
I stared at the screen.
“How much?”
Ethan calculated.
“Possibly twenty million.”
I looked at him.
“Twenty?”
“Over several years.”
Then I found the recordings.
Lena's voice filled the room.
She was speaking to someone.
Victor.
“You're stealing from employees.”
His voice was calm.
“I'm protecting the company.”
“You're stealing.”
“Call it whatever you want.”
“I'll tell Daniel.”
A pause.
“You won't.”
“Why?”
“Because he'll never believe you over me.”
Lena's voice became quiet.
“Then I'll show him.”
The recording ended.
I sat there.
Ethan looked at me.
“There's another file.”
I opened it.
A photograph.
Victor standing beside another man.
Daniel Brooks.
My attorney.
I froze.
“That can't be.”
Ethan zoomed in.
It was unmistakably him.
My attorney.
The man sitting across from me that morning.
The man I had trusted for years.
I felt the room close around me.
“Boss?”
“Don't tell anyone.”
“What are you thinking?”
“I think the theft goes much deeper.”
I stared at the photograph.
“And I think my wife discovered it.”
Another file opened automatically.
A video.
Lena was sitting in her office.
She looked exhausted.
She was speaking directly into the camera.
“Daniel, if something happens to me, don't trust Victor.”
My breath stopped.
Then she said something that changed everything.
“And don't trust the man you hired to protect your legal interests.”
The screen went black.
I looked at Ethan.
“Daniel Brooks.”
He nodded.
“Yes.”
May you like
My attorney had been part of it.
And suddenly, I wondered whether Lena's death had ever been an accident.
