Chapter 4 - UNIT 214Rain battered the windshield as Daniel drove toward St. Matthew's Storage.
Emily sat beside him holding Noah.
Neither spoke much.
Daniel had wanted Emily and Noah to stay somewhere safe.
Emily refused.
“If this involves my mother, I'm coming.”
The storage facility stood on the industrial edge of the city.
Most of the lights were broken.
A tired security guard barely looked at them when they entered.
Unit 214 was at the end of the third corridor.
Daniel inserted the key.
The lock opened.
Dust floated through the flashlight beam.
The room contained pieces of Margaret's final years.
A wheelchair.
Medical equipment.
Old boxes.
Family photographs.
Emily touched one photograph.
She was sixteen.
Margaret stood beside her.
Both women were smiling.
“I forgot this existed.”
Daniel noticed a gray filing cabinet in the corner.
Locked.
The silver key opened that too.
Inside were financial statements.
Medical records.
Insurance documents.
Then Daniel found a folder.
E.C.
Emily Carter.
Inside were photographs.
Emily leaving work.
Emily buying groceries.
Emily entering fertility clinics.
Emily sitting beside hospital windows after miscarriages.
Some photographs were more than six years old.
Daniel felt sick.
“She was watching you before Noah existed.”
Emily found another folder.
D.C.
Daniel Carter.
Photos dated back seven years.
Before their wedding.
Someone had been following both of them for years.
At the bottom of the cabinet lay a digital voice recorder.
Emily pressed PLAY.
Static.
Then Margaret's voice.
Weak.
Exhausted.
But unmistakable.
“If Emily ever hears this…”
Emily covered her mouth.
“…sweetheart, forgive me.”
Daniel looked at his wife.
“I made a terrible mistake.”
The recorder crackled.
“I trusted Helen with something I should have taken directly to the authorities.”
Emily's eyes widened.
Margaret continued.
“She knows about the Lawson inheritance.”
Emily frowned.
“What inheritance?”
Margaret's voice grew more urgent.
“The money was never gone.”
Emily stared at Daniel.
Her father had supposedly died bankrupt.
“The accounts were protected.”
Margaret coughed.
“I created a trust.”
A long pause.
“For my first grandchild.”
Emily slowly looked down at Noah.
Daniel's stomach tightened.
Margaret continued.
“If something happens to Emily…”
A noise sounded behind her in the recording.
Margaret stopped speaking.
“Who's there?”
Footsteps.
Then the recording abruptly ended.
Emily replayed it.
Same ending.
Daniel searched deeper inside the cabinet.
He found legal documents.
The trust was real.
Its estimated value—
$11.8 million.
Beneficiary:
Margaret Lawson's first biological grandchild.
Noah.
Daniel stared at the number.
Then footsteps sounded outside the unit.
Daniel shut off his flashlight.
Emily held Noah tighter.
Someone stopped directly outside.
The handle moved.
Locked.
Daniel picked up a metal pipe.
Silence.
Then a folded piece of paper slid beneath the door.
Daniel waited.
He picked it up.
Three words:
SHE KNOWS YOU'RE HERE.
Emily backed away.
“What does that mean?”
Daniel moved toward the door.
Then he smelled it.
Smoke.
Black smoke began creeping beneath the neighboring storage unit.
An alarm started screaming.
Daniel looked down the corridor.
Flames erupted around the far exit.
May you like
Someone wasn't simply watching them anymore.
Someone was trying to bury the truth with them inside.
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