Chapter 9 - THE ENEMY AT THE TABLE

I couldn’t move.

Someone inside my family.

The words repeated in my head.

Over and over.

“Who?”

Lily looked down.

“I don’t know the name.”

“You called me here because you know something.”

“I know pieces.”

“Then give me the pieces.”

She took a deep breath.

“Your father had evidence that someone was moving company money.”

“Diane.”

“Yes. But Diane wasn’t smart enough to do everything alone.”

I thought about it.

Diane was cruel.

Manipulative.

Powerful.

But was she capable of planning everything?

Maybe.

Maybe not.

“What else?”

Lily opened her bag.

She pulled out an old notebook.

“This belonged to your father.”

I touched it carefully.

The cover was worn.

My father’s handwriting was on the first page.

My heart tightened.

“He gave this to me the night before he died.”

I looked at her.

“You saw him?”

Lily nodded.

“He came to find me.”

My eyes filled.

“My father knew about you.”

“Yes.”

“What did he say?”

Lily looked away.

“He said he was sorry.”

I swallowed.

“Sorry?”

“He said he wasted too many years being afraid.”

That sentence hurt.

Because it sounded exactly like everyone else.

Fear.

Always fear.

I opened the notebook.

Most pages were numbers.

Names.

Dates.

Then I saw something.

A name.

A name I recognized.

My hands froze.

“What?”

Lily noticed.

“What did you find?”

I pointed at the page.

“This person…”

My voice cracked.

“This person was at our house all the time.”

Lily looked.

Her face changed.

“Who is it?”

I looked at the name.

And felt sick.

Because it wasn’t Diane.

It wasn’t a stranger.

It wasn’t some hidden enemy.

It was someone I trusted.

Someone who hugged me at my wedding.

Someone who stood beside my family for years.

Before I could say the name, my phone rang.

Ryan.

I answered.

“Where are you?”

His voice sounded urgent.

“Emma, you need to leave.”

“Why?”

“I found something.”

“What?”

A pause.

Then:

“The person helping my mother knows where you are.”

I looked around the coffee shop.

My heart started pounding.

“How do you know?”

“Because they just sent me a message.”

“What message?”

Ryan’s voice became quiet.

“They said…”

I waited.

“They said they’re coming to finish what they started twenty-two years ago.”

The coffee shop suddenly felt colder.

I looked at Lily.

She was already looking toward the door.

“Emma.”

“What?”

Her face went pale.

“That’s them.”

I turned.

A person was standing outside the window.

Watching us.

And then my phone received a message.

One sentence.

One name.

The name of the person who had betrayed us.

I opened it.

And my entire world collapsed.

Because the person behind everything…

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TO BE CONTINUED…