Chapter 7: The Woman Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
The first thing I did was run upstairs.
Not walk.
Run.
The sound of my shoes hitting the wooden floor echoed through the house as Marcus and the security team followed behind me.
“Lock down the property,” I ordered.
“Yes, sir.””
Every door.
Every window.
Every camera.
Every corner.
I didn’t care how impossible it seemed.
Someone had been inside my home.
Someone had stood close enough to my daughter to take a picture while she slept.
And that meant every rule I had lived by for eight years had failed.
I pushed open Emily’s bedroom door.
She was sitting on her bed, looking at the stuffed rabbit in her hands.
She looked small.
Too small.
“Dad?””
I crossed the room immediately.
“Are you okay?””
She nodded.
“I was just doing homework.””
I looked around.
Nothing seemed disturbed.
The curtains were closed.
The window was locked.
But that didn’t make me feel better.
It made me feel worse.
Because whoever took that picture wanted me to know they could reach her.
Emily noticed my expression.
“Someone was here, wasn’t there?””
I hated that she knew.
I hated that my eight-year-old daughter had learned to read danger before she learned to enjoy childhood.
I sat beside her.
“Listen to me.””
She looked at me.
“From now on, you don’t go anywhere alone.””
Her face changed.
“Dad…”
“I know what you’re going to say.””
“You promised I could have a normal life.””
The words stopped me.
Because she was right.
I had built a wall around her.
A wall made of security guards, private schools, and money.
But the wall hadn’t protected her.
It had only made her a bigger target.
“I’m sorry.””
Emily looked surprised.
“You don’t have to say sorry.””
“Yes, I do.””
I held her hand.
“I thought protecting you meant hiding the ugly parts of the world.””
Her eyes softened.
“But the ugly parts found me anyway.””
I didn’t have an answer.
A knock came at the door.
Marcus stepped inside.
“Sir.””
I stood.
“What did you find?””
He held a tablet.
“The image was sent from a temporary device.””
“Can you trace it?””
“We can.””
“And?””
Marcus hesitated.
“That’s the strange part.””
“What?””
“The signal came from inside your house.””
The room went silent.
I stared at him.
“That’s impossible.””
“I know.””
“Run it again.””
“We already did.””
I looked around Emily’s room.
Someone had been here.
But nobody had entered.
Then I saw it.
The mirror.
A small red light blinked near the frame.
I walked toward it.
Marcus followed.
“Sir?””
I reached behind the mirror.
My fingers touched something.
A tiny camera.
Hidden.
My blood went cold.
“Someone installed this.””
Marcus removed it carefully.
“There’s more.””
He checked the back of the device.
“Whoever placed this wasn’t trying to watch you.””
I looked at him.
“What do you mean?””
He turned the screen toward me.
The camera’s recording history appeared.
Hours of footage.
Not of Emily.
Of me.
Meeting with lawyers.
Talking on the phone.
Opening old files.
Searching for answers.
Someone had been watching my investigation.
Not my daughter.
Me.
Then Marcus found something else.
A folder hidden inside the device.
One video file.
Recorded eight years ago.
I stared at the date.
The night of the accident.
My hands went cold.
“Play it.””
Marcus pressed the screen.
The video was shaky.
Dark.
A car interior.
My car.
I saw myself in the driver’s seat.
I saw Emily in the back.
Then another voice.
A woman.
My breath stopped.
Olivia.
Her voice was unmistakable.
“I’m sorry.””
The video shook.
My younger self turned around.
“What are you doing here?””
Then Olivia spoke.
“I need you to listen.””
The recording cut.
Marcus looked at me.
“That’s all?””
“No.””
I pointed at the screen.
“Enhance the audio.””
He tried.
A few seconds later, the speakers crackled.
The woman’s voice returned.
“You don’t understand what your decision did.””
My younger voice answered.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.””
Olivia sounded furious.
“You destroyed everything.””
Then a loud crash.
The camera went black.
I stared at the screen.
Because for eight years, I believed the accident was the beginning of the nightmare.
But now I understood.
It wasn’t the beginning.
It was the middle.
Someone had been fighting a war against me long before I knew there was a war.
The next morning, I went to Daniel Whitmore’s house.
I didn’t call.
I didn’t warn him.
I needed answers.
His security tried to stop me.
They didn’t get the chance.
Daniel met me in his driveway.
“You found the camera.””
I stopped.
“You knew?””
His expression changed.
“I suspected.””
“You suspected someone was watching me?””
“Yes.””
“And you said nothing?””
Daniel looked exhausted.
“Because I didn’t know who was behind it.””
I stepped closer.
“Your sister is alive.””
His face went pale.
“I know.””
That shocked me.
“You knew?””
Daniel looked toward the house.
“I saw her two months ago.””
The world seemed to shift.
“Where?””
He didn’t answer.
“Daniel.””
His voice became quiet.
“At my wife’s grave.””
I stared at him.
“You’re telling me a dead woman appeared at your wife’s grave?””
“Yes.””
“Why didn’t you tell anyone?””
His eyes met mine.
“Because when Olivia saw me…”
He swallowed.
“She said something that made me realize the truth.””
“What truth?””
Daniel looked at me.
“That she wasn’t coming after you because of what happened eight years ago.””
A cold feeling moved through me.
“Then why?””
May you like
Daniel whispered:
“She was coming after you because of what you still don’t know.””
