Chapter 8 - SARAH DIDN'T JUST DIE
I couldn't speak.
Sarah had collapsed in our kitchen.
One minute she was laughing.
The next she was on the floor.
Doctors diagnosed a catastrophic brain aneurysm.
There had been no reason to suspect anything else.
Margaret pushed the drive toward me.
“Sarah had been receiving threats.”
“From Thomas?”
“I thought so.”
“You thought?”
“She wouldn't tell me who.”
Police examined the drive.
Most files concerned financial crimes.
But one folder contained emails.
Sarah had written to Margaret about headaches.
Dizziness.
Strange episodes of confusion.
Then there was one chilling message.
Something is wrong when I drink coffee at work.
I stared at it.
Sarah had occasionally worked from Thomas's firm's office.
The detective asked Margaret who had access.
“Thomas.”
“Nathan.”
“And?”
Margaret hesitated.
“Rebecca sometimes worked reception during college.”
Rebecca had known Sarah.
That revelation hit harder than anything else.
Rebecca had never told me.
Not once.
When I met Rebecca two years after Sarah died, she'd acted like she knew nothing about my former life.
It wasn't coincidence.
She knew exactly who I was.
Police reopened questions surrounding Sarah's death.
But after four years, evidence was limited.
Then Margaret remembered something.
Sarah had kept a journal.
Not digital.
Handwritten.
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
I did.
Sarah had loved hiding meaningful things in ordinary places.
She once told me, “Nobody searches inside something boring.”
I drove home.
I went straight to our old cookbooks.
The third one contained a hollowed section.
Inside was a small blue notebook.
Sarah's journal.
The final entries made my hands shake.
She wrote about Thomas.
About missing money.
About Nathan learning his father's schemes.
Then one name appeared again and again.
Rebecca.
Rebecca had approached Sarah months before her death.
She wanted money.
Sarah refused.
Rebecca threatened her.
The final entry was dated three days before Sarah died.
Rebecca knows about Emily's trust.
She asked what happens if Daniel isn't able to care for Emily.
I told her to stay away from my family.
If anything happens to me, Margaret has the evidence.
I stopped reading.
The detective beside me whispered, “Jesus Christ.”
But there was one more line.
One I almost missed.
Sarah wrote:
Rebecca isn't working alone.
The person helping her is someone Daniel trusts completely.
I stared at those words.
Then my phone rang.
It was Rachel.
My sister.
I answered.
She was crying.
“Daniel.”
May you like
“What happened?”
“Emily's gone.”
