Chapter 10 - THE PERSON I TRUSTED
Rachel stood slowly.
“No.”
The detective asked for her phone.
She handed it over immediately.
“Search everything.”
Her confusion looked real.
But after Rebecca, I didn't trust appearances anymore.
Police searched the house.
They found a burner phone beneath Rachel's garage workbench.
Rachel stared at it.
“I've never seen that.”
Fingerprints were recovered.
Not Rachel's.
Nathan's.
He had planted it.
The message was meant to make me distrust my own sister.
And it almost worked.
That realization taught me something.
Rebecca wasn't just trying to steal money.
She was dismantling every relationship around me.
One by one.
Police planned the cabin operation.
I would go.
But not alone.
Officers would surround the property from a distance.
At 11:47 p.m., I arrived.
The cabin was dark.
I carried Sarah's journal.
My hands were shaking.
I opened the door.
“Emily?”
Nothing.
Then a light switched on.
Rebecca sat beside the fireplace.
Still wearing part of her wedding dress.
The skirt was muddy.
Her veil was gone.
She looked like a ghost of the woman I'd nearly married.
“Where's Emily?”
“Safe.”
“Let me see her.”
“Give me the journal.”
“Emily first.”
Rebecca smiled faintly.
“You finally learned how to negotiate.”
“Where is my daughter?”
A door opened behind her.
Nathan appeared.
He had a gun.
My heart stopped.
“Journal,” he said.
I handed it over.
Nathan flipped through the pages.
Then swore.
“What?”
“This isn't all of it.”
“It is.”
“No.”
He shoved the gun toward me.
“Sarah removed pages.”
I remembered something.
The journal binding had looked uneven.
Pages had been torn out.
“I don't have them.”
Rebecca stood.
“Then where are they?”
“I don't know.”
Nathan grabbed my shirt.
“Your wife hid everything.”
Rebecca suddenly shouted.
“Stop!”
Nathan looked at her.
“We're done being careful.”
“This wasn't the plan.”
“The plan died when your stupid note got found.”
Rebecca flinched.
That was when I heard something upstairs.
A thump.
“Emily!”
I ran.
Nathan grabbed me.
We crashed into a table.
The gun hit the floor.
Rebecca screamed.
I punched Nathan.
He hit me back.
Then the front windows exploded inward.
“POLICE!”
Nathan dove for the gun.
Rebecca kicked it away.
Officers stormed the room.
I ran upstairs.
I found Emily tied to a chair.
She was crying.
But alive.
I ripped the tape from her wrists.
“Daddy!”
I held her.
“I've got you.”
Downstairs, Nathan was arrested.
Rebecca stood against the wall with her hands raised.
Then Emily whispered something into my ear.
“Daddy.”
“What?”
“Rebecca didn't take me.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
Emily pointed downstairs.
“Uncle Nathan did.”
May you like
She swallowed.
“And Rebecca tried to make him bring me home.”
