Chapter 13 - The CrashEmily’s hands went numb.
“My mother never told me about a crash.”
“She didn’t want you frightened.”
“When?”
“Five months before she died.”
Emily searched her memory.
Her mother had called one evening saying she had fallen.
She spent two days in the hospital.
Anna had laughed it off.
Emily had believed her.
“What happened?”
Michael handed her another file.
Police photographs.
A damaged sedan.
Crushed guardrail.
Skid marks.
Emily covered her mouth.
“The brake line was cut.”
Richard’s face darkened.
“Why wasn’t there an investigation?”
“There was.”
Michael looked at him.
“It disappeared.”
Richard’s eyes narrowed.
“You think I had something to do with that?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Michael didn’t answer.
Emily did.
“Victoria.”
Michael looked at her.
“We don’t know.”
“She knew about the trust.”
“Yes.”
“She tried to buy my mother out.”
“Yes.”
“She hired me afterward.”
“Yes.”
“And she tried to drown me.”
Michael’s expression hardened.
“That part I heard.”
Emily turned away.
Her mind returned to the courtyard.
Victoria’s hand in her hair.
Then learn your place.
It hadn’t been impulsive cruelty.
It had been resentment.
Hatred.
Maybe something worse.
Richard looked at Michael.
“Who else knew?”
“Anna. Me. Victoria.”
“No one else?”
Michael hesitated.
Emily noticed.
“Who?”
“Thomas.”
Richard stared.
“The estate manager?”
Michael nodded.
“He witnessed Anna’s trust activation.”
Emily’s stomach tightened.
Thomas had been at the castle for thirty years.
He had carried Eleanor’s portrait into the courtyard.
He had told Richard the archive had been broken into.
Emily whispered, “Where is Thomas?”
Richard pulled out his phone.
No answer.
He called security.
Nothing.
They searched the estate.
Thomas was gone.
His room had been cleared.
His passport missing.
Richard stood in the servants’ hall.
“He ran.”
Michael shook his head.
“Or someone made him leave.”
Emily looked toward a table.
Something caught her eye.
An envelope.
Her name.
She opened it.
Inside was a flash drive.
No note.
Richard said, “Don’t plug that into anything connected to the network.”
They used an isolated laptop.
One video file.
Emily clicked.
Thomas appeared on screen.
He looked exhausted.
“If Emily Bennett is watching this, I failed to tell you in person.”
Emily leaned closer.
“I worked for Charles Whitmore.”
Richard went still.
“I helped him hide records. I helped Daniel too. For years, I told myself I was only following orders.”
Thomas looked down.
“But Eleanor trusted me once.”
He swallowed.
“And I betrayed her.”
Emily’s heart pounded.
“I told Charles where she planned to meet Jonathan Hale.”
Lady Margaret began to cry.
Thomas continued.
“Charles sent Daniel.”
Richard whispered, “My God.”
“Daniel stopped Eleanor before she reached the road. But he did not kill her.”
Emily stared.
“He let her escape because she threatened to expose something worse.”
Thomas looked directly into the camera.
“Something Charles had done to Daniel.”
Richard frowned.
“What?”
The video glitched.
Then resumed.
“I cannot explain everything here. But Victoria knows the truth about her father.”
Emily’s chest tightened.
Thomas continued.
“And she has the missing pages from Daniel’s journal.”
Michael looked at Richard.
Thomas took a breath.
“Anna asked me to help her recover them.”
Emily whispered, “My mother.”
“I agreed.”
He looked ashamed.
“That is why the brake line was cut.”
Emily froze.
Thomas’s voice cracked.
“It wasn’t Victoria’s car they tampered with.”
Richard stared.
“Thomas…”
“It was mine.”
Emily’s face went blank.
Thomas continued.
“Anna borrowed my car that night.”
Silence.
“Whoever tried to kill her…”
He looked into the camera.
“…was trying to kill me.”
The file ended.
No one spoke.
Then Michael said quietly, “Thomas knew something.”
Richard nodded.
Emily stared at the black screen.
“And someone is still trying to stop him from saying it.”
Her phone vibrated.
A text from an unknown number.
ONE HOUR.
OLD TRAIN STATION.
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT THOMAS ALIVE.
Attached was a photograph.
Thomas.
May you like
Bound to a chair.
And behind him stood Victoria.
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