Chương 4
“Your father kept a private server for records he didn’t want connected to the foundation network.”
Maya stared at him.
“You’re telling me my father had a secret server?”
“I’m telling you he had a system.”
“That sounds like the same thing.”
“It wasn’t unusual for someone like your father to keep private records.”
“Private records about what?”
Daniel hesitated.
That hesitation had become a language she was beginning to hate.
“About people.”
“People who?”
“Partners.”
“Employees?”
“Yes.”
“Enemies?”
His eyes moved slightly.
Maya noticed.
“Yes.”
The answer landed quietly.
Not like a confession.
Like a door opening.
Evelyn stepped closer.
“The archive is not the only problem.”
Maya looked at her.
“What else?”
“The access notification came from an account that should no longer exist.”
Daniel frowned.
“What account?”
Evelyn looked between them.
“Robert’s.”
Maya felt the cold air against her face again.
“My father’s account was closed when he died.”
“That’s what everyone was told.”
“Who told everyone?”
Evelyn did not answer.
Maya laughed once, but there was no humor in it.
“This is unbelievable.”
“It is,” Daniel said.
“That’s all you have?”
“No.”
“Then give me something useful.”
He looked at her carefully.
“Your father was preparing for something before he died.”
Maya’s expression hardened.
“Everyone says that after someone dies.”
“No.”
Daniel shook his head.
“Not like this.”
She wanted to challenge him.
She wanted to ask why she should trust a man who disappeared for fifteen years.
But the truth was she did not trust him.
She only trusted that something was wrong.
And that difference frightened her.
A burst of laughter came from inside the ballroom.
Someone had made a joke during a speech.
People clapped.
The sound felt almost offensive.
Maya looked through the glass doors at the guests celebrating her father’s memory.
“Who has access to the archive?”
Evelyn answered this time.
“Originally?”
“Yes.”
“Your father.”
“Obviously.”
“Me.”
Maya turned.
“You?”
“And Daniel.”
The three of them stood silently.
The answer created a strange shape between them.
Three people connected by something Robert Chen had hidden.
Three people who had apparently been waiting years for a moment Maya never knew was coming.
“Why would my father give both of you access?”
Daniel looked down.
“Because he trusted us.”
Maya almost responded immediately.
Then she stopped.
Trust was not something she could accept anymore.
Not after discovering how many people had been trusted with parts of her father’s life that she never received.
“Did he trust me?”
Neither answered.
That hurt more than she expected.
Evelyn looked away.
Daniel closed his eyes briefly.
The silence was enough.
Maya stepped back.
“No.”
“Maya—”
“No.”
She held up a hand.
“Don’t explain it.”
Her voice stayed calm, which surprised even her.
“If you explain it right now, you’ll make it sound reasonable.”
Daniel opened his mouth.
Then closed it.
Because she was right.
They both knew it.
A few minutes later, they left the reception through a side entrance.
Maya did not say goodbye to anyone.
She did not tell the foundation directors she was leaving.
She did not stop for the photographers waiting outside.
For years, she had been trained to maintain appearances.
Tonight, she realized appearances had been the thing that kept her from seeing the truth.
The valet brought her car around.
Daniel and Evelyn stood near the entrance.
Maya looked at them.
“Where are we going?”
Daniel looked surprised.
“You’re coming?”
“I said I wanted answers.”
“Yes.”
“That doesn’t mean I trust you.”
“I know.”
She pointed toward the car.
“Then stop looking surprised.”
Evelyn almost smiled.
Almost.
It disappeared quickly.
The drive across the city was quiet.
Maya sat in the back seat because she did not want to sit beside Daniel.
She told herself it was because she needed space.
She knew it was also because she did not want him to see how shaken she was.
Outside the window, restaurants emptied and apartment buildings glowed with ordinary lives.
People carried groceries.
Couples walked dogs.
A man waited at a bus stop staring at his phone.
The city continued without caring that Maya Chen had just discovered her father might have built a second life behind the one she knew.
Her phone buzzed.
She looked down.
A message appeared from an unknown number.
DON’T OPEN WHAT YOUR FATHER HID.
Her chest tightened.
Daniel saw her expression in the mirror.
“What happened?”
She handed him the phone.
He read the message.
His face changed.
Not dramatically.
But enough.
“You know this number?”
“No.”
“Has anyone else contacted you?”
“No.”
Evelyn turned from the passenger seat.
“Do not reply.”
Maya looked at her.
“Why?”
“Because whoever sent it wants to know whether you received it.”
“That seems obvious.”
“Yes.”
“Then why would they care?”
Nobody answered.
Maya took the phone back.
She stared at the message.
The frightening part was not the threat.
The frightening part was the assumption behind it.
Someone believed she was about to open something.
Someone believed they knew what she was doing before she did.
Daniel pulled into an underground parking garage beneath an older office building downtown.
Maya looked around.
“This is where the archive is?”
“No.”
He parked.
“This is where your father kept the access equipment.”
She looked at the concrete walls and aging security cameras.
“This place looks abandoned.”
“It mostly is.”
“Mostly?”
Daniel turned off the engine.
“That’s what makes it useful.”
Maya did not like the answer.
She followed them into the building anyway.
The elevator smelled like dust and old carpet.
Nobody spoke.
On the fourth floor, Daniel unlocked a door hidden between two empty offices.
Inside was a small room with a desk, two monitors, and shelves filled with old files.
Maya stopped.
The room was not impressive.
That surprised her.
She had expected something dramatic.
A hidden vault.
A room full of secrets.
May you like
Instead, it looked like the workspace of someone who stayed late after everyone else went home.
There was a coffee mug on the desk.
