Chapter 5 Truth In The Shadows

The entire estate was on lockdown.

After the shots were fired, Damien had called in a private security team within minutes. Black SUVs lined the perimeter. Armed guards swept the woods behind the house while the house itself was scanned for bugs, breaches, or hidden surveillance.

But inside, there was no safety.

Not for Elena.

She stood at the edge of the study, watching the room full of secrets they'd uncovered just hours before. The articles, the transcripts, the photographs-each piece twisted her perception of her own life until she couldn't trust anything anymore. Not even her memories.

Especially not her memories.

"You should rest," Damien said from the doorway.

"I can't," she murmured. "Someone tried to kill us."

He leaned against the frame, arms crossed. "Not us. You."

That made her look up. "What?"

"They were aiming for you," he said, face hard. "That bullet-if I hadn't pulled you down when I did..."

She shivered.

"You still think this is about the scandal?" he asked quietly.

"I don't know what to think," she whispered. "I've spent my entire life believing my father was an honest man. Now I'm finding out he was involved in shady investments, possibly embezzling money... and that he worked with your father?"

Damien walked into the room and stopped beside her. "I think they were planning something bigger than investments."

She turned to him slowly. "Like what?"

He hesitated. "My father had contacts in government contracting. Defense technology. Quiet things that never made headlines."

"Black money," she whispered.

"Exactly. And if your father was laundering money or moving funds... he might've been the missing link."

Elena stared at the wall of clippings, her stomach churning.

Her entire marriage was starting to look like a trap-with her as the bait.

Later that evening, Elena locked herself in the guest suite. She needed space. Time to think.

The moment she was alone, she did something she hadn't done in years-she pulled out the old box hidden at the bottom of her duffel bag. It was a battered tin container, filled with remnants of a life before the scandal. Her mother's scarf. A photo of her parents on their wedding day. And a flash drive.

She stared at it for a long moment before inserting it into her laptop.

Her hands trembled as she opened the only file stored on it.

FinalConfession.mp4

Her breath caught.

It was a video-grainy, like it had been recorded secretly. Her father's face appeared onscreen. He looked older than she remembered-worn, haunted.

"If you're watching this, Elena," he said, voice shaking, "then everything's fallen apart."

She covered her mouth as he continued.

"There are things I've done I can't undo. I thought I was protecting the family, but I was wrong. I got in too deep. Damien's father... he promised power, protection, everything. But he was lying. We were laundering funds for contracts that never existed-money that disappeared overseas."

He paused, looking directly into the camera.

"If I die... it won't be an accident."

The screen cut to black.

Elena sat frozen, tears blurring her vision.

Her father hadn't died in a car crash.

He'd been silenced.

The next morning, she showed Damien the video.

He watched it in silence. When it ended, he stood and walked to the window, fists clenched.

"My father orchestrated this," he said finally. "He pulled the strings, and now you're paying the price."

"And yours isn't the only family involved," Elena said. "We need to find out who else knew."

"There's one person who might," Damien said.

"Who?"

He turned, eyes cold. "The man who handled the offshore accounts. He vanished after my father's funeral. But I know where to find him."

The plan was risky.

Damien and Elena boarded a private jet bound for Zurich, where the man-Mikhail Novak, a former Swiss banker-was rumored to be hiding under a new identity. If they could get him to talk, they might uncover the truth behind both their fathers' deaths-and why Elena was being hunted now.

Zurich was cold and gray when they landed. A black car awaited them, driven by one of Damien's contacts.

"This feels like something out of a spy film," Elena muttered.

Damien glanced at her. "It is. Just without the fun soundtrack."

They found Mikhail at a discreet cafe outside the city. He was older now, bearded, nervous.

"I don't know you," he said the moment Damien approached.

"You knew our fathers," Damien replied. "We're not here to expose you. We just want the truth."

Mikhail's eyes darted around the room. "This isn't safe."

"Neither is ignorance," Elena said.

That made him pause.

Finally, he gestured for them to sit.

"I warned your father," Mikhail said to Damien. "Told him it was too dangerous. But once you get in that deep... there's no way out."

"What did they do?" Elena asked.

Mikhail exhaled. "They funneled money for fake contracts-things the government paid for but never received. Billions disappeared. When someone threatened to go public, they made that person disappear."

"My father?" Elena whispered.

"I don't know who the whistleblower was," Mikhail said. "But I know this-your father tried to back out. That's when everything started to unravel."

Damien leaned forward. "Where's the money now?"

Mikhail looked at him. "That's the question everyone wants answered."

Elena frowned. "Everyone?"

"The people hunting you now?" Mikhail said. "They're not seeking revenge. They think your father hid the money-and that you have access."

"I don't," she said.

"But you might," Mikhail said softly. "If he left breadcrumbs only you could follow."

On the flight back to New York, Elena couldn't sleep.

Her mind buzzed with everything they'd learned. The hidden accounts. The buried confessions. The money her father might've hidden before his death.

She opened her laptop and played the video again.

This time, she noticed something she hadn't before-a photo behind her father, pinned to the wall.

It was of her childhood home.

Zooming in, she noticed a strange detail.

In the corner of the frame, there was a bookshelf-with one book sticking out just slightly.

She gasped.

Her father used to tell her that books held more than stories.

They held secrets.

As soon as they landed, she demanded they return to her family's old estate in upstate New York. The house had been abandoned for years, but somehow it still stood-a decaying monument to a life long gone.

The air inside was musty, thick with dust and silence.

They found the bookshelf in the living room.

It was still there. And so was the book-A Tale of Two Cities-the same edition her father once read to her at bedtime.

She pulled it out.

A small key fell to the floor.

Damien picked it up. "This look familiar?"

She shook her head. "No."

They searched the room until they found a locked panel beneath the floorboards. The key fit perfectly.

Inside was a metal box.

Inside the box... were ledgers.

Dozens of them.

Her father's handwriting filled the pages-detailed notes, transfers, account numbers, aliases.

Damien's eyes widened. "This is the paper trail. Everything they tried to bury."

"Should we go to the authorities?" she asked.

He looked at her gravely. "If we do, we'll be targets. Bigger than before. This could take down corporations, government officials..."

Elena ran a hand through her hair. "What do we do?"

Before Damien could answer, his phone buzzed.

A message.

He read it and went pale.

"What is it?" she asked.

He turned the phone so she could see.

It was a photo.

Of her-taken from outside the estate. Just minutes ago.

Below it was a message.

You have 24 hours to hand over the ledgers. Or she dies.

Elena's blood ran cold.

"Damien..."

He grabbed her hand. "We're leaving. Now."

But as they turned to exit, a sharp click echoed behind them.

A voice-cold, female, and familiar.

"I wouldn't move if I were you."

Elena spun around-and froze.

It was Cassandra.

Her ex-best friend.

Her betrayer.

Holding a gun.

To Be Continued...