Chapter 4 - Sophie Learned That Her Daughter Was the Last Living Piece of a Fifteen-Year-Old ConspiracyThe estate became a fortress.
Phones were checked.
Doors secured.
Vehicles moved.
Employees were questioned.
Sophie stayed with Emma in Adrian's study.
It was the safest room in the house.
Ironically, the room she had never been allowed near.
Emma played with blocks.
Adrian worked at the desk.
Sophie watched him.
“You don't have to do this.”
Adrian looked up.
“Yes, I do.”
“Why?”
“Because my sister asked me to.”
“You barely knew me yesterday.”
“I know.”
“And now?”
He looked at Emma.
“Now I don't want anything to happen to her.”
Sophie swallowed.
“Because she might be Caroline's daughter?”
Adrian hesitated.
“No.”
He stood.
“Because she's Emma.”
The answer hit Sophie differently.
She had spent years being told that her daughter was small.
Fragile.
A burden.
A reason to make sacrifices.
Adrian looked at the little girl and seemed to see none of those things.
Only a child.
That frightened Sophie.
Because it made her care about him.
At 6:00 p.m., Thomas found a hidden camera inside the hallway.
Victor had access.
Or someone inside had helped him.
Sophie felt sick.
“Then we can't trust the staff.”
Adrian looked at her.
“We trust very few people.”
“Do you trust Victor?”
“No.”
“Do you trust Thomas?”
“Yes.”
“Me?”
Adrian didn't answer immediately.
Then:
“Yes.”
Her heart skipped.
At 8:45, Emma woke from her nap crying.
She pointed at the rabbit.
“Mr. Rabbit is sick.”
Sophie checked it.
There was nothing visible.
Adrian took it.
The stitching along the back had been recently repaired.
He looked at Thomas.
“Get me a seam cutter.”
Sophie frowned.
“What if Victor was right?”
“Then we find out.”
The seam opened.
Inside was a thin waterproof capsule.
Adrian stared.
He opened it.
A memory card.
And a handwritten note.
If this is found, Caroline was murdered.
Sophie gasped.
Adrian inserted the card into a secure computer.
A video appeared.
Caroline sat in front of a camera.
She looked exhausted.
But alive.
“Adrian, if you're watching this, Victor has failed to find the child.”
She smiled sadly.
“My daughter.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
Sophie cried.
Caroline continued.
“I couldn't trust the family.”
“I couldn't trust the police.”
“I couldn't trust the men who called themselves friends.”
She looked directly into the camera.
“But I trusted one woman.”
Sophie stared.
Caroline said her mother's name.
Sophie covered her mouth.
“My mother.”
“Yes.”
Caroline continued.
“She will raise the child far away.”
“The child will grow up never knowing her blood.”
“That's the only way she survives.”
Then came the final revelation.
“The child is not the only thing I hid.”
Caroline leaned closer.
“I hid proof of who ordered my death.”
Adrian went still.
“Adrian, it was not Father.”
Sophie looked at him.
“It was Victor.”
The screen went black.
Silence.
Adrian stared at the monitor.
Victor had spent fifteen years pretending to be innocent.
He had been the mastermind.
But why?
Thomas entered.
“We found the financial records.”
“Where?”
“Victor's private company.”
Adrian opened the file.
Every transfer led somewhere.
Then one name appeared.
Grant Hale.
Victor's son.
Adrian frowned.
“His son?”
Thomas nodded.
“Victor built the entire network for him.”
Sophie looked at Emma.
A terrible realization formed.
Victor hadn't been chasing the ledger to save himself.
He had been protecting his son's future.
And there was one more name in the file.
Sophie Carter.
Sophie froze.
“My name?”
“Yes.”
Adrian scanned the records.
Payments had been made to Sophie's mother for years.
Small amounts.
Regular.
Always under the same reference.
Protection.
Sophie began to shake.
“My mother was paid to keep Emma hidden.”
Adrian nodded.
“She wasn't protecting Emma from the world.”
“She was protecting Emma from Victor.”
Sophie sat.
“Why didn't she tell me?”
“Because she believed silence was safer.”
Sophie looked at the little girl.
Emma slept peacefully.
Adrian stood beside her.
“We're ending this.”
“How?”
“We expose Victor.”
Thomas shook his head.
“We need more evidence.”
Adrian looked at the video.
“We have enough.”
“No.”
Thomas pointed to the screen.
“Not yet.”
“Why?”
“Because Victor's signature isn't here.”
Adrian understood.
The video proved intent.
The money proved involvement.
But they needed a direct link.
Then Sophie remembered something.
“My mother kept a blue notebook.”
Adrian turned.
“Where?”
“She hid it after she died.”
“Where is it?”
“In the old apartment.”
Thomas looked at Adrian.
“That may be the evidence.”
Adrian nodded.
“We go tonight.”
Sophie stood.
“I'm coming.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“You're staying with Emma.”
“My mother left it for me.”
Adrian looked at her.
Then nodded.
“Fine.”
But when they reached the apartment, the door was open.
Inside, everything was overturned.
The blue notebook was gone.
On the wall was a message.
You are fifteen years too late.
Adrian turned.
Victor was standing at the end of the hallway.
He smiled.
“Perhaps.”
May you like
Then his gaze moved to Emma.
“But she isn't.”
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