Chapter 5 - THEY HAD BEEN WATCHING ME TOO
I had spent forty years building Hayes Electrical.
I started with one truck.
By the time I sold the company, we employed eighty-three people.
The deal had given me enough to retire comfortably.
Enough to leave Gaby secure.
Enough to make someone interested.
Rebecca began examining my financial history.
Meanwhile, Gaby slowly recovered fragments of memory.
Derek asking what my house was worth.
Brenda asking whether I had updated my will.
Mason joking about “family money.”
Questions that had once seemed harmless now sounded calculated.
Then Tyler texted again.
YOU DON'T HAVE MUCH TIME.
Rebecca replied from a clean number.
TIME FOR WHAT?
No answer.
That afternoon my home security system sent an alert.
Motion detected.
I opened the camera.
A man stood inside my study.
Mason.
Derek's brother.
He walked directly toward the cabinet containing my financial papers.
He knew where to look.
Police arrived after he fled.
My laptop was missing.
Nothing else.
Rebecca watched the footage.
“They're panicking.”
“Good.”
“No.”
She looked at me.
“Panicked people make mistakes.”
Then she added:
May you like
“And dangerous decisions.”
At 2:14 the next morning, my detached garage caught fire.
