Chapter 4 - THE VAULT BENEATH THE SHIPYARD
We reached the shipyard before dawn.
The place had once belonged to my parents.
Now it looked abandoned.
Broken windows.
Rusting machinery.
Empty offices.
Nathan had told me the property was worth almost nothing.
He had lied.
Caleb led me beneath the main office.
Behind a collapsed storage cabinet, he found a narrow staircase.
We descended.
At the bottom was a steel door.
The key fit perfectly.
Inside were dozens of boxes.
Photographs.
Bank records.
Property deeds.
Audio tapes.
And one red folder.
My name was written on it.
I opened it.
The first document was dated twenty years earlier.
It was a transfer agreement.
My father had placed controlling ownership of the shipyard into a family trust.
But the trust had one unusual clause.
If both parents died under suspicious circumstances, control would pass to their surviving children.
Me.
And my missing sister.
I looked at Caleb.
“Why didn't you tell me about this?”
“I didn't know about her.”
We kept reading.
Then we found a second document.
A handwritten letter from my mother.
If you're reading this, Victor knows about Emily. Do not trust anyone connected to the Hale family.
My hands trembled.
Then I saw the final line.
The person who betrayed us is closer than you think.
Caleb looked at me.
“There's more.”
He held up a photograph.
It showed our father shaking hands with a young woman.
I recognized her immediately.
Dr. Elaine Porter.
My doctor.
But the date on the photograph was twenty-two years old.
“She knew Mom.”
Caleb nodded.
“She's been involved since the beginning.”
I felt sick.
Then an audio recorder clicked.
A voice filled the room.
Our father's voice.
“If anything happens to us, Nathan Hale is not the mastermind.”
I stared at Caleb.
The recording continued.
“He is being used by someone much closer to our family.”
A second voice answered.
A woman's voice.
Calm.
Familiar.
I stopped breathing.
Caleb reached for the recorder.
“No.”
The voice spoke again.
“Your children will never know.”
I knew that voice.
I had heard it my entire childhood.
My grandmother.
Caleb's face went pale.
“Our grandmother?”
The recording continued.
“She will inherit everything.”
Then the tape ended.
We stood in silence.
Suddenly, footsteps echoed above us.
Someone had entered the shipyard.
Caleb turned off the lights.
We hid behind the shelves.
A door slammed.
Then Nathan's voice filled the basement.
“I know you're here, Maren.”
May you like
My heart stopped.
He had found us.
