Chapter 7 - MY FATHER’S DEATH

My father, Thomas Kincaid, died seven years earlier during a charity banquet.

He collapsed beside me after complaining of chest pain.

The hospital called it cardiac failure.

Daria cried at his bedside.

I believed her grief.

I believed everything.

Marcus said he had discovered a private laboratory invoice hidden inside one of Daria’s shell companies.

The invoice was for a rare cardiac toxin.

Purchased three weeks before my father died.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked.

“I was trying to prove chain of custody. Then they took Anna.”

Marcus looked ashamed.

“They sent me pictures of her tied to a bed. Told me if I contacted you, she’d die.”

I understood.

Daria did not simply threaten people.

She learned what they loved, then turned love into a weapon.

Catherine sat beside Marcus.

“Did Thomas know what she was doing?”

“Yes.”

Marcus nodded toward me.

“Your father discovered Daria had been moving money out of the company for years. He changed his will. He planned to remove her from the board.”

My stomach twisted.

“That’s why he died.”

“And why she feared Catherine,” Marcus said. “Catherine gave you a family outside Daria’s control.”

Later that night, Naomi gathered us in a secure conference room.

“We now have kidnapping, bribery, false death certification and evidence suggesting murder. But evidence suggesting murder is not enough. We need proof.”

Marcus had one more lead.

My father kept a private safe-deposit box under a trust name.

Daria never found it.

The next morning, Evelyn and I opened the box under federal supervision.

Inside were tax records.

A flash drive.

And a handwritten letter addressed to me.

Samuel,

If you are reading this, I was probably right to be afraid.

Your mother is stealing from the company. Worse, I believe she has harmed people who discovered it.

Do not confront her without evidence.

Trust no one who tells you grief makes you weak.

Grief can make a man see clearly.

At the bottom was one final line.

There is a recording in my study.

Behind the green marble panel.

I looked at Evelyn.

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My father’s study was still in Daria’s mansion.

And Daria had just doubled the security around the house.