Chapter 15 - The Vanishing Sister
"Daniel, please!" Margaret sobbed, sinking to her knees right there in the doorway, her hands reaching out for the hem of his trousers. "I did it for the family! I did it to protect your inheritance!"
"Don't touch me," Daniel spat, recoiling as if she were a venomous snake. His gun remained firmly gripped in his hand, though lowered. "You didn't protect the family. You are a monster."
Emily stepped forward. Her body was shaking, but her gaze was dead, cold steel. She looked down at the woman who had held her daughter, who had baked cookies for her son, who had sat across from her at Sunday dinners pretending to be grateful for a second chance.
"Five years," Emily said, her voice trembling with a rage so profound it sounded almost like a prayer. "For five years, I let you hold Grace. I let you tuck my daughter into bed. Knowing that you wished her dead before she ever took her first breath."
"Emily, forgive me..." Margaret wept, her forehead pressed against the polished floorboards. "I was terrified..."
"Where is Lauren?" Julian’s voice cut through the weeping like a cold blade.
Daniel snapped his attention back to the tall man in the charcoal coat. "What do you mean, where is she? You said she was at a motel."
Julian pulled his phone from his pocket, checking a flashing red indicator on the screen. "Lauren was supposed to meet my associate at the motel forty minutes ago to hand over the original ledger from your father’s safe. She never arrived. Her phone just pinged two miles from here—at the old boathouse on Blackwood Creek."
Daniel’s blood ran cold. The boathouse was an abandoned property owned by the Whitmore estate, shut down after his father’s death. It was completely isolated, surrounded by dense marsh and deep water.
"Why would she go there?" Emily asked, panic suddenly overriding her rage. "If she’s trying to confess, why go to the creek?"
Julian looked at Margaret, his eyes narrowing with cruel amusement. "Because she didn't call just me tonight. Did she, Margaret?"
Margaret didn't answer. She kept her head down, her body shaking violently.
"Who else did you hire, Margaret?" Daniel roared, grabbing his mother by the shoulders and pulling her upright against the wall. "Who did you send after Lauren?!"
Margaret’s eyes fluttered, filled with a horrific, desperate madness. "She was going to ruin everything, Daniel! She had the ledger! If the district attorney gets that book, all the assets—the house, your firm, the children's trusts—everything will be seized by the government! I couldn't let her destroy your future!"
"You sent someone to kill your own daughter?" Daniel whispered, horror choking the air from his lungs.
"Not to kill her," Margaret gasped out, tears running down her wrinkled cheeks. "Just to take the book! Just to silence her until she could be put back into an institution!"
"You're a sick old woman," Julian said coldly. He turned toward the door. "If my associate doesn't get that ledger, Daniel, the FBI gets the copy of that audio tape by sunrise. You have thirty minutes to find your sister before the creek swallows whatever secrets she’s carrying."
Daniel didn't hesitate. He grabbed his coat and car keys from the desk. "Emily, take the kids. Get in the car and drive to your sister’s house in Portland. Do not stop. Do not answer the phone."
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"I'm not leaving you, Daniel," Emily said, her jaw set firm.
"Emily, look at me!" Daniel grabbed her face, his eyes wild with terror and love. "A professional killer is at the boathouse with my sister. My mother has orchestrated hits on both my wife and my sister. I need to know you and the kids are safe. Go. Now!"
