The station remained black.
Mara could hear only breathing, shoes scraping against the floor, and the distant hum of a generator struggling to start.
Daniel's hand closed around hers.
“Don't move.”
Jason's voice came from somewhere near the ticket hall.
“Mara, it's me. Stay where you are.”
Another voice answered from the opposite side.
“Bring her here.”
Mara knew that voice.
Arthur.
She had heard it on the cassette only hours earlier.
Her pulse hammered.
“Arthur?”
Silence.
Then the voice came again.
“I'm here.”
Daniel pulled Mara backward.
“That's not possible.”
A small emergency light flickered above the corridor, throwing a weak red glow across the station.
For one second Mara saw Jason standing near the stairwell.
His face was pale.
He held both hands where she could see them.
“I didn't know he would be here,” Jason said.
Daniel moved in front of Mara.
“Who?”
Jason looked toward the dark corridor.
“Arthur.”
Evelyn stepped forward.
“Where is he?”
Jason shook his head.
“I don't know.”
A door slammed somewhere behind them.
Jason flinched.
Daniel noticed.
“You brought us here.”
“No.”
“You knew about the deposit box.”
“No.”
“You knew Mara would come.”
Jason swallowed.
“I knew someone wanted her to come.”
Mara stepped around Daniel.
“Then tell me who.”
Jason looked at her.
“I don't know his name.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I don't care what you believe anymore.”
His voice cracked.
“I've been trying to get out.”
Daniel stared at him.
“Out of what?”
Jason looked toward the darkness.
“The same thing you have.”
Mara heard footsteps.
Slow.
Measured.
Someone was walking toward them.
Jason backed away.
“Don't let him reach you.”
Daniel whispered to Mara, “Stay behind me.”
The figure emerged beneath the emergency light.
It wasn't Arthur.
It was Richard.
Mara recognized him immediately from the photographs.
He looked older than the man she remembered from childhood, but the eyes were unmistakable.
Her uncle stopped several yards away.
“Mara.”
She couldn't speak.
Richard looked at Daniel.
“You've changed.”
Daniel's voice was cold.
“You haven't.”
Richard gave a tired smile.
“That's not true.”
“You're supposed to be dead.”
“So is Arthur.”
Mara finally found her voice.
“Where is he?”
Richard looked at her.
“Not here.”
“Then whose voice did we hear?”
Richard glanced toward the ceiling.
“Someone using an old recording.”
Daniel's eyes narrowed.
“Whose recording?”
Richard didn't answer.
Mara stepped forward.
“Why did you bring Jason into this?”
“I didn't.”
Jason shook his head.
“He's lying.”
Richard turned toward him.
“You should be careful, Jason.”
Jason's face tightened.
“You promised my father you'd leave my family alone.”
Richard laughed quietly.
“Your father made promises too.”
Mara looked between them.
“What did Dad promise you?”
Richard's expression changed.
“Protection.”
“From what?”
“From the people he helped.”
Evelyn interrupted.
“Richard, enough.”
He looked at her.
“You still believe Arthur was innocent.”
“I know what he did.”
“So do I.”
Richard reached inside his coat.
Daniel tensed.
But Richard pulled out a folded document.
He held it toward Mara.
“This is why you're involved.”
Mara didn't take it.
“What is it?”
“Your father's original agreement with Arthur.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“Let me see it.”
Richard shook his head.
“No.”
“Then give it to Mara.”
Richard looked at him.
“You're still protecting her.”
“Yes.”
“Even now?”
“Especially now.”
Richard smiled sadly.
“That was always your problem.”
Mara took the document.
It contained a legal agreement signed twelve years earlier.
Henry Bennett had transferred control of a private trust to Mara.
The trust had been created when she was seventeen.
She was only a child when it happened.
“What is this?”
Richard answered.
“Your father moved the company's clean assets into your name.”
“Why?”
“To keep them away from Richard,” Evelyn said.
Richard nodded.
“Exactly.”
Mara looked at the signature.
“But I never knew.”
“You weren't supposed to.”
“Who knew?”
“Your mother. Arthur. Your father.”
Daniel stared at the document.
“Why wasn't this in the bank records?”
“Because the trust was held by a private institution.”
Mara looked up.
“And the account someone opened in Daniel's name?”
Richard's face became serious.
“That was the trap.”
“What trap?”
“Someone needed the thefts to appear connected to Daniel.”
Daniel said nothing.
Richard continued.
“They used his old identity because it gave them a convenient dead man.”
Mara looked at Daniel.
“Dead man?”
“Officially, Daniel Reed ceased using that identity twelve years ago.”
Richard looked at her.
“That made it easy.”
Mara's stomach tightened.
“Easy for whom?”
Richard didn't answer.
Instead, Jason spoke.
“For Arthur.”
Everyone turned.
Jason was trembling.
“I've met him.”
Mara stared.
“When?”
“Three months ago.”
Daniel stepped toward him.
“You said you hadn't.”
“I lied.”
“Why?”
“Because he threatened me.”
Richard's face hardened.
“Arthur threatened you?”
Jason nodded.
“He showed me files about Dad. He said if I didn't help him find the trust records, he'd expose everything.”
Mara's voice was quiet.
“Did you help him?”
Jason looked at her.
“Yes.”
A painful silence followed.
“But I didn't know what he planned to do with them.”
Daniel asked, “Where are the records?”
Jason looked toward Richard.
“He has them.”
Richard shook his head.
“No.”
Jason's eyes widened.
“You said—”
“I said Arthur had them.”
Mara felt something shift.
“Then where is Arthur?”
Richard looked directly at her.
“He's been dead for six months.”
The station seemed to become completely still.
Mara stared at him.
“That isn't possible.”
Richard nodded toward the photograph in her hand.
“The photograph was taken six months ago.”
“Then how can he be dead?”
“Because the photograph was taken before he died.”
Daniel looked at Richard.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you tell us?”
“Because the person using his voice needed you to believe he was alive.”
Mara remembered the recording.
The warning.
The threats.
The message telling her to come.
Someone had been speaking through Arthur's dead voice.
Then her mother's confession came back to her.
The account.
Jason.
Her father.
She looked at Jason.
“Who made you open the account?”
Jason's lips parted.
Before he could answer, the emergency lights went out again.
A gunshot cracked through the station.
Evelyn screamed.
Daniel pulled Mara to the floor.
A second shot struck the wall.
Jason disappeared into the darkness.
Richard shouted, “Don't shoot!”
A third shot answered him.
When the emergency lights returned, Richard was gone.
Jason was gone too.
Only Daniel, Mara, and Evelyn remained.
And on the floor between them lay the document Richard had given Mara.
Someone had torn away its final page.
Click here to continue reading: PART 10: The Missing Page Led Mara Back to Her Father, Where a Family Secret Revealed Why Jason Had Been Easier to Control Than Anyone Realized
She Married the Man Everyone Dismissed, Then One Phone Call Made Her Family Question Everything They Knew
Part 9 of 20
