Chapter 4 - What Emma's Mother Hid
Daniel spent the next week digging.
Quietly.
Legally.
Carefully.
He hired investigators he trusted.
He reviewed old corporate records.
He reopened financial investigations.
He accessed documents his company had acquired years earlier.
Piece by piece, the truth emerged.
Greg Reynolds had indeed worked for Anderson Meridian.
He had been brilliant.
Too brilliant.
He discovered millions missing from company accounts.
But there was another layer.
Greg hadn't been stealing.
He had been documenting theft.
When he confronted his superiors, he was fired.
Three days later, he disappeared.
Sarah had moved Emma to a small apartment.
Six months after Greg vanished, Sarah began working at the competitor-owned hospital.
Four years passed.
Then Sarah became sick.
According to family photographs, she had been undergoing treatment.
But no hospital records existed.
Someone had erased her.
Daniel returned to the company archives.
One name appeared repeatedly beside the deleted files.
Richard Anderson.
His uncle.
Daniel confronted him.
Richard was sitting in a private club downtown.
He smiled when Daniel approached.
"Daniel."
"Uncle."
"Been years."
Daniel sat.
"You knew Greg Reynolds."
Richard's smile disappeared.
"Why are you asking?"
"Because his daughter is alive."
Richard stared at him.
For the first time, fear crossed his face.
"Where is she?"
"Safe."
Richard exhaled.
"You need to send her away."
"Why?"
"Because if they know she survived, they'll come for her."
"Who?"
Richard looked around.
Then whispered.
"Your father's old partners."
Daniel's jaw tightened.
"My father?"
"Your father knew about the theft."
"What happened?"
"He tried to stop it."
Daniel went silent.
His father had died when Daniel was twenty-six.
A car accident.
That was the official story.
Richard continued.
"He was not killed by chance."
Daniel stared at him.
"You're saying my father was murdered?"
Richard nodded.
"Why?"
"Because he found the records."
Daniel stood abruptly.
"And Greg?"
"Greg helped your father."
"What records?"
Richard looked down.
"Ledger books."
"Where?"
"I don't know."
Daniel grabbed his arm.
"You will tell me."
Richard looked terrified.
"Daniel, you don't understand."
"My son disappeared for three hours."
"And you found a six-year-old girl who has survived alone for months."
Richard's voice cracked.
"That's because the people who buried her family wanted to make sure nobody found her."
Daniel released him.
"Who?"
Richard said a name.
"Samuel Voss."
Daniel recognized it.
A powerful financier.
A man who had recently begun challenging Anderson Meridian's ownership structure.
A man with ties to private security firms.
A man who had once offered Daniel a suspicious acquisition deal.
Suddenly, the surveillance made sense.
Voss was looking for Emma.
Why?
Because Emma's parents knew something.
Daniel returned home.
Emma was in the garden.
She was teaching Josh how to draw stars.
He watched them for a moment.
Then he walked over.
"Emma."
She looked up.
"Did you find my dad?"
"Not yet."
She nodded.
"Maybe he's dead."
Daniel sat.
"Why do you say that?"
"Mom cried when he disappeared."
She drew another star.
"She said Dad loved us."
"Did he ever mention the papers?"
Emma stopped drawing.
"He hid them."
"Where?"
"He said nobody could know."
"Did he tell you?"
"He told Mom."
"Did she tell you?"
"No."
Daniel nodded.
"What else did your mother say?"
Emma thought.
"She said if anything happened, I should find someone called Daniel."
He froze.
"She said my name?"
"Yes."
"When?"
"The night before Greg left."
Daniel's heart pounded.
"Why would she know me?"
Emma shrugged.
"She said you were the only person Daddy trusted."
Daniel stared at the child.
There was more.
Much more.
That evening, the investigators returned.
They had found an old photograph of Sarah.
She was standing beside a man.
Not Greg.
Not Daniel.
Vincent Vale.
Samuel Voss's brother.
Daniel knew immediately.
He brought the photo to Emma.
She stared.
"That's Mr. Vincent."
"Who is he?"
"He used to visit Mom."
"What did he want?"
"He asked her about Dad."
"Was he nice?"
Emma frowned.
"No."
"Why?"
"He made Mom scared."
Daniel's stomach turned.
Then Emma pointed to the background.
A blue house.
"That's where we lived."
Daniel looked at the photograph.
The house was in Seattle.
Not Portland.
Emma had lived there before the city.
Daniel's investigators searched the property records.
The house had belonged to Sarah.
It had been sold two days after she supposedly died.
To a company owned by Samuel Voss.
Daniel's phone rang.
His security chief sounded urgent.
"Mr. Anderson."
"What?"
"We have a problem."
"Where?"
"Your house."
Daniel turned.
"What happened?"
"The cameras went offline for eleven minutes."
His blood went cold.
"Who was inside?"
"We don't know."
Daniel looked toward the hallway.
Emma.
He ran.
May you like
Her bedroom door was open.
The room was empty.
