We drove to a secure apartment arranged by Detective Harris.
It was not luxurious.
The furniture was plain.
The windows faced a brick wall.
The kitchen contained three chairs and a refrigerator that hummed loudly enough to become part of the silence.
I loved it.
Nothing in that room belonged to Barbara.
Nothing had been selected to impress anyone.
For the first time in two days, I slept.
When I woke, Brandon was sitting at the kitchen table.
He had not changed clothes.
A stack of documents lay in front of him.
“How long have you been awake?”
“All night.”
I poured coffee.
“What did you find?”
He slid a page toward me.
“My father created the trust through a lawyer named Samuel Greene.”
“Do you know him?”
“No.”
“Where is he?”
“Dead.”
I looked up.
“Dead?”
“Six years ago.”
He slid another page across the table.
“His firm was dissolved.”
“Convenient.”
“Too convenient.”
We looked at each other.
Then someone knocked.
Detective Harris entered with a box.
She placed it on the table.
“We recovered this from the office.”
Inside were old financial records.
Bank statements.
Correspondence.
Copies of contracts.
Photographs.
And a cassette recorder.
Harris picked it up.
“Technology from another century.”
Brandon gave a weak smile.
“Does it work?”
“We transferred the audio.”
She pressed play.
Richard's voice filled the room.
“If you are hearing this, then the trust has been discovered.”
A pause.
“I need my son to understand one thing.”
The recording continued.
“Barbara did not begin this.”
Brandon frowned.
I looked at him.
Richard continued.
“The first transfers were authorized by me.”
Brandon's face went blank.
“What?”
Harris stopped the recording.
“Keep listening.”
She restarted it.
Richard explained that he had moved money out of Sterling Holdings after discovering irregularities.
He believed the company was being used to conceal payments.
But he did not initially know who was responsible.
He created the trust to isolate money that he believed belonged to innocent beneficiaries.
One beneficiary was me.
The second was an unknown child.
The recording said the child had not yet been born.
I looked at Brandon.
“An unborn child?”
He nodded slowly.
Richard had known that someone connected to the trust would eventually have a child.
But how?
The recording continued.
“Barbara discovered the trust after my attorney died.”
Brandon looked at Harris.
“That's impossible.”
“Why?”
“My father created the trust eight years ago.”
“And?”
“My mother knew about it.”
Harris shook her head.
“According to this recording, she did not.”
Then Richard said something that changed everything.
“Barbara believes the trust contains money stolen from the family.”
I whispered, “It doesn't.”
“No,” Harris said.
“It contains money stolen from someone else.”
Brandon stared at her.
“Who?”
Richard never said.
The recording ended there.
I felt frustrated.
“We're missing the most important part.”
Harris nodded.
“Exactly.”
She opened another file.
“The bank that held the trust still exists.”
“Where?”
“Boston.”
Brandon stood.
“We're going.”
I looked at him.
“We can't just leave.”
“We can.”
“What about Barbara?”
“She doesn't know where we are.”
“Michael might.”
“Then we'll be careful.”
Lisa entered the kitchen.
“Are we going somewhere?”
I smiled.
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Boston.”
She smiled.
“Does it have snow?”
“Maybe.”
Brandon laughed.
“For the first time, I hope so.”
The trip was arranged privately.
Detective Harris coordinated security.
We flew under different names.
Not because we were running.
Because we were being careful.
On the plane, Lisa slept against the window.
Brandon sat beside me.
He held the original trust document.
“There's something I still don't understand.”
“What?”
“Why did my father choose you?”
I looked at Lisa.
“Maybe because he knew your mother would never expect an outsider to become important.”
Brandon nodded.
“Or because he knew you would protect what belonged to us.”
I looked at him.
“You mean the family.”
“No.”
He looked at Lisa.
“I mean us.”
The words stayed with me.
When we landed, a lawyer was waiting.
His name was Daniel Greene.
He was the son of Richard's original attorney.
He carried a leather case.
“You're Emily?”
“Yes.”
He looked at Brandon.
“You're Richard's son.”
“Yes.”
Daniel nodded.
“My father talked about you.”
“What did he say?”
“That you were the only person he trusted to survive what was coming.”
Brandon looked down.
Daniel opened the case.
Inside was a sealed envelope.
My name was written across it.
Emily.
I took it.
My hands shook.
“Should I open it?”
Daniel nodded.
Inside was a letter.
Richard's final letter.
I read silently.
He apologized for involving me.
He explained that the trust was created because he had discovered evidence of fraud inside Sterling Holdings.
The money had not been stolen from the Sterling family.
It belonged to employees whose retirement accounts had been manipulated.
The funds had been diverted through shell companies.
Michael Vance had designed the system.
Barbara had discovered it.
Instead of exposing him, she had joined him.
Richard had tried to stop them.
He had failed.
The final paragraph made my heart stop.
“If you are reading this, then Barbara has probably already tried to discredit you.”
I looked at Brandon.
The letter continued.
“She will claim you stole from us. She will claim you were paid to enter my son's life. Do not believe her.”
I closed my eyes.
It was exactly what she had been doing.
Then I read the final sentence.
“Emily, I chose you because you are not part of our world. You owe us nothing. That makes you the only person who cannot be bought by our name.”
Tears filled my eyes.
Brandon read over my shoulder.
He covered his face.
Daniel gave us a moment.
Then he said, “There's one more thing.”
“What?”
“My father kept a second set of records.”
“Where?”
“Under a court seal.”
“Can we access them?”
“Yes.”
“But there's a problem.”
“What?”
“Someone has already requested them.”
My stomach tightened.
“Who?”
Daniel looked at Brandon.
“Barbara Sterling.”
Brandon stood.
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
The room went silent.
She knew.
She knew we were looking.
And she was moving faster than we were.
Click here to continue reading: PART 11: Barbara Arrived Before We Could Open the Records, Carrying the Missing Folder and a Version of the Past Designed to Destroy Us
I Thought I Was Marrying Into a Family, Until One Strange Package Arrived and Made Me Question What They Were Really Planning
Part 10 of 15
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