Elise refused to sit until Julian locked every window.
She checked the curtains twice.
Then she looked at Nora.
“You should leave.”
Nora almost laughed.
“You've been watching me for a week, and now you're worried about my safety?”
Elise's expression tightened.
“I wasn't watching you.”
“Someone took those photographs.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Elise looked at Julian.
“Marcus.”
Julian stepped closer.
“Why?”
“Because he wants the notebook.”
“What notebook?”
Elise looked surprised.
“You don't have it?”
Julian shook his head.
She exhaled.
“Then we have less time than I thought.”
Nora crossed her arms.
“Start at the beginning.”
Elise studied her.
Then she nodded.
“My father was laundering money through the construction company.”
Julian looked at the floor.
“I suspected.”
“You knew more than that.”
“I knew something was wrong.”
“You knew he was stealing from people.”
Elise's voice hardened.
“He wasn't just stealing. He was paying officials to approve unsafe projects.”
Nora felt cold.
“How unsafe?”
“Buildings that should never have been occupied.”
Julian stared at his sister.
“People died?”
“Yes.”
Silence followed.
Elise explained that she had discovered the records when she was twenty-three.
She confronted Adrian.
He threatened her.
She went to Marcus.
Marcus promised to help.
Instead, he warned Adrian.
The following night, Elise disappeared.
Julian listened without interrupting.
“I thought you were dead.”
“I know.”
“Why didn't you contact me?”
“I tried.”
“When?”
“Several times.”
“Why didn't I know?”
“Because Dad intercepted everything.”
Julian looked at her.
“You could have come home.”
“I wanted to.”
“Then why didn't you?”
Elise's eyes hardened.
“Because your father wasn't the only person I was afraid of.”
Julian frowned.
“Who else?”
“Marcus.”
Nora stepped closer.
“You said he helped your father.”
“He did.”
“Then why is he after you?”
“Because I stole something.”
“What?”
“A ledger.”
The word hung in the room.
Elise explained that the ledger contained every payment Adrian had made.
Not just names.
Dates.
Account numbers.
Locations.
It was the missing piece investigators had searched for.
Marcus had spent years trying to recover it.
Elise had hidden it.
“Where?”
She looked at Nora.
“You've seen it.”
Nora frowned.
“What?”
“The photograph.”
Julian stared.
Elise continued.
“When you took that selfie on Mercer Street, the ledger was inside the building behind you.”
Nora remembered the moment.
She remembered Julian freezing.
The woman in the background.
The tree.
The old building.
“Why were you there?”
“I was trying to retrieve it.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Who has it?”
Elise shook her head.
“That's what Marcus wants me to tell him.”
Julian stared at her.
“You don't know?”
“No.”
“Then why did you come here?”
“Because I need your help.”
He looked away.
After twenty years, his sister was finally standing in front of him.
He wanted to embrace her.
He was too angry.
Instead, he said, “You should have trusted me.”
Elise's eyes filled.
“You were sixteen.”
“I grew up.”
“So did I.”
“You could have found me.”
“I did.”
Julian froze.
“What?”
“I found you three years ago.”
Nora looked at him.
“You didn't tell me?”
Elise answered.
“I asked him not to.”
Julian looked at his sister.
“Why?”
“Because you were about to marry Nora.”
Nora stiffened.
Elise continued.
“I didn't know who she was.”
Julian looked at Nora.
“I trusted her.”
Elise nodded.
“You should have.”
The room became quiet.
Then Elise reached into her coat.
She pulled out a folded piece of paper.
“Your father left this.”
Julian opened it.
It was dated two days before Adrian died.
The message was brief.
If Elise returns, tell her I was wrong.
Julian stared.
“What does that mean?”
Elise shook her head.
“I don't know.”
Nora took the paper.
There was a second line.
Do not trust Marcus.
Then a third.
Do not trust Robert.
Julian looked up.
“Who is Robert?”
Elise shook her head.
“I don't know.”
Nora noticed something.
The handwriting on the final line looked different.
“Julian.”
He looked.
“The last line wasn't written by your father.”
Elise took the paper.
She stared.
“You're right.”
Nora pointed.
“See the ink?”
The first two lines had faded differently.
The final line was darker.
Written later.
Someone had added it.
Someone wanted them to distrust Robert.
“Who is Robert?” Julian asked.
Elise looked toward the window.
“Robert was Dad's lawyer.”
Julian frowned.
“I remember him.”
“He disappeared after Dad died.”
Nora looked at the documents.
Robert's name appeared on one of the old contracts.
Then another.
And another.
“He may have been involved.”
Elise nodded.
“Or he may have been the person trying to stop it.”
Julian sighed.
“Everyone in this family has two versions.”
“That is why I stayed away.”
Elise sat down.
“I couldn't tell who was lying.”
Nora looked at her.
“And now?”
Elise smiled sadly.
“Now I know that truth isn't always the person who talks first.”
That evening, they went to the apartment where Elise had been staying.
The room had already been searched.
Drawers were open.
Clothes lay scattered.
The mattress had been cut.
Someone had been looking for something.
Elise walked directly to the kitchen.
She opened a cabinet.
Nothing.
Then she removed the bottom shelf.
A small metal box was hidden underneath.
Julian stared.
“You had it here?”
“I thought nobody knew.”
She opened it.
Inside was a key.
A memory card.
And a photograph.
The photograph showed Adrian, Marcus, and Robert.
All three men stood outside a construction site.
On the back was written:
The night everything changed.
Nora examined the photograph.
“Where was this taken?”
Elise answered.
“At the Riverside Tower.”
Julian remembered the name.
The building had been demolished after a structural failure.
Several workers had died.
Adrian's company had been investigated.
The official report blamed a subcontractor.
Elise looked at them.
“That report was false.”
She held up the memory card.
“This contains the original inspection.”
Nora stared.
“Then why hasn't anyone seen it?”
“Because the person who made it disappeared.”
“Who?”
Elise looked at Julian.
“Our father.”
Julian's face tightened.
“He made the inspection?”
“No.”
“He recorded it.”
Elise shook her head.
“He was trying to expose his own company.”
Julian stared at her.
“That doesn't make sense.”
“It does if you understand what happened.”
Elise explained.
Adrian had discovered that Marcus had been falsifying safety records.
He wanted to stop him.
Marcus threatened to expose Adrian's earlier crimes.
The two men turned against each other.
Robert tried to intervene.
Then Adrian died.
Elise believed Marcus had killed him.
But the memory card could prove what happened.
They needed a reader.
Nora found one in her bag.
She inserted the card into her laptop.
The file opened.
A security recording appeared.
Adrian was standing in an office.
Marcus entered.
Robert followed.
They argued.
Then Adrian said something that made Julian sit forward.
“I know who you've been paying.”
Marcus replied.
“You know too much.”
The recording ended.
Nora looked at Elise.
“That's not enough.”
“No.”
“But it's something.”
Then the laptop screen went black.
The memory card had been remotely erased.
Julian stared.
“How?”
Elise whispered.
“They found us.”
The lights in the apartment went out.
A car door slammed outside.
Someone was coming up the stairs.
Elise grabbed Nora's arm.
“We have to go.”
Julian moved toward the back door.
Then they heard a voice in the hallway.
“Julian?”
Robert.
Julian froze.
The voice came again.
“It's me.”
Elise's face went white.
“That isn't Robert.”
Click Here to continue read next: PART4: The Voice Outside the Door Was an Imitation, and When Julian Finally Opened the Hidden Compartment, He Found Evidence His Father Had Planned Everything
The Photograph Was Supposed to Be a Simple Memory, Until Nora Noticed the Stranger Behind Them and Realized Julian Had Been Hiding Something
Part 3 of 16
