Claire stood in the doorway with the two shopping bags hanging from one hand, as though she had arrived for an ordinary visit rather than stepped into the middle of a twenty-three-year-old secret.
Margaret could not move. Her face had become almost colorless, and her hands were pressed against the front of her coat. Emily looked at the woman, then at her mother, searching for some resemblance she had never noticed. There was one. The same pale blue eyes. The same narrow chin. Even the slight tilt of the head was familiar.
Daniel stared at Claire from the bed.
His monitor continued to beep faster than normal.
Claire set the shopping bags down.
"I didn't come here to frighten him," she said quietly. "But apparently I've arrived too late for that."
Margaret found her voice.
"You shouldn't have come."
Claire gave a tired smile.
"You said that twenty-three years ago."
Charles moved between them.
"Claire, leave."
She looked at him.
"You still give orders as if they can erase what happened."
"Not here."
"Especially here."
Emily stepped forward.
"Who are you?"
Claire looked at her for several seconds.
Then she answered.
"I'm your mother's older sister."
Emily swallowed.
"My mother told me you died."
"I know."
"When?"
Claire's eyes shifted toward Margaret.
"The year before you were born."
Emily looked at her mother.
"Why?"
Margaret closed her eyes.
"Because I needed you to believe I had no family left."
"That doesn't explain why you told me she was dead."
"No," Margaret whispered. "It doesn't."
Daniel tried to speak.
Claire immediately turned toward him.
"Don't."
He stopped.
There was something in the way she said it that made Emily understand they had once known each other very well.
Claire walked to the chair beside the bed.
"I know you're frightened, Daniel."
He looked at her.
"I also know you're tired."
His eyes narrowed.
"You shouldn't have contacted her."
Emily looked sharply at Claire.
"You contacted my father?"
Claire nodded.
"Three weeks ago."
"The message?"
"Not all of them."
Emily's stomach tightened.
"Which ones?"
"The first one."
Claire reached into her handbag and removed a small phone.
"I sent Daniel a message telling him Thomas was dead."
Emily stared.
"You knew Grandpa was dead?"
"I was with him when he died."
Margaret covered her mouth.
Charles turned away.
Emily stepped closer.
"What happened?"
Claire looked at Margaret.
"Your mother deserves to hear it from me."
Margaret shook her head.
"No."
Claire's voice remained calm.
"Thomas spent the last twenty-three years hiding from people who wanted his money, his silence, or both. Near the end, he understood that hiding had stopped protecting anyone."
"What did he tell you?" Emily asked.
Claire looked at Daniel.
"He told me to find you."
Emily frowned.
"Me?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because he believed Daniel would never tell you the truth unless someone forced the truth into the room."
Daniel closed his eyes.
Claire continued.
"Thomas also left something for you."
She opened her handbag.
Inside was a small cassette recorder.
Emily stared.
"This is twenty-three years old."
Claire nodded.
"Thomas recorded one conversation."
Charles immediately stepped forward.
"Where did you get that?"
"From the place where he died."
Charles's expression hardened.
"What place?"
"The old river warehouse."
Emily went still.
The address from Charles's paper.
She looked at him.
"You sent me there."
Charles shook his head.
"No."
"Then who did?"
Claire answered.
"Thomas."
Emily's fingers tightened around the folder.
"The message telling me to go there came from someone else."
"Yes."
"Who?"
Claire looked at Daniel.
"Someone knew Thomas had left instructions."
Emily felt the pieces shift again.
"Who has access to Dad's phone?"
Margaret answered softly.
"The nurses."
Charles shook his head.
"And the police."
Emily remembered Daniel's warning.
Police inside.
Claire sat down.
"Before we accuse anyone, listen to the recording."
Emily placed the cassette recorder on the bedside table.
Her hands trembled as she pressed play.
Static filled the room.
Then an old man's voice emerged.
Thomas.
Older than Emily remembered from the photographs, but unmistakable.
"If Daniel is hearing this, I've already failed him once."
Daniel's eyes filled with tears.
The recording continued.
"I was afraid. That fear made me cruel, and my cruelty became the cage everyone else lived in."
Margaret began crying silently.
Thomas's voice paused.
Then came the words that changed the room.
"Edward Hale did not die because of the money."
Emily looked at Charles.
"He died because he discovered who was moving the money."
The recording crackled.
"That person was not Daniel. It was not Margaret. And it was not Charles."
Claire looked at Margaret.
Thomas continued.
"The person responsible was someone I trusted completely."
The tape clicked.
Then stopped.
Emily stared at the recorder.
"That's it?"
Claire nodded.
"That's all."
"Why would he leave the answer out?"
"He didn't."
Emily looked at her.
Claire pointed to the folder.
"Look at the last page."
Emily opened it.
There was a typed list of names.
Daniel.
Margaret.
Charles.
Edward.
Thomas.
And one name beneath them.
Emily read it.
Then looked up.
"What is this?"
Margaret whispered the answer.
"My father."
Emily frowned.
"Thomas?"
"No."
Margaret's voice broke.
"The name underneath."
Emily looked again.
There was a name she had never heard.
"Victor Hale."
Charles stared at the page.
"Edward's brother."
Emily looked at him.
"Why would Edward's brother be involved?"
Charles sat heavily in the chair.
"Because Edward wasn't only Thomas's accountant."
"What was he?"
"His informant."
Emily looked at Claire.
"Then who was Victor?"
Claire answered.
"Thomas's private investigator."
Emily stared.
"Grandpa hired the man whose brother was investigating him?"
"Yes."
"That makes no sense."
"It didn't then either."
Daniel suddenly lifted his hand.
Emily went to him.
He pointed toward the cassette.
Then toward Claire.
His lips moved.
"Second."
Emily leaned closer.
"Second what?"
"Side."
Claire's expression changed.
"The second tape."
Emily turned.
"You said there was only one."
Claire shook her head slowly.
"I said Thomas gave me one."
Daniel looked toward the wardrobe.
His fingers trembled.
Emily opened it.
There were hospital clothes, a robe, and a small black suitcase.
She pulled the suitcase down.
Inside was another cassette.
Claire stared.
"I didn't know that was there."
Charles stepped closer.
Daniel whispered.
"Margaret."
Everyone looked at her.
Margaret began to cry.
"I know."
Emily froze.
"You know what's on it?"
Margaret nodded.
"Because I heard it once."
"When?"
"The night your grandfather disappeared."
She looked at Daniel.
"Your father made me listen."
Daniel closed his eyes.
Margaret continued.
"Afterward, he told me to forget I had ever heard it."
Emily pressed the second tape into the recorder.
Static.
Then Margaret's younger voice.
"Thomas, you can't do this."
Thomas answered.
"You already know too much."
Margaret's recorded voice shook.
"I know Daniel didn't steal anything."
"Then you know what happens if he speaks."
"What are you going to do?"
Silence.
Then Thomas said one sentence.
"I will make him believe you are dead."
Emily stopped breathing.
The recording continued.
Margaret's younger voice whispered, "And Emily?"
Thomas answered.
"She will never know you had a sister."
The tape clicked off.
Emily looked at her mother.
"Why did Grandpa threaten to erase you?"
Margaret wiped her face.
"Because Claire knew about Victor."
Claire nodded.
"And I knew what Victor had done."
"What did he do?"
Claire looked at Daniel.
"He killed Edward."
Silence filled the room.
Charles shook his head.
"No."
Claire looked at him.
"I saw him."
"You weren't there."
"I was."
"Claire—"
"I watched him leave."
Emily looked from one to the other.
"Then why wasn't he arrested?"
Claire's answer came quietly.
"Because Thomas protected him."
Emily felt sick.
"Why?"
"Because Victor had evidence that could destroy the company."
"And Thomas chose the company?"
Claire looked at Margaret.
"He chose fear."
Daniel reached for Emily's hand.
She took it.
His fingers were cold.
Claire stood.
"The question isn't who killed Edward anymore."
Emily looked at her.
"Then what is?"
Claire glanced toward the hallway.
"Who has been using Edward's records to control your family ever since."
The door opened.
A police officer entered.
Charles immediately stepped toward him.
The officer looked at Emily.
"Ms. Mercer, I need to speak with you."
Emily did not move.
"About what?"
"Your father's condition."
Charles's expression changed.
Claire whispered, "That's not the officer who came earlier."
Emily looked at the man's badge.
Then at his face.
Something was wrong.
She remembered the unknown messages.
The forged records.
The warning about someone inside the police.
The officer stepped closer.
"Please come with me."
Emily tightened her grip on the cassette recorder.
"No."
The man's hand moved toward his coat.
Charles grabbed Emily's shoulder.
"Run."
Click Here to continue read next: PART6: Emily Learns Why Her Mother Erased Her Own Sister, While the False Officer Closes the Door and Forces an Impossible Choice
The Visitor Arrived Carrying Two Expensive Shopping Bags, Yet Her Father Had Asked Everyone to Keep Her Away From His Hospital Room
Part 5 of 16
