Chapter 9 - The Flash Drive
The alarm turned out to be false.
But in the confusion, Natalie disconnected.
Grant immediately sent officers to my house.
Jackson and I arrived an hour later.
Nothing looked disturbed.
That scared me more.
“Mia’s room,” I said.
We searched.
Closet.
Toy chest.
Bookshelf.
Under the mattress.
Nothing.
Then I remembered something.
When Jackson and I bought the house, it had belonged to my father.
Mia’s room had once been my bedroom.
Daniel had been there dozens of times when we were younger.
I walked toward the window.
There was an old heating vent beneath it.
“Get me a screwdriver.”
Jackson stared.
“Why?”
“Just do it.”
He did.
I removed four screws.
Behind the vent cover was dust.
A dead spider.
And a black flash drive taped to the metal duct.
Jackson whispered, “Jesus.”
Grant took it into evidence.
Three hours later, he called.
“We found files.”
My knees weakened.
“What kind?”
“Insurance reports. Server logs. Emails.”
“Lorraine?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
A pause.
“There’s also a letter from Daniel addressed to you.”
I couldn’t speak.
Grant read only the first sentence.
Emily, if you ever find this, I’m sorry I waited too long to tell you.
I covered my mouth.
Jackson turned away.
The letter explained everything Daniel believed he had uncovered.
Lorraine had altered clinic records after a medication error caused the death of a wealthy patient.
She needed someone with high-level access to blame.
My father became that person.
When Daniel discovered the digital records years later, Lorraine tried to pay him.
Then threatened him.
But the final paragraph had nothing to do with the clinic.
Daniel wrote:
There is one thing I still don’t understand. Lorraine keeps asking whether Emily is pregnant. If she ever has a daughter, Lorraine says “the family problem” comes back.
I read that line three times.
“What family problem?”
Jackson shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
That evening, police finally brought Lorraine in.
She asked to speak to me.
Alone.
Grant refused to leave entirely, but he stood behind the interview-room glass.
Lorraine sat across from me in a gray sweatshirt.
No jewelry.
No makeup.
She looked ten years older.
“You hate me,” she said.
“I don’t have enough energy to hate you yet.”
She looked down.
“Mia wasn’t supposed to get hurt.”
“She was locked in a room.”
“I know.”
“You took a newborn.”
“I was protecting him.”
“From whom?”
She looked at me.
“Cassandra.”
My jaw tightened.
“What is ‘the family problem’?”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“I hoped Daniel never found that.”
“What does it mean?”
She whispered, “Your mother and I knew each other.”
“My mother died when I was nine.”
“I know.”
“How?”
Lorraine rubbed both hands together.
“We were sisters.”
For several seconds, I couldn’t understand the sentence.
May you like
Then I did.
And my entire family history cracked open.
