HE CHOSE HIS WIFE OVER HIS MOTHER - THEN THE BABY MONITOR EXPOSED THE SECRET SHE WOULD KILL TO BURY

"Who had access?" Daniel asked.

Ortiz's answer came too quickly. "Too many people. Patrol officers, paramedics, crime scene techs, one neighbor who came to take your dog, and your sister."

Daniel looked up. "Claire was there?"

"According to the entry log, she arrived at 1:12 a.m. Said your mother called her before the arrest."

"Claire lives two hours away."

"Then she drove fast."

Emily shifted painfully against the pillows. "Daniel, don't assume it's her."

He almost laughed. "Last night my mother tried to crack your head open, my dead father accused her of crimes from beyond the grave, and now my sister shows up at the exact time evidence disappears. I'm done assuming anything good."

Mia stirred. The anger left his face instantly. He touched one finger to her cheek.

A volunteer knocked and entered carrying white lilies.

"Delivery for Emily Hayes."

Daniel took the flowers before they came near the bassinet.

There was no sender name on the card.

Only seven words.

YOU SHOULD HAVE LET HER FINISH IT.

Emily stopped breathing for a beat.

Ortiz grabbed the card with gloved fingers.

"Nobody leaves this floor until we know who brought these in."

Daniel went to the door. "I'm going to find out myself."

"No, you're not."

"Detective-"

"Your wife was assaulted. Evidence vanished from a protected scene. Someone just delivered a threat to her hospital room. That means whoever this is already knows where you are and how security works. You running down the hall angry is exactly what they want."

Daniel's fists tightened.

Emily spoke softly. "She's right."

He turned toward her.

"There is something else," she said.

He stared.

"I made a backup of the drive. Not just on the laptop. I uploaded the folder to a cloud account under a fake name."

Ortiz nodded. "Good."

"No. Not good." Emily looked at Daniel. "The folder is encrypted. Your dad left a hint for the password. I couldn't figure it out."

"What hint?"

"The night Daniel forgot."

Daniel felt cold move through his chest.

Ortiz noticed. "Does that mean something to you?"

"I don't know."

But he did know one thing.

When he was seventeen, there was a night he could not remember. He woke in a private clinic with stitches above his eyebrow and his mother sitting beside him. She told him he had taken a company truck without permission, hit a deer on a rural access road, and panicked.

His father never spoke about it.

Claire never spoke about it.

And for years, Margaret used it whenever Daniel challenged her.

You have always been reckless. I spent my life cleaning up after you.

Daniel looked at Emily. "The password hint is about something that happened when I was seventeen."

Ortiz's eyes sharpened. "What happened?"

Before he could answer, her phone buzzed again.

She read the message, then held the screen toward Daniel.

Security had found the person who delivered the flowers.

It was Dr. Robert Keller.

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