Chapter 7 - Hannah’s Name in the File
Daniel opened the flash drive in Rebecca’s office.
Folders filled the screen.
Invoices. Bank confirmations. Scanned contracts. Emails Thomas had quietly saved before they could be deleted.
Rebecca clicked a file dated three years and two months earlier.
LARKSPUR - INTERNAL REVIEW.
The author was Hannah Morgan.
Daniel stared at his dead wife’s name.
Hannah had worked with the Morgan Foundation, reviewing charitable grants and vendor payments. Daniel remembered her complaining about sloppy paperwork. He had never known she was investigating fraud.
The report identified eleven suspicious payments linked to Larkspur Advisory.
At the bottom was a note:
CONTACT AT FOUNDATION: VICTORIA REED.
Daniel pushed back from the desk.
“No.”
Rebecca kept reading.
Victoria had been a temporary fundraising consultant for the foundation. She left four months before Hannah’s crash.
Daniel had met Victoria at a charity auction almost a year later.
Or so he had believed.
“There’s an email,” Rebecca said.
It was from Hannah to herself, saved as a draft.
Daniel read it twice.
Daniel, if I’m wrong, I’ll feel stupid for writing this. If I’m right, I need you to know I found payments connected to a woman named Victoria Reed and a lawyer named Mason Reed. Someone inside the company is helping them. Please don’t confront anyone until I can prove it.
The draft ended there.
No goodbye.
No explanation.
Daniel stood and walked to the window.
He had spent three years believing Hannah’s death was random: rain, a dark road, brake failure, a guardrail.
Rebecca said quietly, “This does not prove they caused the crash.”
“I know.”
“But it proves Victoria lied about when she entered your life.”
Daniel’s phone buzzed.
A text from Victoria.
YOU’RE SCARING LILY BY TURNING HER AGAINST ME. COME HOME AND WE CAN FIX THIS.
Then another.
HANNAH WOULD HATE WHAT YOU’RE DOING TO THIS FAMILY.
Daniel stared at the screen until his hand shook.
Victoria had used Hannah’s name before.
But now it sounded different.
Not comforting.
Possessive.
Like she knew exactly what Hannah would have thought because she had known Hannah herself.
Rebecca reopened the flash drive.
“There’s one more file tagged with Hannah’s name.”
It was a scanned garage service request dated two days before the crash.
May you like
Authorized pickup contact:
V. REED.
