Chapter 10 - THE BETRAYAL
Victor disappeared.
His home was empty.
His bank accounts were frozen.
His car was abandoned.
The woman in the red coat was identified as Elena Ross, a former Mercer accountant.
She had disappeared six years earlier after reporting financial irregularities.
Daniel finally understood.
Victor had built an entire network.
Thomas Bennett had discovered it.
Elena had discovered it.
And now Clare had accidentally reopened it.
But there was one question left.
Why had Victor targeted Clare specifically?
Daniel found the answer in Thomas's old files.
A handwritten note.
If anything happens to me, Clare has the key.
Clare stared at the sentence.
"What key?"
Daniel shook his head.
"I don't know."
They returned to her childhood home.
It had been empty since her father died.
Dust covered everything.
Clare walked through the old living room.
Memories came back.
Her father's chair.
His books.
The clock he'd repaired himself.
Then she noticed something.
The clock was ten minutes slow.
She opened the back.
A small metal key fell into her hand.
Daniel looked at it.
"Your father hid this."
The key opened a locked drawer beneath his desk.
Inside was a flash drive.
And a letter.
Clare opened it.
My little girl,
If you've found this, then the people I feared have finally reached you.
She began crying.
Daniel stood beside her.
The letter continued.
I need you to know one thing. None of this is your fault.
The money stolen from Mercer employees was only part of the scheme. The real operation was much bigger.
Someone has been using Mercer to move money for years.
Clare looked at Daniel.
"Money for what?"
He plugged the drive into a laptop.
Folders appeared.
Dozens.
Then one named:
VALENTINE.
Daniel stared at it.
"What?"
Clare looked at him.
"What is Valentine?"
Daniel didn't answer.
He already knew.
Valentine wasn't a person.
May you like
It was the name of the criminal network Thomas had been investigating.
And Daniel had unknowingly spent six years funding it.
