Chapter 2 - THE SECRET RACHEL LEFT WITH HER SON
“Mom gave it to me before she died.”
Michael Hayes stared at his eight-year-old son.
For several seconds, the ballroom seemed to disappear.
The chandeliers.
The guests.
Victoria.
Emily.
Everything.
There was only Lucas.
A frightened little boy standing beside his sister with tears still shining on his cheeks.
Michael slowly crouched.
“Lucas… what did you say?”
Lucas swallowed.
“Mom gave me something.”
“When?”
“The last night.”
Michael’s heart slammed against his ribs.
Rachel had died three years ago.
Lucas had been five.
Sophie had been three.
Michael had always assumed they remembered almost nothing about that night.
He had been wrong.
“What did she give you?”
Lucas looked toward Victoria.
Immediately, Michael understood.
He stood and stepped between Victoria and his children.
“You don’t look at them.”
Victoria laughed nervously.
“This is insane.”
Michael turned.
“Stay away from my children.”
“You’re letting an eight-year-old control you!”
“No.”
His voice became dangerously calm.
“I’m finally listening to him.”
Victoria went silent.
Michael looked at Emily.
“Take Sophie.”
Emily knelt beside the girl.
Sophie hesitated before moving into her arms.
Michael took Lucas’s hand.
“Show me.”
Lucas didn’t move.
“Buddy?”
His son whispered:
“Not here.”
“Why?”
“Mom said people would come looking.”
A chill moved through Michael.
“What people?”
Lucas shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
Victoria suddenly headed toward the ballroom doors.
Michael noticed.
“Stop.”
She kept walking.
One of Michael’s longtime friends, Daniel Mercer, stepped into her path.
Victoria snapped:
“Move.”
Michael pulled out his phone.
“I’m calling the police.”
Victoria spun.
“For what?”
Michael stared at the riding crop.
“For starters?”
His expression hardened.
“For what you did to my children.”
Victoria’s face changed.
“And after that, they can ask you about Rachel.”
“You have no evidence I did anything to Rachel.”
Michael looked at the old phone in Emily’s hand.
“Then you have nothing to worry about.”
For the first time, Victoria looked afraid.
Not angry.
Afraid.
Twenty minutes later, police vehicles filled the driveway.
The engagement party had become a crime scene.
Detective Nathan Cole entered the ballroom.
Michael recognized him.
Cole had been one of the detectives assigned to Rachel’s accident.
That should have reassured him.
Instead, something about Emily’s expression made Michael uneasy.
Cole looked at Victoria.
Then Emily.
Then Michael.
“What happened?”
Michael handed him the old phone.
“My wife left a recording before she died.”
Cole froze for half a second.
Almost nobody noticed.
Emily did.
Michael did too.
Cole recovered quickly.
“Where did you get this?”
“Emily found it.”
Cole turned toward her.
“Where?”
“In Victoria’s belongings.”
Victoria shouted:
“She stole it!”
Cole looked at Michael.
“We’ll need to take this into evidence.”
He reached for the phone.
Emily pulled it back.
“No.”
Everyone stared.
Cole’s eyes narrowed.
“Excuse me?”
“I made copies.”
Michael looked at her.
“You did?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Emily stared at Detective Cole.
“Because three years ago, evidence connected to Rachel’s accident disappeared after entering police custody.”
Cole’s expression hardened.
“That’s a serious accusation.”
“It’s also true.”
Michael stepped between them.
“What evidence?”
Emily took a breath.
“Rachel’s personal phone.”
Michael stared.
“The police never found it.”
“That’s what you were told.”
Michael slowly turned toward Cole.
The detective remained calm.
“Mr. Hayes, grief can create conspiracy theories.”
Emily laughed.
“Then tell him about Evidence Bag 4471.”
Cole’s face changed.
Michael saw it.
“What is Evidence Bag 4471?”
Emily answered.
“Rachel’s phone.”
Silence.
Cole looked at her.
“How do you know that number?”
“Because someone sent me a photograph of the evidence log.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
Michael stepped toward Cole.
“Was Rachel’s phone recovered?”
Cole didn’t answer.
“Detective.”
“It may have been.”
“May?”
“Records from that night were incomplete.”
Michael’s anger rose.
“You looked me in the eye and told me her phone was never recovered.”
“I told you what the final report said.”
“That’s not the same answer.”
Cole looked toward the other officers.
“We need to continue this at the station.”
“No.”
Michael pointed upstairs.
“My son says Rachel left him something.”
Cole immediately looked at Lucas.
Too quickly.
Michael noticed.
“What did she leave you?”
Cole asked.
Lucas moved behind his father.
Michael’s eyes narrowed.
“I didn’t say he told me.”
Cole stopped.
A tiny mistake.
But Michael felt it.
Emily felt it too.
Cole cleared his throat.
“You said he had something.”
“I said Rachel left him something.”
Michael stared.
“You asked what she left him.”
Cole’s jaw tightened.
“Mr. Hayes—”
“Were you looking for it?”
Victoria suddenly laughed.
Everyone turned.
“You’re all being ridiculous.”
Cole looked at her.
And for one brief second…
their eyes met.
Not like strangers.
Michael felt his stomach drop.
“You two know each other.”
Victoria scoffed.
“Of course I know him. He investigated Rachel’s death.”
“That isn’t what I mean.”
Michael stepped toward Cole.
“Have you spoken to Victoria outside this investigation?”
“No.”
Victoria said at exactly the same time:
“Once.”
Silence.
Michael stared.
Cole’s face tightened.
Victoria realized her mistake.
Michael whispered:
“Get out of my house.”
Cole straightened.
“I’m a police detective.”
“And until I have an attorney here, you’re not questioning my children.”
Cole looked at Lucas.
Then left.
But before walking through the door, he turned.
“Mr. Hayes?”
Michael looked at him.
“If Rachel hid something…”
Cole paused.
“…be careful who you show it to.”
Then he disappeared.
An hour later, the guests were gone.
Victoria had been taken to the station regarding the alleged abuse.
Michael locked every door.
Emily stayed.
Lucas led them upstairs.
Not to his bedroom.
To Sophie’s.
He walked toward a wooden dollhouse Rachel had bought before she died.
Michael remembered assembling it on Christmas Eve.
Lucas knelt.
He removed one tiny wooden chimney.
Inside was a key.
Michael stared.
“Mom put that there?”
Lucas nodded.
“She told me never to tell anybody unless you came home and looked scared.”
Michael nearly broke.
Rachel had trusted a five-year-old with something because she apparently hadn’t trusted the adults around her.
Lucas led them to Michael’s study.
He pointed toward an antique writing desk.
Michael inserted the key into a drawer he had never noticed was locked.
Click.
Inside was a small recorder.
A flash drive.
And an envelope.
MICHAEL.
His hands trembled.
He opened it.
Rachel’s handwriting.
If you are reading this, something happened to me.
Michael stopped breathing.
Emily covered her mouth.
He continued.
Victoria knows what I discovered.
But Victoria is not the person I’m afraid of.
Michael looked up.
“What?”
The letter continued.
Someone inside your company has been moving money through Hayes Foundation accounts.
I found payments connected to people who should never have been connected to us.
Police.
Private investigators.
A judge.
And someone who has access to our children.
Michael looked toward Lucas and Sophie.
His blood ran cold.
Rachel continued.
I called Victoria because I believed she was helping me.
If she tells you otherwise, she is lying.
Emily whispered:
“Victoria was helping Rachel?”
Michael kept reading.
Then something changed.
Three weeks before my death, Victoria began asking questions about the evidence.
Questions she should not have known to ask.
Michael looked at Emily.
“So Rachel stopped trusting her.”
“Yes.”
The final paragraph was worse.
Michael, if I die, do not assume Victoria killed me.
She may be guilty of something.
But there is another person involved.
Someone you trust.
Someone who knows your schedule.
Someone who knows where Lucas sleeps.
Someone who knows where Sophie goes to school.
Michael’s hands shook.
The letter ended:
Listen to the recording.
Michael pressed PLAY.
Rachel’s voice filled the room.
“Michael, I’m sorry.”
Sophie began crying.
“Mommy.”
Michael pulled her close.
Rachel continued.
“I found out why money is disappearing.”
Static.
“It isn’t being stolen from Hayes Holdings.”
Michael leaned closer.
“It’s being paid out.”
Emily frowned.
“To who?”
Rachel’s voice answered.
“To make people disappear.”
Michael froze.
Rachel continued.
“I found six payments. Every payment was followed by someone dying, leaving the country, or withdrawing testimony.”
Emily whispered:
“Oh my God.”
Then Rachel said:
“And tonight, I found payment number seven.”
Michael felt his heartbeat stop.
“The name attached to it is mine.”
Silence.
Rachel had discovered a payment for her own disappearance.
Or murder.
The recording continued.
“I’m going to meet Victoria. She says she knows who authorized it.”
Michael closed his eyes.
That explained the seven calls.
Rachel had been contacting Victoria because Victoria claimed she could help.
Then Rachel whispered:
“If Victoria is telling the truth, the person behind this has been inside our family for years.”
A sound came from the recording.
A car door.
Rachel gasped.
Then:
“You?”
Michael leaned forward.
Rachel sounded shocked.
“What are you doing here?”
A man answered.
But the audio was distorted.
Michael couldn’t recognize him.
Rachel screamed.
The recording ended.
Michael immediately replayed it.
Nothing.
“Can we clean the audio?” Emily asked.
“Yes.”
Michael grabbed the flash drive.
“Maybe the original is on here.”
He connected it to his computer.
One folder appeared.
PAYMENT SEVEN.
Michael clicked.
Bank records opened.
A transfer.
$500,000.
Authorized two days before Rachel died.
Recipient hidden behind a numbered account.
Michael scrolled down.
Authorization code.
He stopped.
Emily stared.
“What?”
Michael’s face went white.
“That code belongs to one person.”
“Who?”
Michael slowly looked toward the family photograph on his desk.
His father.
William Hayes.
The retired founder of Hayes Holdings.
The man who had held Michael at Rachel’s funeral.
The man who had paid for Victoria’s engagement ring.
The man currently staying at his private estate thirty miles away.
Emily whispered:
“Michael…”
His phone rang.
Unknown number.
Michael answered.
“Hello?”
For three seconds, silence.
Then his father’s voice.
“Michael.”
Michael stared at the payment record.
“Dad.”
William sounded terrified.
“Listen to me carefully.”
“What did you do?”
“No time.”
“You authorized a payment before Rachel died.”
William went silent.
Michael’s voice cracked.
“DID YOU KILL MY WIFE?”
“No.”
“Then explain it!”
“I can’t over the phone.”
“Why?”
“Because they’re listening.”
Michael looked around the study.
“Who?”
William whispered:
“The people Victoria works for.”
Michael’s eyes moved toward Emily.
Then William said:
“Take Lucas and Sophie and leave the house.”
Michael froze.
“Why?”
A faint sound came from downstairs.
Glass breaking.
William whispered:
“Because whoever searched Rachel’s car three years ago just learned Lucas kept the evidence.”
The line went dead.
May you like
And downstairs…
a door slowly opened.
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