Chapter 5 - Emma Remembered The Red Bag
Emma returned home after police cleared the mansion.
Nathan considered moving them temporarily, but Emma wanted her own room.
That evening she sat on his bed eating strawberries.
“Daddy?”
“Yes?”
“The man said Mommy’s name.”
Nathan froze.
“What did he say?”
Emma concentrated.
“He said, ‘Sophia hid it better than I thought.’”
Then she remembered him speaking on the phone.
“Tell Margaret I found the original.”
Police located Margaret Vale at a retirement community in Maryland.
She admitted Sophia had discovered Richard manipulating project
valuations years earlier.
Margaret discovered similar discrepancies.
Sophia began collecting evidence.
Then Sophia became ill.
Before she died, she moved her Westbridge shares into Emma’s trust and
preserved documents.
Margaret promised to protect the truth.
After Sophia died, she lost courage.
Richard pressured her, and she stayed silent.
“I protected my son,” Margaret whispered.
Nathan’s anger rose.
“And my daughter paid for it.”
Margaret handed him a sealed envelope.
Sophia had given it to her four years earlier.
The front read:
FOR NATHAN, IF RICHARD EVER COMES BACK.
May you like
Nathan stared at his wife’s handwriting.
The stolen case was not Sophia’s only path to the truth.
