Chapter 7 - THE PERSON PULLING THE STRINGS
For the first time in weeks, I saw fear in Leo’s eyes.
Not anger.
Not frustration.
Fear.
And that scared me more than anything Agnes had done.
“What do you mean your accounts were accessed?” I asked.
Leo walked toward the table and opened his laptop.
“I got an alert from the bank.”
His fingers moved quickly across the keyboard.
“I thought it was a system error.”
“And now?”
He looked at the screen.
“Now I think someone wanted me to think that.”
I stood beside him.
The numbers didn’t make sense.
Money had been transferred.
Small amounts at first.
Then larger ones.
Hundreds.
Thousands.
Slowly disappearing.
“When did this start?”
Leo hesitated.
“About six months ago.”
I looked at him.
“Six months?”
He nodded.
“You didn’t notice?”
“I noticed.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me?”
His silence answered.
Because he was ashamed.
The same way I had been ashamed.
We were two people protecting each other by keeping secrets.
And somehow, those secrets had allowed everyone else to hurt us.
“I thought I could handle it,” he said.
I looked at him.
“You always think you have to handle everything alone.”
He lowered his eyes.
And I knew that was true.
But before we could say anything else, someone knocked on the door.
Hard.
Three times.
Leo immediately stood.
“Stay here.”
I almost laughed.
“Leo, I’m not hiding anymore.”
He opened the door.
A woman stood outside.
I recognized her immediately.
The neighbor.
Mrs. Carter.
She looked nervous.
“Leo, I need to tell you something.”
“What happened?”
She looked past him.
At me.
Then lowered her voice.
“It’s about your mother.”
My stomach tightened.
“What about her?”
Mrs. Carter took a deep breath.
“I saw her meeting someone.”
“Who?”
She looked uncomfortable.
“A man.”
Leo frowned.
“Who?”
“I don’t know his name.”
She pulled out her phone.
“But I took a picture.”
She handed it over.
Leo looked at the screen.
Then froze.
I leaned closer.
And my heart stopped.
Because the man standing beside Agnes...
Was someone I knew.
Someone who wasn’t supposed to be anywhere near her.
Leo whispered:
“That’s my business partner.”
The room went silent.
Because suddenly everything connected.
The money disappearing.
The lies.
The messages.
The timing.
Agnes wasn’t just protecting herself.
She was hiding something much bigger.
And the person helping her...
Was someone we trusted.
Someone who had been inside our lives the entire time.
Leo looked at me.
“We need to find out what they’re planning.”
Then his phone buzzed.
A message appeared.
One sentence.
Stop digging, or next time you won’t just lose money.
Leo stared at the screen.
I felt cold.
Because whoever was behind this...
May you like
Was no longer trying to scare us.
They were making a threat.
