Chương 5
He looked confused.
"Illegal transactions?"
Emily saw the pain on his face.
Her father was not just discovering a betrayal.
He was discovering that the life he built might have been surrounded by lies.
"Who did she suspect?" Emily asked.
David turned the page.
There was a name written at the bottom.
He stopped breathing for a moment.
Emily noticed immediately.
"Dad?"
David did not answer.
"Who?"
Slowly, he lowered the paper.
"It says my brother's name."
Emily frowned.
"Your brother?"
David nodded slowly.
"My older brother Michael."
Victoria looked at him.
"Sarah was wrong."
David looked at her.
"You never told me she was investigating him."
"Because it was impossible."
Victoria's voice became defensive.
"Michael was your family."
David stared at her.
"So you knew."
A long silence followed.
Emily felt her heart sink.
"Mom found out about this before she died."
Victoria looked at her.
"Your mother was looking for things she didn't understand."
Emily shook her head.
"No."
Her voice became stronger.
"She was trying to protect my father."
David looked at his daughter.
Those words affected him deeply.
Sarah had spent her final months searching for answers.
And he had spent years believing there were no answers to find.
He turned back to the papers.
There were more notes.
More dates.
More names.
Then he found something that made him freeze.
A photograph slipped out from between the pages.
It landed on the desk.
Emily picked it up first.
It was a picture of Sarah standing beside another man.
The man looked familiar.
David reached for it.
His face changed.
"That's impossible."
Emily looked at him.
"Who is he?"
David stared at the photograph.
The man standing beside Sarah was younger, but there was no mistake.
"I know him."
"Who?"
David swallowed.
"Thomas."
Victoria's eyes widened slightly.
Emily noticed.
"You know him too."
Victoria quickly looked away.
"Everyone knew Thomas."
David looked confused.
"No."
His voice became quiet.
"Not like this."
Emily studied the photograph.
"Who was he?"
David looked at the image again.
"He was my best friend."
The revelation shocked Emily.
"Your best friend?"
David nodded.
"He worked with me before I started my company."
He paused.
"Before I met your mother."
Victoria stepped closer.
"David, you need to understand."
He ignored her.
"Why was Sarah with him?"
No one answered.
The silence itself became painful.
Emily looked at Victoria.
"You knew."
Victoria remained quiet.
"You knew about him."
Victoria finally spoke.
"Yes."
David looked at her.
"How long?"
Victoria looked down.
"Years."
The anger on David's face returned.
"You knew my wife was investigating my company."
"Yes."
"You knew she found evidence."
"Yes."
"You knew about Thomas."
Victoria closed her eyes briefly.
"Yes."
David stepped back.
He looked like the person he trusted most had suddenly become a stranger.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Victoria's answer came softly.
"Because I was afraid."
David almost laughed.
"Afraid of what?"
"Of losing everything."
Emily looked at her.
"You let me believe my father abandoned me because you were afraid?"
Victoria's face tightened.
"Emily, this is bigger than you."
"No."
Emily shook her head.
"It was always about me too."
Her voice broke.
"You took my father away from me."
Victoria looked at her.
"I was trying to protect this family."
Emily stared at her.
"You keep saying that."
She wiped a tear from her face.
"But every time you say it, someone gets hurt."
David looked at his daughter.
For the first time, he saw the strength hidden beneath all the pain.
She was no longer the scared teenager who left the mansion.
She was a woman who had survived years of being silenced.
David turned back to Victoria.
"What happened to Sarah?"
Victoria's expression changed.
The question she had avoided for years had finally arrived.
"I don't know."
David stared at her.
"That is not an answer."
Victoria looked toward the window.
"I know what I was told."
"By who?"
She hesitated.
"Michael."
The name shocked him.
David stepped closer.
"My brother told you something about Sarah?"
Victoria nodded.
"He said she was planning to expose everyone involved."
David's voice became quiet.
"And you believed him?"
"I didn't know what to believe."
"Then why did you let me think she was wrong?"
Victoria looked at him.
"Because after Sarah died, I found documents."
Emily immediately looked at her.
"What documents?"
Victoria looked at both of them.
"Documents that suggested Sarah was going to leave."
David froze.
"No."
Victoria continued.
"She was preparing to take Emily away."
Emily's eyes filled with disbelief.
"That's not true."
David looked at Victoria.
"You knew that would destroy me."
Victoria's voice softened.
"I thought you deserved to know."
"No."
David shook his head.
"You wanted me to believe she left."
The room became quiet again.
Then Emily noticed something.
A small detail hidden among the papers.
A handwritten sentence at the bottom of one page.
She reached for it.
"Dad."
David looked at her.
"What?"
She pointed at the words.
"Mom wrote something else."
David leaned closer.
The sentence was short.
But it changed everything.
"If anything happens to me, trust Emily, not the people around her."
David stared at the message.
Emily looked terrified.
Because her mother had not only suspected danger.
She had known it was coming.
And she had left a warning for the one person she believed would eventually find the truth.
Her daughter.
Emily stared at the sentence written in her mother's handwriting.
If anything happens to me, trust Emily, not the people around her.
The words felt impossible to understand and yet painfully clear at the same time.
Her mother had known something was wrong.
She had known someone close to the family could not be trusted.
And somehow, before everything fell apart, she had believed Emily would one day uncover the truth.
David slowly reached for the paper.
His fingers brushed against the handwriting like he was afraid it would disappear.
"She knew," he whispered.
May you like
Emily looked at him.
"She knew something was going to happen."
