Chapter 5 - The Wife Who Knew Too Much
Evelyn chose a crowded bakery in Queens. Adrian wanted to accompany me, but I insisted on meeting her with a plainclothes detective nearby. He agreed.
Evelyn looked exhausted. She slid a flash drive across the table. "Dean has been taking orders from someone called the Architect. He thinks he's going to replace Adrian."
"Who is the Architect?"
"I don't know. But Dean has been threatening me too."
On the drive were recordings of Dean discussing a staged accident and money routed through shell companies. One recording mentioned a charity gala at the estate on Sunday, not Adrian's car.
"The photograph was a distraction," I realized.
Evelyn grabbed my wrist. "Don't let them shut down the ballroom cameras."
Before I could ask more, she spotted a black sedan outside. Her face went white. We left through the kitchen exit and reached the detective's car as the sedan pulled away.
Back at the mansion, Adrian listened to the recordings twice. Then he called his attorney and a trusted state investigator, asking them to preserve the evidence and protect Evelyn.
"You're putting the whole family at risk," Luca said when he learned outsiders were involved.
"Someone already did," Adrian replied.
Luca turned to me. "You've been here three weeks. Why does he trust you?"
I answered before Adrian could. "Because I told him something he didn't want to hear."
Luca's gaze hardened.
Later that evening, I found a second note beneath my door: ASK ADRIAN WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR FATHER.
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My father had died twelve years earlier in a warehouse fire.
Until that moment, I had never imagined his death belonged to this story.
