Chapter 4 - THE DOOR BENEATH THE RESTAURANT
Six weeks.
Samuel Harrison had been missing for six weeks.
And the last place he'd been seen was the restaurant where Emily worked.
She stared at Victor Langley.
"You knew?"
He shook his head.
"Not everything."
Daniel's expression hardened.
"Then tell us what you know."
Victor glanced toward the corridor.
"I can't discuss it here."
Emily crossed her arms.
"That's convenient."
Margaret looked at her and almost smiled.
Daniel turned toward the manager.
"Victor, this isn't a business negotiation. A man is missing."
Victor swallowed.
"I know."
"Then cooperate with the investigators."
The manager looked exhausted.
He finally admitted that Samuel had visited Bellmont House several times during the previous year.
He asked questions about old company records.
Requested access to a basement storage room.
And argued with Richard Harrison shortly before disappearing.
Emily frowned.
"Why would Samuel come here?"
Victor looked toward her.
"Because he believed his adoption records were hidden downstairs."
Daniel went still.
Margaret gripped Emily's hand.
Emily looked at Victor.
"Are they?"
He nodded.
"Some of them."
The police were contacted about Samuel's disappearance and the potential connection to Bellmont House.
Daniel arranged for the relevant records to be preserved.
Emily remained with Margaret while investigators reviewed the building's old archive.
For hours, they waited.
Then Daniel received a call.
The records room had been located.
It contained filing cabinets dating back nearly thirty years.
Some documents were ordinary business records.
Others involved charitable trusts, guardianship agreements, and payments to private institutions.
But one cabinet was different.
It had been locked behind a secondary security panel.
Inside were several files marked with names.
Samuel Carter.
Emily Carter.
Laura Carter.
Emily's hands went cold.
"My name?"
Daniel nodded.
"Yes."
The investigators documented the files and arranged for an independent review.
But before the documents were removed, a detective shared one finding with Daniel and Emily.
A payment ledger showed funds deposited into an account using Emily's identity.
The transfers began when she was eight years old.
Emily stared.
"Money?"
Daniel nodded.
"Yes."
"How much?"
He hesitated.
"More than three million dollars."
Emily laughed nervously.
"That's impossible."
She thought about her grandmother working late shifts.
The unpaid utility bills.
The winter Ruth couldn't afford a new hearing aid.
And someone had been moving millions under Emily's name.
"Where did it go?"
Daniel looked grim.
"The money was withdrawn through companies connected to Harrison Hospitality."
Emily felt sick.
Then Margaret signed something.
"Richard stole from the children."
Daniel stared.
His mother continued.
"Laura found the accounts."
Emily looked toward the file.
"Then what happened?"
Daniel's attorney entered carrying a preliminary report.
His expression was tense.
"There's something else."
Daniel looked up.
"What?"
"The guardianship records include a death certificate."
Emily's stomach tightened.
"Whose?"
The attorney looked directly at her.
"Laura Carter."
Emily closed her eyes.
Then he added the detail that changed everything.
"The certificate was issued seventeen years ago."
Emily nodded shakily.
"That's when she disappeared."
The attorney swallowed.
"But the signature on the certificate belongs to a doctor who died twenty years ago."
May you like
The room went silent.
Laura's death certificate had been forged.
