Chapter 5 - SARAH’S LAST WARNING
I opened Sarah’s envelope with trembling hands.
Inside were six handwritten pages and a small brass key.
Richard,
If you are reading this, then Thomas has ignored my warning and approached Maya.
Please do not dismiss this as grief, medication, or paranoia.
That is what he will want you to do.
Your brother has been stealing from Sterling Meridian for years.
He has used shell companies, false consultants, and private medical foundations to move money beyond the reach of auditors.
I discovered it because one of those foundations used my name.
Thomas believes the shares my father left me should belong to him.
He also believes Maya can be controlled more easily than you.
Sarah’s words continued, becoming less steady near the bottom of each page.
She had discovered Thomas forged board authorizations and transferred research patents through an offshore company.
She had planned to expose him after completing her treatment.
Then her health deteriorated.
She did not directly accuse him of causing her illness.
But she wrote that medication disappeared from her room.
Dosages were altered.
Thomas appeared at the house on days when I was traveling.
Sarah had told Marcus Bell.
Marcus promised to investigate.
He never reported his findings.
The final paragraph was underlined.
Do not trust the person Thomas encourages you to love after I am gone.
He will not choose someone who loves Maya.
He will choose someone who needs him.
I lowered the letter.
Mrs. Gable sat beside me.
“How did you get this?”
“Sarah gave it to me two months before she died.”
“You knew her?”
“We attended the same breast cancer support group.”
I had never known Sarah went to a support group.
She told me she spent Thursday afternoons at physical therapy.
“She asked me to keep the letter outside the family,” Mrs. Gable continued.
“She said I should give it to you only if Maya mentioned Thomas, hidden cameras, or being forced to copy handwriting.”
“You waited until now.”
“I didn’t know those things were happening.”
“She collapsed at your school.”
“And I called you.”
Her response carried no defensiveness.
Only grief.
“Maya was careful,” she said.
“Children living in fear become experts at protecting the people hurting them.”
I looked through the hospital window at my daughter.
She was sleeping again.
“How did I not see it?”
“You were trained not to.”
The brass key in Sarah’s envelope was old and unusually heavy.
A small letter S was engraved into its head.
I recognized it.
It belonged to a locked compartment inside Sarah’s piano.
The piano stood in the west parlor of the estate.
After Sarah died, no one played it.
Eleanor had repeatedly asked permission to remove it.
I refused.
Now I understood why she wanted it gone.
Daniel drove me back to the estate shortly after sunrise.
Child protective services assigned an officer to remain with Maya.
Olivia stayed at the hospital until I returned.
The dining room still smelled of expensive food.
Police tape crossed the pantry entrance.
Eleanor had not been allowed back inside.
Daniel and I entered the west parlor.
Dust lay across the piano’s black surface.
I lifted the keyboard cover and found the concealed keyhole beneath the lowest note.
The brass key turned smoothly.
A narrow drawer opened inside the piano.
It contained an encrypted flash drive, three photographs, and a small digital recorder.
The first photograph showed Thomas and Marcus Bell leaving a bank in Geneva.
The second showed Thomas with Eleanor.
The date printed in the corner was two years before Sarah’s death.
Eleanor had told me she first met Thomas after I hired her to redesign my office.
That was another lie.
In the photograph, they were standing outside the Blackwood Hotel in Boston.
Eleanor’s hand rested against Thomas’s chest.
They did not look like strangers.
The third photograph showed Dr. Samuel Reeves, the physician from dinner, passing an envelope to Thomas in a hospital parking garage.
I inserted the digital recorder into a speaker.
Sarah’s voice filled the room.
It was weak, but unmistakable.
“Thomas came again today.”
A pause followed.
“He believes Richard will never question him.”
Another pause.
“I hope he is wrong.”
There was a sound in the background.
A door opening.
Then Thomas’s voice.
“You should be resting.”
Sarah answered.
“You changed the pills.”
“You’re confused.”
“I counted them.”
“You’ve been taking powerful medication.”
“I told Richard.”
“No, you didn’t.”
The recording shifted as if Sarah had hidden the device beneath a blanket.
Thomas spoke again.
“Richard cannot save you from an illness already inside your body.”
Sarah’s breathing became uneven.
“What do you want?”
“What should have belonged to me.”
“The company?”
“The future.”
“You’ll never control Maya.”
Thomas laughed softly.
“I won’t need to.”
The recording stopped.
Daniel and I stood in silence.
My phone rang.
It was Nathan Mercer.
“Richard, there’s an emergency board meeting at ten.”
“Called by whom?”
“Thomas.”
“He’s missing.”
“He’s joining remotely.”
“For what purpose?”
Nathan hesitated.
“To remove you as chief executive.”
I almost laughed.
“On what grounds?”
“Child endangerment, emotional instability, and conduct damaging to the company.”
Thomas had spent years preparing the board to believe I was the threat.
Before I could respond, Daniel’s phone sounded.
He read the message and looked at me.
His expression changed.
“What happened?”
“The officers reached Thomas’s apartment.”
“And?”
“They found Marcus Bell inside.”
“Alive?”
Daniel turned the screen toward me.
The photograph showed Marcus sitting beside an open safe.
On the floor lay the missing eighteenth-birthday letter.
May you like
Beside it was a loaded gun.
And Marcus had told police the gun belonged to me.
