Chapter 5 - THE PERSON BEHIND RICHARD
Richard thought he was alone.
He was wrong.
The next morning, Daniel placed a photograph on the table.
I looked at it.
Then looked again.
“No.”
Daniel nodded.
“Yes.”
The person standing beside Richard in the photograph was someone I knew.
Someone I trusted.
Someone who had been inside my company for years.
My chief financial officer.
“Mark?”
Daniel nodded.
“Your husband wasn't researching your money by himself.”
My hands tightened.
“Why?”
Daniel opened another file.
“Because your husband needed someone who understood your company.”
I stared at the documents.
Emails.
Transfers.
Secret meetings.
Everything connected.
Richard was not just trying to inherit my fortune.
He was trying to take control of Hayes Technologies.
---
That night, I watched Richard on television.
He was giving an interview.
Talking about his missing wife.
“My only hope is that she survived.”
I almost laughed.
Almost cried.
The man who pushed me from the sky was pretending to pray for my return.
Then the reporter asked:
“Mr. Hayes, if your wife does not survive, what happens next?”
Richard lowered his head.
“I don't want to think about that.”
But I saw his eyes.
For one second…
He smiled.
---
I turned off the television.
“He thinks he won.”
Evelyn looked at me.
“No.”
She placed a folder on the table.
“He thinks you are gone.”
I opened it.
Inside was the final piece of information.
A document Richard had signed.
A document created before the helicopter flight.
A document proving he planned everything.
I looked at Evelyn.
“What do we do now?”
She looked back at me.
“Now?”
A small smile appeared on her face.
“Now we let Richard believe his biggest problem is that his wife disappeared.”
She closed the folder.
“Because his biggest problem is that his wife survived.”
I stared at the evidence.
At the man who tried to erase me.
And for the first time since falling from that helicopter…
I was no longer afraid.
I was angry.
And Richard was about to learn something.
A person who survives death is no longer the same person.
May you like
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CHAPTER 5 END
