Chương 7
Robert looked away.
Maya saw something she had never seen before.
Shame.
“I thought I was fixing a problem.”
A pause.
“I was creating one.”
The screen flickered slightly.
The video quality was not perfect.
A small crack appeared across the image.
Maya leaned closer.
“I need you to find Daniel.”
Daniel looked up.
The three of them went still.
“Not because he has all the answers.”
Robert continued.
“He does not.”
Daniel looked uncomfortable.
“But because he is one of the few people who tried to stop me.”
Maya slowly turned toward Daniel.
He did not meet her eyes.
“You told me you made a mistake,” she said quietly.
Daniel stared at the floor.
“I did.”
The video continued.
“If Daniel is with you, there is something you need to understand.”
Robert’s voice became lower.
“Trust is not the same as forgiveness.”
Maya felt the words hit harder than she expected.
Because they sounded like something he was saying to himself.
“I trusted people because I wanted to believe they were who I needed them to be.”
Robert looked directly into the camera.
“That includes myself.”
The recording stopped.
The screen went black.
Nobody moved.
For several seconds, there was only the faint hum of the computers.
Then Maya laughed softly.
It was not happiness.
It was disbelief.
“That’s it?”
Daniel looked at her.
“Maya.”
“No.”
She turned away.
“He leaves me a recording telling me he was wrong and then disappears again.”
Her voice cracked slightly.
“Even dead, he still gets to control the conversation.”
Evelyn looked down.
Maya noticed.
“You knew about this.”
“No.”
“But you knew he was preparing something.”
“Yes.”
“And you never told me.”
Evelyn did not defend herself.
“No.”
The honesty made Maya angrier.
“Why?”
“Because your father asked me not to.”
Maya stared at her.
“And you listened.”
“Yes.”
The answer was quiet.
Simple.
“I thought I was protecting you.”
Maya shook her head.
“Everyone keeps saying that.”
She grabbed her purse.
“I’m starting to think that’s just what people say when they make decisions for someone else.”
She walked toward the door.
Daniel followed.
“Maya.”
She stopped but did not turn.
“What?”
“You’re right.”
The words surprised her.
Daniel stood several feet away.
“We all used the same excuse.”
She looked back.
“Your father.”
He pointed toward the notebook.
“Me.”
Then toward Evelyn.
“Her.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“Don’t include me like that.”
Daniel gave a tired smile.
“You were there.”
“I was trying to keep him from destroying himself.”
“And I was trying to keep him from destroying everyone else.”
The tension between them rose.
Maya watched.
For the first time, she saw that Daniel and Evelyn were not united.
They were survivors of the same person.
But they had survived in different ways.
“Who is Marcus Vale?” Maya asked.
Neither answered immediately.
That was enough.
“Seriously?”
Daniel rubbed his forehead.
“This is complicated.”
“I’m aware.”
“Maya—”
“No.”
She stepped closer.
“I am not asking for every answer tonight.”
Her voice lowered.
“I’m asking for the first honest one.”
Daniel looked at Evelyn.
Then back at Maya.
“Marcus was your father’s closest friend before you were born.”
“Business partner?”
“Yes.”
“Family friend?”
“Yes.”
“Did he hurt my father?”
Daniel was quiet.
“Not directly.”
Maya frowned.
“That sounds carefully chosen.”
“It is.”
“Why?”
“Because your father was not only investigating Marcus.”
“What else?”
Daniel looked toward the computer screen.
“He was investigating himself.”
The sentence confused her.
“What does that mean?”
Daniel hesitated.
“It means your father discovered something about the company’s earliest years.”
“Something he did?”
“Yes.”
The answer landed heavily.
Maya felt the room tilt slightly.
She had come looking for a person who betrayed her father.
She had not expected the possibility that her father had been part of the thing he feared.
“What did he do?”
Daniel looked at her.
“I don’t know.”
She stared.
“You just said—”
“I said he discovered something.”
He looked exhausted.
“I never saw the full file.”
“Why not?”
“Because your father destroyed it.”
Evelyn finally spoke.
“No.”
Both of them looked at her.
“He didn’t destroy it.”
The room went quiet.
Maya looked between them.
“What?”
Evelyn walked toward the computer.
She clicked through the open folders.
“There was another copy.”
Daniel frowned.
“Where?”
Evelyn looked at the screen.
Her face changed.
Not fear this time.
Recognition.
“No.”
Maya stepped closer.
“What?”
Evelyn pointed at the monitor.
A file had appeared.
Not in the archive.
Not in Robert’s folder.
A new folder.
Created moments ago.
The name was simple.
FINAL.
Daniel stared.
“That wasn’t there before.”
Maya looked at the screen.
“Then who added it?”
Nobody answered.
The computer cursor moved.
A single document opened.
At the top was a date.
The date was one week before Robert Chen died.
And beneath it was a sentence written in her father’s handwriting.
I need to tell Maya the truth before someone else does.
Maya stared at the sentence until the words stopped looking like words.
The letters were her father’s handwriting.
The meaning was his.
But the intention behind it felt like something she had been waiting years to discover without knowing it.
I need to tell Maya the truth before someone else does.
“What truth?” she whispered.
Nobody answered.
Daniel moved closer to the screen.
“Open the file.”
Evelyn grabbed his arm.
“Wait.”
He looked at her.
“Why?”
“Because we don’t know what this is.”
“It’s a document.”
“It appeared after someone accessed the system.”
Daniel looked back at the computer.
“And?”
“And that means someone might be watching.”
Maya looked around the room.
The empty office.
The old shelves.
The silent hallway outside.
The idea that someone could be watching them made her skin tighten.
But she was more afraid of something else.
Not knowing.
For years, she had lived with missing pieces.
Her father’s silence.
Daniel’s disappearance.
May you like
The unexplained anger between people who once worked together.
She had accepted the gaps because everyone around her acted like the gaps were normal.
