Chương 9
His eyes filled slightly.
“I know.”
“No.”
My voice cracked.
“You know facts.”
He looked at me.
“You don’t know what it feels like to wake up every morning and remember all over again.”
He looked down.
“I’m sorry.”
“I don’t need sorry.”
I stepped closer to his desk.
“I need the truth.”
Daniel took a long breath.
“Eleanor came to me six months before the accident.”
“Why?”
“She was scared.”
“Of what?”
“She owed money.”
“How much?”
“More than she could repay.”
I waited.
“She said she needed help.”
“Help stealing from me?”
“No.”
The answer came with frustration.
“She never said that.”
“But she wanted access.”
Daniel did not answer.
That was an answer.
“What did she ask you?”
“She asked about the foundation.”
My heart dropped.
“When?”
“After she learned about the insurance.”
I stared at him.
“Julian told her.”
“No.”
Daniel looked at me.
“Your father told your family.”
I felt sick.
Another piece.
Another hidden conversation.
“My father.”
Daniel nodded.
“He thought everyone should know because it was a major life change.”
“And Eleanor?”
“She started asking questions.”
“What questions?”
“Whether you planned to put the money into investments.”
“Whether I would give family members control.”
I felt my hands shake.
“Did she ask you to contact anyone?”
“Yes.”
The word landed heavily.
“What did she ask?”
Daniel looked ashamed.
“She asked me to find out whether you had created legal protections around the foundation.”
I stared at him.
“And did you?”
“Yes.”
The room went silent.
“Why?”
“Because I was afraid.”
“Of what?”
Daniel looked at me.
“Of what Eleanor might do if nobody stopped her.”
That answer should have comforted me.
It did not.
Because it created another question.
“If you were afraid of her, why didn’t you tell me?”
Daniel looked away.
“Because Julian told me he would handle it.”
My breath caught.
“You talked to Julian?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“The day before the accident.”
I grabbed the edge of the chair.
“What did he say?”
Daniel swallowed.
“He said he was going to meet Eleanor.”
“Why?”
“To give her one final chance to tell the truth.”
I looked at him.
“And after that?”
Daniel’s voice became quieter.
“He said if she refused, he was going to tell you everything.”
The room seemed to lose all sound.
Julian had been coming home.
He had been planning to tell me.
He had been carrying the truth toward me.
And he never made it.
I walked out of Daniel’s office without saying goodbye.
Outside, the parking lot was full of cars moving in and out.
People were laughing.
Phones were ringing.
Someone nearby complained about the weather.
Life continued as if my entire world had not shifted again.
When I reached my car, I saw another message from the unknown number.
This time there was no photo.
Only a sentence.
You are looking in the wrong direction.
Then another message appeared.
Julian never made it to his meeting with Eleanor.
Because someone got there first.
I stared at the screen.
My hands went cold.
The accident had never been the beginning.
It had been the moment someone needed everything to disappear.
Because someone got there first.
I read the message again and again until the words stopped looking like words.
Someone got there first.
The person who had sent the messages knew something.
Something about Julian’s final day.
Something about the meeting that never happened.
I drove home without remembering most of the drive.
When I parked, I sat in the car until the engine cooled.
The house stood in front of me, quiet and unchanged.
That was the cruelest thing about losing people.
The world kept its shape.
The same doors.
The same windows.
The same porch light Julian had installed because he hated that the old one flickered.
I walked inside and went straight to his office.
For months, I had avoided it.
Now I opened everything.
Not because I wanted to find something.
Because I needed to know.
I searched through old emails first.
Then calendars.
Then messages.
Julian was organized in a way that sometimes annoyed me.
He labeled everything.
Taxes.
Bills.
School records.
House repairs.
The man who remembered everyone’s birthdays had also remembered to save every important document.
Then I found the calendar entry.
It was not hidden.
It was not locked.
It was simply there.
The day before the accident.
Meeting with E.
10:30 a.m.
No location.
No details.
I stared at the screen.
Eleanor.
I clicked the entry.
There was one note attached.
Bring the paperwork.
That was all.
I printed it.
Then I searched the deleted messages.
Nothing.
I checked his cloud storage.
Nothing.
Whoever had taken something had been careful.
But Julian had been more careful.
That was why he had written things down.
That was why he kept records.
That was why I was still finding pieces of him after he was gone.
The next morning, Melissa called me.
“I have an update.”
I sat at my desk.
“What did you find?”
“The withdrawal attempt.”
My stomach tightened.
“Yes?”
“It came from an account that was accessed using Eleanor’s credentials.”
I closed my eyes.
“Can you prove she did it?”
“No.”
The answer was immediate.
“She could claim someone used her information.”
“Could someone?”
“Yes.”
I looked out the window.
“So we still don’t know.”
“We know more than we did.”
That was true.
It just was not enough.
“Melissa.”
“Yes?”
“Can you find out who sent the messages to me?”
“We’re trying.”
“Trying?”
She sighed.
“Sienna, whoever this person is knows enough to be dangerous.”
“Why?”
“Because they know details that were not public.”
The accident report.
The meeting.
The foundation questions.
The birthday dinner.
Someone had been close to the situation.
Someone had been watching.
That afternoon, my father called.
I almost did not answer.
But I did.
“I found Julian’s calendar.”
There was silence.
Then he said, “I’m sorry.”
“Did you know about the meeting?”
May you like
“No.”
“Did you know Julian was planning to confront Eleanor?”
