Chapter 10 - THE MISSING DRIVE
Claire screamed.
I reached for the counter.
Daniel moved through the darkness.
The front door opened.
Footsteps rushed upstairs.
There was another crash.
Someone had entered the house while Daniel distracted us.
I turned on my phone’s flashlight.
Daniel was gone.
The front door stood open.
Elias had installed a backup camera that Daniel did not know about.
I called him while Claire contacted the police.
By the time officers arrived, the upstairs office had been destroyed.
The safe was open.
The remaining documents were gone.
My bedroom drawers had been emptied.
The intruder had taken my laptop.
They had also removed the external drive containing years of practice records.
Daniel returned twenty minutes later pretending he had chased the intruder.
His coat was dry beneath the shoulders.
He had never gone outside.
The police questioned everyone separately.
Daniel claimed the power failure had frightened him.
Claire told them about the threats.
I gave them the recording.
When an officer searched Daniel’s car, he found nothing.
Richard’s SUV had been seen two blocks away by a neighbor.
Richard denied being near the property.
At three in the morning, Elias called.
His hidden camera had captured Lauren entering through the side door.
She carried a key.
She wore gloves.
She left with my laptop and the drive.
I watched the footage twice.
Lauren had hugged me at Christmas.
She had called me her sister.
She had asked me to help pay for her son’s summer program.
Then she had broken into my home to protect the brother who had betrayed me.
Maya obtained an emergency court order before sunrise.
The order froze major business transfers.
It also prevented Daniel, Richard, and Lauren from destroying records.
At eight, Daniel received the documents outside the hospital.
A local reporter captured the moment.
By noon, photographs of the airport confrontation were circulating online.
Someone had filmed Daniel and Claire kissing before he saw me.
The headline read:
SURGEON’S SECRET VACATION EXPOSED HOURS BEFORE FRAUD INVESTIGATION.
Daniel called me seventeen times.
I did not answer.
At 2:14 p.m., Lauren called from a blocked number.
“I have your laptop.”
“Then return it.”
“I can’t.”
“You broke into my house.”
“My father made me.”
“Your father didn’t carry the drive.”
She began crying.
“Rachel, you don’t understand.”
“Then explain.”
“The drive contains records from your mother’s estate.”
My throat tightened.
“What records?”
“Documents Daniel was never supposed to see.”
“Where are you?”
She whispered an address.
May you like
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It belonged to a storage facility near the Wisconsin border.
Then she said, “Come alone, or my father will burn everything.”
