Daniel grabbed the flashlight from the emergency drawer in the kitchen while Mara stood beside the dark window. The car outside had disappeared beyond the trees.
Eleanor remained motionless.
Samuel locked the front door.
“No one leaves alone,” he said.
Mara turned toward him.
“I'm not staying here.”
“You don't know where Martin went.”
“I know where he is likely going.”
Daniel returned with the flashlight.
“Where?”
“The bank.”
Samuel shook his head.
“Why?”
“Because if he has the original trust documents, he will need somewhere to use them.”
Eleanor looked at Mara.
“There is another possibility.”
“What?”
“The old mill.”
Mara frowned.
“My grandmother's mill?”
“Martin kept business records there.”
Daniel looked at his mother.
“You knew about that?”
“Yes.”
“And you never told me.”
“I didn't know what to tell you.”
Mara inserted the memory card into the laptop Samuel had brought from the library.
The screen remained black for several seconds.
Then a folder appeared.
There were six audio files.
Each was dated.
The earliest was nearly two years old.
Mara clicked it.
Static filled the room.
Then Martin's voice emerged.
“We don't have enough time.”
A second voice answered.
Elaine.
“You never have enough time.”
Mara froze.
Daniel moved closer.
Martin spoke again.
“The estate is protected.”
“I know.”
“Then we need another route.”
“You're talking about the boy.”
Silence.
Mara looked at Daniel.
The recording continued.
“He'll do whatever you ask if he believes it protects the family.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Martin laughed quietly.
“You underestimate him.”
“No. I understand him.”
Mara stopped the recording.
Daniel stared at the floor.
“That's me.”
“Yes.”
“I was nineteen.”
Mara looked at him.
“What happened when you were nineteen?”
“I left home.”
“Why?”
“My father said I had embarrassed him.”
“How?”
Daniel rubbed his forehead.
“I refused to sign something.”
“What?”
“I don't remember.”
Eleanor spoke.
“You were supposed to sign a company guarantee.”
Daniel looked at her.
“You told me it was for the bank.”
“It was.”
“It would have made me responsible for the debt.”
“Yes.”
Mara stared at the screen.
“Your mother stopped you.”
Eleanor nodded.
“Then why did she stay with him?”
“Because I thought I could control the damage.”
Mara pressed play again.
The next recording was dated months later.
Elaine's voice sounded closer.
“If he marries her, the inheritance becomes vulnerable.”
Martin replied, “Not immediately.”
“She'll have to sign.”
“She trusts him.”
“And if she doesn't?”
“Then we make her afraid.”
Mara stopped the audio.
Nobody spoke.
Daniel looked physically ill.
“I never said anything like that to you.”
“I know.”
“But someone was planning around us.”
Mara nodded.
“Before we even knew what was happening.”
Samuel leaned toward the laptop.
“Play the final recording.”
Mara clicked it.
This one was dated only four weeks earlier.
Martin's voice came first.
“She's pregnant.”
Elaine answered.
“That complicates everything.”
“Not necessarily.”
“She'll protect the child.”
“Exactly.”
Mara's face went cold.
Daniel reached for her hand.
She didn't pull away.
Martin continued.
“If she believes the debt is hers, she'll surrender the property.”
Elaine said something quietly.
Mara leaned closer.
“What?”
The recording crackled.
Then Elaine spoke clearly.
“Unless Eleanor tells her the truth.”
Martin laughed.
“Eleanor won't.”
A long silence followed.
Then another voice entered.
Mara sat upright.
It was not Martin.
Not Elaine.
Not Eleanor.
It was Samuel.
“We need to move before the wedding.”
Mara stopped the recording.
She stared at him.
Samuel's face had gone pale.
“You were there.”
“Yes.”
“What were you doing?”
“I was trying to stop them.”
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“Almost everything.”
Daniel stepped toward him.
“You watched this happen.”
Samuel's voice broke.
“I was working for your grandmother.”
“You should have told Mara.”
“She ordered me not to.”
Mara stood.
“My grandmother ordered you to let me marry into this?”
“No.”
“Then what did she order?”
Samuel hesitated.
“She wanted to know whether Daniel was involved.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“And?”
“I discovered he wasn't.”
“Then why didn't you tell her?”
“She already knew.”
Mara looked confused.
“What does that mean?”
Samuel looked at Eleanor.
“Your grandmother believed Daniel might be the only person capable of breaking the family cycle.”
Daniel stared at him.
“She trusted me?”
“She trusted who you could become.”
Mara felt something inside her soften.
But the feeling disappeared quickly.
There was still too much missing.
She looked at the recordings.
“Who made these?”
Samuel shook his head.
“I don't know.”
“Then how did you get them?”
“I didn't.”
Mara stared at the screen.
“The files were already here.”
Eleanor stepped closer.
“That means someone wanted us to hear them.”
Mara thought about the photograph.
The broken clock.
The missing ledger.
The anonymous note.
Someone had been moving pieces around them.
Someone had known exactly when they would arrive.
A phone rang.
Everyone froze.
Daniel answered.
It was an unknown number.
A man's voice came through.
“Tell Mara to stop looking.”
Daniel put the call on speaker.
Mara stepped closer.
“Who is this?”
The caller laughed softly.
“You don't need to know.”
“Where is Martin?”
“He isn't your biggest problem.”
Mara's eyes narrowed.
“Then who is?”
The caller was silent.
Then came a whisper.
“Ask your grandmother why she kept Elaine alive.”
The call ended.
Eleanor's face changed.
Mara noticed.
“You know.”
Eleanor shook her head.
“No.”
“You're lying.”
Eleanor sat down.
“There is something your grandmother never told you.”
“What?”
“Elaine was not her assistant.”
Mara waited.
“She was her daughter.”
Silence.
Daniel looked at his mother.
“What?”
Eleanor's voice trembled.
“Elaine was Mara's grandmother's first child.”
Mara stared at the screen.
The recordings.
The photograph.
The inheritance.
The obsession with the estate.
Suddenly the entire story had another layer.
Elaine wasn't simply trying to steal from her.
She believed the inheritance belonged to her.
Mara looked at Samuel.
“Is that true?”
Samuel nodded.
“Yes.”
“And my grandmother disinherited her?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Samuel looked toward the window.
“Because Elaine tried to kill her.”
Mara's breath caught.
Before she could ask another question, the laptop screen flickered.
A new file appeared.
It had not been there before.
The filename contained only one word.
Mara.
She clicked it.
Her grandmother's voice filled the room.
“If you're hearing this, Elaine has returned.”
Mara covered her mouth.
The recording continued.
“And if Elaine has returned, then the person you must fear most is not her.”
A pause.
“It's the person who brought her back.”
The audio ended.
Eleanor whispered, “Martin.”
Mara shook her head.
“No.”
Everyone looked at her.
She pointed at the file timestamp.
It had been created that night.
After they entered the house.
Someone had accessed the computer remotely.
Mara closed the laptop.
“Martin didn't create this.”
Daniel understood.
“Then someone else is inside the system.”
Samuel looked toward the hallway.
A faint sound came from the library.
The old telephone had begun ringing.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Mara walked toward it.
She lifted the receiver.
A woman's voice whispered her name.
“Mara.”
She recognized it.
Elaine.
Click here to continue reading: PART 11: Elaine Finally Spoke From the Darkness, and Her Version of the Past Made Mara Question Which Betrayal Was Truly the First
Before the Christmas guests arrived, I still believed my husband would choose me when his family finally crossed the line
Part 10 of 20
