Chapter 5 - THE FILE IN THE WALL
Daniel locked the office door.
“Start from the beginning.”
Lily sat across from him.
“My mother worked for your father.”
Daniel's eyes narrowed.
“She wasn't an employee.”
“She was his accountant.”
Daniel went still.
His father had owned one grocery store.
At least, that was what Daniel had always believed.
“His accountant?”
“Yes.”
“For what?”
“Investments.”
Daniel shook his head.
“My father barely had enough money to expand the first store.”
Lily opened the folder.
“That's what everyone thought.”
She placed a bank statement on the desk.
Daniel stared.
The account had held more than $18 million.
The date was twenty-seven years before his father's death.
Daniel whispered:
“Where did this come from?”
“My mother found it.”
“And the money?”
“Transferred to several offshore companies.”
Daniel's hands tightened.
“Who owned them?”
Lily hesitated.
“That's the part I couldn't prove.”
“Tell me.”
“One company belonged to your father's business partner.”
Daniel's face hardened.
“Thomas Halloway.”
Lily nodded.
Daniel felt the room tilt.
Thomas Halloway had been his father's closest friend.
Thomas had died twelve years earlier.
But his son—
Grant.
Daniel slowly sat back.
“No.”
Lily didn't answer.
“Grant has worked for me for twenty-three years.”
“I know.”
“He's my COO.”
“I know.”
“He was eighteen when my father died.”
“I know.”
Daniel looked at her.
“You think Grant knows?”
“I think he knows something.”
Daniel stood and walked toward the bookshelf.
“My father died in a car accident.”
Lily's voice was quiet.
“Was the car ever examined independently?”
Daniel stopped.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because the police said the brakes failed.”
“Who owned the repair shop?”
Daniel slowly turned.
“I don't know.”
“My mother did.”
Daniel stared.
“She found the mechanic who worked on the car.”
“What happened to him?”
“He disappeared.”
Daniel's phone suddenly rang.
Grant.
Daniel and Lily looked at each other.
Daniel answered.
“Hello?”
Grant's voice came through.
“Daniel, where are you?”
“At the office.”
“You weren't answering.”
“I was busy.”
A pause.
“Is Lily Carter with you?”
Daniel's blood went cold.
He looked at Lily.
She had heard him.
“How do you know her name?”
Another pause.
Then Grant said something that changed everything.
“Because Daniel…”
His voice became strangely calm.
“She should have stayed gone.”
The line went dead.
Daniel stared at the phone.
Lily slowly stood.
“You see?”
Daniel nodded.
“Yes.”
A sound came from the hallway.
Footsteps.
Daniel turned toward the door.
Someone stopped outside.
The handle moved.
Once.
Twice.
Then the door opened.
Grant Halloway stepped inside.
He looked at Lily.
Then at Daniel.
And smiled.
“You finally found the file.”
Daniel's face went pale.
“What file?”
Grant closed the door behind him.
“The one your father hid.”
Lily stepped backward.
Grant's smile disappeared.
“Don't be afraid, Lily.”
She whispered:
“You killed my mother.”
Grant shook his head.
“No.”
Then he looked at Daniel.
“But I know who did.”
Daniel's voice was barely audible.
“Who?”
Grant reached into his coat.
And pulled out an old photograph.
“Your father.”
Daniel stared at it.
It showed his father standing beside Lily's mother.
But behind them, partially hidden in the shadows, stood a third man.
Daniel recognized him.
His own face appeared in the photograph too.
Except Daniel was only nineteen at the time.
And he was holding something in his hand.
A gun.
Lily gasped.
Daniel stepped backward.
“I wasn't there.”
Grant smiled.
“That's what you were told.”
Daniel stared at the photograph.
His entire childhood.
His father's death.
His mother's silence.
Lily's mother's disappearance.
Everything suddenly seemed connected.
Then Grant said:
“There's one problem.”
Daniel looked up.
“What?”
Grant's expression became almost sympathetic.
“The original photograph proves you were there.”
Lily whispered:
“Then where is the original?”
Grant smiled.
“That's what I've spent nineteen years trying to find.”
He turned toward the door.
“And now…”
May you like
He looked at Lily.
“…so have you.”
