Chapter 8 - My Mother Was Alive
I opened the door with the security chain still fastened.
The woman on the other side looked like the photographs.
Older.
Thinner.
A pale scar ran from her temple into her hairline.
But she had my eyes.
“Sarah?”
Tears filled hers.
“You look like Thomas.”
I nearly shut the door.
She caught it with one hand.
“Please.”
“My mother is dead.”
“That’s what Reed needed you to believe.”
I heard Evelyn shouting from my phone.
“Emily, get away from her!”
Sarah heard too.
Her expression changed.
“Evelyn?”
I raised the phone.
“Tell me why she’s warning me about you.”
Sarah laughed bitterly.
“Because she still thinks I planted the bomb.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Did you call Gabriel Mercer?”
“Yes.”
“Did you tell him there was a bomb?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know my father planned to throw me into the ocean?”
Her face broke.
“Yes.”
I opened the door only because I needed the next answer.
She stepped inside slowly.
I stayed near the desk.
“Start talking.”
Sarah looked at the cardigan on the bed.
“Mara kept it.”
“You knew her.”
“She was my sister.”
The room tilted.
Mara.
The woman who raised me.
My aunt.
“She never told me.”
“She promised Thomas she wouldn’t.”
“Everyone keeps using my father’s promises to explain their lies.”
Sarah nodded.
“You’re right.”
Then she told me the story.
Twenty-five years earlier, she had discovered Carter Maritime was moving money through shell companies connected to a private medical network. Dr. Reed managed the network. Julian handled company approvals. Evelyn controlled the voting trust but claimed she did not know where the money went.
Sarah copied the records.
Two weeks later, someone ran her car off a cliff.
She survived.
Thomas hid her.
They staged her death because Reed had access to the hospital system.
“So the yacht?” I asked.
“Thomas was going to leave the country with you and bring the records to federal investigators.”
“Why weren’t you with us?”
“I was supposed to meet you in Mexico.”
“What changed?”
“Reed found out.”
I stared at her.
“You’re saying the family doctor ordered the bomb?”
“I’m saying Reed knew about it.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
“No.”
Sarah reached into her coat and placed a small digital recorder on the table.
“This is why I came.”
She pressed play.
A man’s voice filled the room.
Julian.
“We have a problem. Thomas found the account.”
Then another voice answered.
My grandmother Evelyn.
“Then make sure he never reaches Mexico.”
I looked at Sarah.
“You said Evelyn didn’t know.”
“I never said that.”
The recording continued.
Evelyn’s voice became colder.
“And the child?”
Julian asked.
“What about Emily?”
A pause.
Then Evelyn said:
“She goes down with her father.”
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