Chapter 5 - FOUR MILLION DOLLARS
Sarah stared through the windshield.
Cars rushed past her on the dark highway.
Four million dollars.
“That’s impossible.”
Daniel Price remained calm.
“It isn’t.”
“My father lived in a two-bedroom house.”
“He also owned land.”
“What land?”
“Thirty-two acres outside Mesa that a development company purchased two years before his death.”
Sarah’s mouth went dry.
“He never told me.”
“He didn’t want Mark to know.”
That hurt almost as much as the theft.
Her father had seen something she had refused to see.
“How much is in the trust?”
“Approximately three point six million after taxes, charitable gifts, and fees.”
Sarah looked at Lily sleeping in the back seat.
“For Lily?”
“Mostly.”
“Mostly?”
“Your father named you trustee. Lily becomes primary beneficiary at twenty-five.”
Sarah covered her mouth.
“Why didn’t anyone contact me?”
“I tried.”
“When?”
“Three days after the funeral.”
Sarah remembered.
She had been barely functioning.
Mark had taken her phone.
Answered emails.
Handled everything.
Daniel continued.
“I called twice. Then I received an email from your account saying all communication should go through your husband.”
Sarah felt sick.
“I never sent that.”
“I suspected that later.”
“Why didn’t you call again?”
“I did. Your number had been changed.”
Sarah’s blood ran cold.
Mark had changed their family phone plan after her father died.
He said their old provider was overcharging them.
“What about the letter?”
Daniel paused.
“What letter?”
“My father wrote something for me. Mark apparently had it.”
Daniel went silent.
“Sarah, listen carefully. Your father left a sealed letter with me too.”
She froze.
“Another one?”
“Yes.”
“What does it say?”
“I don’t know. I was instructed not to open it.”
“Then why does Evelyn have one?”
“I have no idea.”
Sarah looked in the rearview mirror.
A black SUV had pulled onto the shoulder fifty yards behind her.
Its headlights stayed on.
She felt uneasy.
“Daniel, where are you?”
“My office.”
“Can we meet tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
“First thing.”
“Bring identification. And don’t tell Mark.”
Sarah looked at the SUV again.
“I think that part is obvious.”
She hung up.
The SUV started moving.
Sarah immediately pulled back onto the highway.
So did it.
She changed lanes.
It changed lanes.
Her heart rate climbed.
Maybe coincidence.
She exited.
The SUV exited.
“Damn it.”
Lily stirred.
“Mommy?”
“I’m right here.”
“Where are we?”
“Almost at Aunt Rachel’s.”
“Is Daddy coming?”
Sarah’s throat tightened.
“No, baby.”
“Is he mad?”
Sarah looked at the mirror.
The SUV was still behind them.
“Yes,” she whispered. “I think he is.”
Sarah turned onto a residential street.
Then another.
The SUV followed.
She reached for her phone and called Rachel.
“Open your garage.”
“What?”
“Right now.”
“Sarah, what’s wrong?”
“Just open it.”
Rachel did.
Sarah accelerated.
She pulled into Rachel’s garage, and the door began closing behind her.
The black SUV slowed at the end of the street.
Sarah caught one glimpse of the driver.
A man.
Baseball cap.
Dark jacket.
He stared directly at her.
Then drove away.
Rachel ran into the garage.
“What the hell happened?”
Sarah unbuckled Lily.
“I think someone followed us.”
Rachel’s face changed.
“Mark?”
“I don’t know.”
That night, Lily slept beside Sarah.
At 2:14 a.m., Sarah’s phone buzzed.
A text from an unknown number.
One photo.
Sarah opened it.
It was a picture of her entering Rachel’s garage.
Taken less than four hours earlier.
Beneath the photo was one sentence.
STOP DIGGING INTO YOUR FATHER’S MONEY.
Sarah stared at the screen.
May you like
Then another message appeared.
OR NEXT TIME, LILY WON’T BE STANDING BESIDE YOU.
