Chapter 26 - WHAT MY FATHER GAVE MY WIFE
Emily was awake when I returned.
Lily had fallen asleep in the chair beside her bed, one hand resting on her mother's blanket. Rebecca had gone downstairs to speak with the nurses, leaving the room quiet except for the soft rhythm of the monitors.
I showed Emily the photograph.
She stared at it for a long time.
"Where did you find this?"
"Someone sent it to me."
Her fingers began to tremble.
"Daniel, I need to tell you something about your father."
I pulled a chair closer.
"Tell me everything."
Emily looked toward Lily.
"Not while she's here."
I understood.
We stepped into the adjoining consultation room, where Carter joined us after being informed that Emily was ready to speak.
She took a deep breath.
"Your father contacted me two days before he died. He asked me to review a set of financial records that he believed Richard had altered."
"Why didn't he tell me?"
"Because he was afraid you would confront Richard before we understood what was happening."
I remembered my father sitting alone in his study during the final weeks of his life. He had seemed tired, distracted, and increasingly impatient with anyone who mentioned the company's future.
I had thought he was struggling with age.
Emily continued.
"He showed me transfers that connected the company to several shell businesses. At first, he believed Richard was stealing from the company. Then we discovered that some of the payments had been authorized using your father's credentials."
"Could someone have forged them?"
"Yes. But your father admitted that he had approved certain transfers years earlier."
I closed my eyes.
"So he was involved."
"Initially, he believed he was financing a confidential development project. Richard told him the money would support a private investment that could save the company from a financial crisis. Your father eventually discovered that the project was a cover for a much larger fraud."
"Why didn't he report it?"
"He intended to."
Emily's voice broke.
"He told me he had spent too long protecting the family name. He wanted to give the evidence to the authorities, even if it destroyed his reputation."
Carter leaned forward.
"Did he give you the original documents?"
Emily nodded.
"He gave me a small encrypted drive and a handwritten letter. He said the drive contained records that could establish who had authorized each transfer and where the money had gone."
"Where is it now?" I asked.
"I hid it before Vanessa took me."
"Where?"
Emily looked directly at me.
"In the music room. Behind the piano's lower panel."
I thought of the flash drive we had found in the photograph frame.
"That drive was empty."
Emily frowned.
"Empty?"
"The forensic team examined it. There was no readable data."
She went pale.
"Then someone replaced it."
Carter immediately made a note.
"Did your father give you a password?"
Emily nodded.
"He told me it was connected to the first song he ever taught you on the piano."
I stared at her.
My father had taught me to play a simple melody when I was seven. I had forgotten most of it, but I remembered the name because he used to hum it whenever he wanted me to calm down.
"Moon River," I whispered.
Emily nodded.
"He said the password would unlock the original records."
Carter contacted the forensic team and asked them to reexamine the hidden compartment and any devices recovered from the estate.
Then Emily told us something that changed the direction of the investigation.
"The night before your father died, he said Richard was no longer the only person involved. He had discovered that someone inside the company was helping Adrian move money overseas."
"Who?"
"I don't know. He never told me the name."
"Did he say why?"
Emily's eyes filled with tears.
"He said the person had access to your father's medical records."
The room became silent.
My father had died after his car left a winding road during a storm. The official report concluded that poor visibility and excessive speed had caused the accident.
But he had been taking medication for a heart condition.
If someone had altered his medication, the accident might not have been an accident at all.
Carter stood.
"We'll request the original medical records and review the accident investigation."
I looked at Emily.
"Why didn't you tell me any of this before?"
"Because Vanessa told me your father had been murdered by people connected to the company. She said they would kill you and Lily if I revealed what he had given me."
"Did you believe her?"
"I believed that she could hurt you."
Emily wiped her eyes.
"I thought silence was the only way to protect our daughter."
I took her hand.
"You should never have had to make that choice."
She squeezed my fingers.
"And you should never have had to spend three years believing I abandoned you."
We sat in silence, both grieving the same lost years from opposite sides of a lie.
Then Carter's phone rang.
He listened, asked several questions, and turned toward us.
"The forensic team recovered part of the original data from a backup stored on the company's old server."
"Can they identify the person who altered the transfers?" I asked.
"They've found a digital authorization attached to the final transaction."
Carter looked at the screen.
"The authorization bears your father's name."
I felt the familiar weight of dread settle over me.
"That doesn't prove anything."
"No," Carter agreed. "But the transaction was completed three hours after your father died."
For the first time, the investigation had produced evidence that could not be explained away as a misunderstanding.
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Someone had used my dead father's identity to steal from his company.
And that person had expected the crime to remain buried forever.
