Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN WHO KNEW EVERYTHINGEmily spent the next two days under guard at a private medical center.
The contractions continued, but the doctors managed to delay labor. Her daughter needed at least another week inside her.
One week.
That was all the time Emily needed to uncover the truth and survive Daniel.
News of the mansion fire spread through the city. Newspapers reported that Eleanor Whitmore had been arrested for arson and financial fraud. Daniel was listed as wanted for attempted murder.
But the media did not know the entire story.
They did not know that the unborn child stood to inherit billions.
They did not know that Emily’s father’s death might have been murder.
And they did not know that someone inside the police department was helping Daniel.
Jonathan discovered the leak when an arrest warrant disappeared from the system.
“Someone warned him,” he said.
Emily sat by the window, her hands resting over her stomach.
“Who?”
“A detective named Harold Voss. He handled your father’s accident investigation.”
Emily turned.
“Voss said my father’s crash was caused by rain.”
“He closed the case in forty-eight hours.”
“Why would he help Eleanor?”
Jonathan placed the ledger on the table.
“Because his name appears in it.”
Emily stared at the payment records.
“Then he was paid to destroy evidence.”
“Possibly.”
Rosa entered carrying three cups of tea.
“I know the detective,” she said.
Emily looked at her.
“From where?”
“From the night your father died.”
Rosa placed the cups down carefully.
“I was there.”
Emily stood too quickly and felt dizzy.
“You never told me.”
“Your father begged me not to.”
“Why?”
“Because I saw who was driving behind him.”
Emily’s pulse began to race.
Rosa sat across from her.
“The night Michael died, he came to the Whitmore mansion. He had spoken with Arthur. He told me he was leaving the city the next morning and taking you with him.”
“Why didn’t he?”
“He never reached home.”
Rosa’s voice trembled.
“When he drove away, I saw another car follow him. A black sedan. Detective Voss was driving.”
Emily felt a chill move through her body.
“Voss killed him?”
“I did not see the crash. I saw the car leave the property. Half an hour later, the police arrived at your father’s accident.”
Jonathan leaned forward.
“Why stay silent for three years?”
“Because Eleanor threatened my grandson. She knew where he lived. She said if I spoke, he would disappear.”
Emily felt tears rise in her eyes.
“Where is he now?”
“Safe. In Mexico.”
Rosa looked toward the door.
“But Daniel found him yesterday.”
Emily’s blood went cold.
“What?”
Jonathan reached for his phone.
A message appeared on the screen.
Rosa’s grandson had been taken from a bus station.
A photograph was attached.
He was sitting in a chair with his hands tied.
Written on the wall behind him were six words:
BRING THE LEDGER TO THE OLD CHAPEL.
Emily looked at Rosa.
“He wants an exchange.”
“He wants the ledger,” Jonathan said. “But he also wants to know what else Arthur left behind.”
Emily shook her head.
“We cannot give him anything.”
“He may kill Rosa’s grandson.”
Rosa’s face hardened.
“He will kill him whether we give him the ledger or not.”
Emily walked to the window.
Outside, security officers stood in the parking lot. The city continued moving as if nothing had changed.
She had spent her whole life believing good people were protected by truth.
Now she understood that truth needed someone brave enough to carry it.
“I’ll go,” Emily said.
Jonathan immediately objected.
“You are eight months pregnant.”
“Daniel will expect the ledger to be brought by someone he can control. If I stay here, he will attack the hospital.”
“That is precisely why you should stay.”
Emily looked at him.
“He already knows where I am.”
Rosa stepped beside her.
“She is right. We cannot wait for him to choose the battlefield.”
The old chapel stood outside the city, abandoned after a storm destroyed its roof. Daniel had used it as a meeting place years earlier, when he and Eleanor were planning a property acquisition.
Jonathan prepared a fake ledger filled with blank pages.
The real ledger was transferred to a secure server.
Emily wore a bulletproof vest beneath a loose coat. She was terrified, but she refused to show it.
At dusk, three vehicles left the hospital.
The chapel stood in a field surrounded by dead trees.
Inside, candles burned near the altar.
Daniel stood beside a man Emily recognized from the ledger.
Detective Voss.
Rosa’s grandson, Mateo, was tied to a wooden chair.
Eleanor was there too.
She looked different without her jewelry. Her hair was disheveled, and her face was tight with fury.
“You brought the ledger,” Daniel said.
Emily stepped forward.
“Let Mateo go.”
“Give me the book.”
She held it out.
Daniel snatched it and opened the first pages.
His expression changed.
“Blank.”
“You didn’t say it had to be real.”
Voss raised his gun.
Daniel grabbed Emily’s arm.
“Where is the original?”
“Somewhere you’ll never find.”
He pulled her close, pressing the barrel of the gun against her stomach.
Rosa cried out.
“Leave her!”
Daniel whispered into Emily’s ear.
“You should have listened when I asked you to come home.”
Emily felt the baby move beneath the gun.
She thought of the balcony.
She thought of the torn curtain.
Then she looked at the chapel’s cracked stained-glass window.
Sunlight was fading outside.
A tiny red light blinked near the altar.
A camera.
Jonathan had placed it before they arrived.
Emily needed to keep Daniel talking.
“You murdered your father,” she said.
Daniel’s grip tightened.
“He was weak.”
“You poisoned him.”
“He would have destroyed everything.”
“You killed my father too.”
Daniel’s eyes flickered.
Eleanor turned sharply.
“Daniel.”
But it was too late.
Emily saw the truth flash across his face.
He had known.
He had known all along.
“You followed my father,” Emily whispered.
Daniel stared at her.
“He was going to take you away from me.”
“You were already planning to marry me.”
“I loved you.”
“You used me.”
“I needed access to your father’s accounts.”
The words hung in the chapel.
Eleanor closed her eyes.
Voss looked toward the camera.
Daniel realized what he had done.
He shoved Emily aside and raised the gun.
Rosa threw herself between them.
The shot struck the wooden cross above the altar.
Police sirens erupted outside.
Jonathan had not brought only security.
He had brought federal investigators.
Voss ran toward the back door.
Eleanor tried to follow.
Daniel grabbed Emily by the throat.
“You ruined everything!”
Emily could not breathe.
Then the baby kicked hard.
Pain exploded through her abdomen.
She cried out and dropped to her knees.
Daniel stumbled backward.
The doors burst open.
Officers flooded the chapel.
Daniel was tackled before he could fire again.
Eleanor was arrested.
Rosa ran to Mateo, who was alive but shaking.
Emily lay on the floor, one hand beneath her stomach.
Warm liquid spread beneath her.
May you like
Her water had broken.
The baby was coming.
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