Chapter 8 - The Secret Elena Left Behind
Nathan didn’t sleep.
None of us did.
The entire night was spent searching for answers.
How could Elena’s security access still work?
Why had someone kept it active?
And why did someone want them to believe she was involved?
By morning, we discovered something hidden inside the security system.
A forgotten user account.
Created eight months earlier.
The username:
E.Coleman
Nathan stared at it.
“That’s impossible.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because Elena never created it.”
I looked at Gerald.
“Who could?”
Nobody answered.
Then Nathan’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
Everyone froze.
He answered.
“Hello?”
Silence.
Then a woman’s voice.
Soft.
Calm.
Familiar.
Nathan’s face changed.
“Elena?”
The room stopped breathing.
I watched him.
The color disappeared from his face.
“Who is this?”
The voice spoke again.
“You’re finally asking the right questions.”
Nathan gripped the phone.
“Who are you?”
“You spent years looking for enemies outside your home.”
A pause.
“You never looked at the people who loved you.”
The call ended.
Nathan stood frozen.
Nobody spoke.
Finally, I asked:
“Was that her?”
He looked at me.
“I don’t know.”
But I knew something.
That wasn’t a normal phone call.
Someone wanted him confused.
Someone wanted him desperate.
And desperate people make mistakes.
Later that day, we found Elena’s hidden file.
Not in a safe.
Not in a computer.
Inside the house itself.
Behind a loose piece of wood in the library.
A place nobody had searched.
Inside was a small notebook.
The handwriting belonged to Elena.
Nathan recognized it immediately.
“My wife wrote this.”
His voice broke.
I opened the first page.
The entries started six months before her death.
Names.
Dates.
Payments.
Medical records.
Elena had been investigating something.
Something involving people close to Nathan.
Then I found a sentence underlined three times.
“If anything happens to me, Nathan must never trust Trevor Ashford.”
Nathan closed his eyes.
Dr. Ashford.
The man who pretended to save his sons.
The man who poisoned them.
But the next page was worse.
Because Elena wrote another name.
A name none of us expected.
Gerald Russo.
Everyone looked at the house manager.
Gerald went completely still.
Nathan’s hand moved toward the weapon hidden beneath his jacket.
“Gerald.”
The old man didn’t move.
“Mr. Coleman…”
“Explain.”
Gerald looked at the notebook.
Then at Nathan.
“I knew this day would come.”
Nobody spoke.
“What does that mean?” Nathan asked.
Gerald slowly removed something from his pocket.
A small key.
“I was trying to protect your family.”
Nathan’s expression hardened.
“Then why did Elena write your name?”
Gerald looked devastated.
“Because she knew I was the only person who could expose the truth.”
The room went silent.
I stepped closer.
“What truth?”
Gerald looked at me.
And the fear in his eyes told me something terrible.
“Mrs. Coleman wasn’t killed because she discovered someone was poisoning the boys.”
A pause.
“She was killed because she discovered who ordered it.”
Nathan’s face changed.
“Who?”
Gerald looked toward the window.
May you like
Then whispered:
“Someone in your own family.”
