Chương 9
Mara looked at the screen.
Unknown number.
She did not answer.
A message appeared.
You are standing where your father stood.
Her stomach tightened.
Thomas saw the screen.
"Do not reply."
"I wasn't planning to."
Another message arrived.
You still think he left you because he wanted to.
Mara's fingers went cold.
Thomas looked away.
That reaction was worse than the message.
"You know something," she whispered.
"I know pieces."
"Everyone keeps saying that."
"Because that is the truth."
"No."
Her voice sharpened.
"It is a way people avoid saying the whole thing."
Thomas accepted the accusation.
Maybe because he deserved some of it.
Maybe because he had heard it before.
"My father died protecting me from something I never knew existed," Mara said.
Thomas looked at her.
"He died protecting the idea that you could have a normal life."
The words landed harder than she expected.
Because she had spent years believing Daniel had taken that life away.
Not protected it.
The handle moved.
Once.
Neither of them spoke.
Then the door opened.
Not all the way.
Just enough for a hand to appear.
Thomas stepped forward.
Mara grabbed his sleeve.
"No."
He looked back.
"If you go out there, you do not know what happens."
"If I stay here, neither do you."
The answer bothered her because it sounded like something Daniel would have said.
The door opened wider.
A man stood outside.
He was not wearing a mask.
He was not holding a weapon.
He looked ordinary.
That made him more unsettling.
"Mara Ellison," he said.
She did not respond.
The man glanced at Thomas.
"Still protecting dead men?"
Thomas's face changed.
Not fear.
Recognition.
"Victor."
The man sighed.
"I was hoping you would make this easier."
Mara stepped forward.
"Who are you?"
Victor looked at her with something close to pity.
"My mistake was thinking your father would eventually tell you."
"Tell me what?"
Victor looked at Thomas.
"Apparently nobody did."
Thomas said nothing.
Mara felt anger rising.
Not because she had no answers.
Because every person in the room seemed to have one except her.
"What did my father find?"
Victor looked at the folder.
Then at her.
"He found out the company failure was never about money."
Thomas moved.
"Stop."
Victor ignored him.
"He found out someone had been using Ellison Vale to move funds through projects that never existed."
Mara looked at Thomas.
"Is that true?"
Thomas did not answer immediately.
That was enough.
"How long have you known?"
"Not everything."
"How long?"
"Since before your father left."
The words hurt more than she expected.
Not because Thomas knew.
Because everyone seemed to have known something while she was the only person living inside the lie.
Victor stepped back.
"You should leave this alone."
Mara laughed quietly.
It was not amusement.
It was exhaustion.
"That is what everyone says right before they tell me something that makes me need to know more."
Victor studied her.
For the first time, his confidence slipped.
"You sound like him."
Mara hated that.
She hated hearing Daniel in herself.
She hated that the stranger noticed before she did.
"Where is Lily Hale?" she asked.
Victor's expression changed.
Only slightly.
But it was enough.
Thomas noticed too.
"You know her."
Victor looked at him.
"You should have burned that photograph."
Mara felt the room shift.
Not physically.
Something worse.
The meaning of things had changed.
The photograph.
The folder.
The letter.
Her father's warning.
All of it was moving closer together.
"Who was Lily to my father?" Mara asked.
Victor looked at the floor.
When he spoke again, his voice was quieter.
"She was the reason Daniel realized the company was only the beginning."
The hallway lights came back on.
For a moment, nobody moved.
Then Victor reached into his coat.
Thomas reacted instantly.
But Victor only pulled out a folded piece of paper.
He placed it on the floor between them.
"Your father wanted you to have this."
Mara stared at it.
"Why give it to me?"
Victor looked at her.
"Because I was the one who helped him hide the truth."
Thomas went still.
Mara looked between them.
"And now?"
Victor opened the door.
"Now I am the person who knows hiding it was the reason everything got worse."
He walked away before she could stop him.
Thomas did not follow.
He only stared at the paper.
Mara bent down and picked it up.
The handwriting on the front was familiar.
Her father's.
Only three words were written there.
For Mara, finally.
Mara held the paper with both hands.
For several seconds, she did not open it.
The hallway outside had become strangely quiet.
No footsteps.
No voices.
Only the old building settling around them, pipes clicking somewhere behind the walls and the distant sound of traffic moving through the city as if nothing important had happened.
Thomas leaned against the shelf.
He looked exhausted.
Not physically.
Something deeper.
Like a person who had spent years carrying something heavy and had finally reached the point where putting it down hurt as much as holding it.
"You knew he wrote that," Mara said.
Thomas shook his head.
"No."
"You knew he left something for me."
"I knew Daniel wanted you to find something."
"That is not the same thing."
"No."
He looked at the paper.
"It isn't."
Mara unfolded it.
The page was not a confession.
Not a long explanation.
Just a handwritten note.
Mara,
If you are reading this, then I failed to tell you the truth myself.
I am sorry for that.
She stopped.
Her eyes moved over the words again.
Not because she could not read them.
Because she could not accept how much she had missed seeing him write.
The shape of his letters.
The way he pressed harder on certain words.
The small imperfections.
Proof that he had existed.
Proof that he had once been a person instead of a story everyone else told her.
May you like
The note continued.
I need you to know one thing before anything else.
