Martin shut the office door behind us.
“Did he ever tell you about the audit?” he asked.
“What audit?”
Martin swallowed. “That’s what I was afraid of.”
He knelt beside Liam’s lower drawer, reached behind the metal track, and pressed something I couldn’t see. A panel clicked loose. Behind it sat a small gray safe.
I knew Liam had secrets the way every person has locked rooms inside them, but seeing that safe felt like discovering another marriage hidden inside mine.
Martin entered a code.
The door opened.
Inside was a thick brown envelope.
On the front, in Liam’s handwriting, were three words:
Give to Emily.
My hands shook so badly Martin had to place it on the desk for me. I opened the metal clasp.
Photos spilled out first.
A man in a parking garage handing Claire a folder.
Claire standing beside a black SUV outside a motel.
Bank statements with transfers circled in red.
A copy of a life insurance policy I recognized.
And one folded sheet of paper.
Liam’s handwriting.
Em, if you’re reading this, then they finally got to me. Please don’t trust your sister.
The sentence did not enter me all at once.
It came apart like glass.
Please.
Don’t.
Trust.
Your sister.
My mouth went dry. I read the next line.
Claire and Daniel have been stealing from my company for months, and I think they’re using my name to hide it. If I disappear, it wasn’t an accident.
Daniel.
My brother-in-law. Claire’s husband. Charming Daniel with his bright smile and expensive watch. Daniel who had cried at the funeral so hard people comforted him. Daniel who had held Noah on his lap and promised, “Uncle Dan will always look out for you.”
I gripped the desk until my nails hurt.
“What is this?” I whispered.
Martin closed his eyes. “Liam found irregular transfers. Shell accounts. Vendor invoices. At first he thought it was internal fraud. Then he traced one account to Daniel.”
“And Claire?”
“He didn’t want to believe it.”
Neither did I.
