Chapter 4
The car stopped at a red light.
I stared at my father.
"Murdered?" I whispered.
He nodded.
"Richard Harrington died in his sleep. Or that's what the official report said. But the police had questions. Lots of them."
"Why didn't you tell me?" My voice shook. "Before I married him?"
"Because there was no proof," he said. "And Daniel was young. He wasn't involved. I checked. Thoroughly."
The light turned green.
He continued driving.
"Linda had motive. Richard was going to divorce her. He'd found out she was embezzling from the company. He was going to leave her with nothing."
"And then he conveniently died in his sleep," I said.
"Exactly. The coroner said heart attack. But the timing…" He shook his head. "It was too perfect. And Linda inherited everything. The company. The house. All of it."
I thought about the bank statement.
The $287,000.
The monthly payments from Linda's company.
"She's been paying Daniel," I said. "For years. Why?"
My father was quiet for a moment.
"I think she's been buying his silence," he said.
"Silence about what?"
"About what really happened to his father."
The car pulled into my father's driveway.
It was a beautiful house. Big, warm, full of light.
I'd grown up here.
It had always felt like home.
Tonight, it felt like a fortress.
We carried Emma inside. My father's housekeeper, Maria, had already prepared a room for us.
I tucked Emma into bed.
She stirred slightly.
"Love you, Mommy," she mumbled.
"I love you too, baby."
I kissed her forehead.
Then I went downstairs.
My father was in his study, on the phone.
"Yes," he was saying. "Everything. Bank records, phone logs, everything you can find on Linda Harrington and Harrington Holdings. And I want it yesterday."
He hung up.
He looked at me.
"Sit down," he said.
I sat.
"I've had people watching Linda for years," he said. "Not because I thought she'd hurt you. But because I wanted to make sure she never hurt Daniel. Or that she never used him to get to me."
"Get to you?"
"Your father-in-law and I were business partners," he said. "A long time ago. Before Linda poisoned him against me. She thought I was the reason Richard was going to divorce her. That I'd encouraged him."
"Did you?"
"I told him the truth about the embezzlement," he said. "That's all. He made his own decision."
He leaned forward.
"Sarah, Linda Harrington is a dangerous woman. She doesn't just hold grudges. She plans revenge. And she's been planning it against me for a very long time."
I thought about my marriage.
The way Linda had always hated me.
The way she'd criticized everything I did.
The way she'd turned Daniel against me, little by little.
"She married Daniel to me on purpose," I said. The realization hit me like a physical blow. "Didn't she?"
My father nodded slowly.
"I believe so," he said. "She wanted him married to my daughter. To get close to me. To my company. To everything I have."
I felt sick.
Three years of marriage.
A child.
All part of Linda's plan.
"And Daniel?" I asked. My voice was barely a whisper. "Did he know?"
My father looked at me with sadness in his eyes.
"I don't know," he said. "I truly don't."
My phone buzzed.
I looked at it.
A text from Daniel.
*Sarah, please. We need to talk. I'll tell you everything. Just meet me tomorrow. At the café on 5th. 10 AM. Please.*
I showed the text to my father.
"Don't go," he said immediately.
"I have to," I said. "I need to hear it from him. Whether he knew. Whether any of it was real."
He sighed.
"Then I'm sending someone with you. Two someones. They'll be nearby. You won't see them, but they'll be there."
I nodded.
That night, I lay in bed in my old bedroom.
Emma was sleeping beside me.
I couldn't sleep.
I kept replaying everything.
The slap.
The soup.
Daniel's words.
The bank statement.
Richard Harrington's murder.
My phone buzzed again.
Another text.
This one wasn't from Daniel.
It was from an unknown number.
*You think you're safe at your father's house? You think you've won? You have no idea what's coming. Linda always gets what she wants. And she wants you destroyed.*
I stared at the text.
My hands were shaking.
And then another text came through.
A photograph.
It was Emma.
Taken today. At the Harrington house.
She was playing in the backyard.
May you like
And the photo had been taken through the fence.
By someone watching.
