Chapter 9 - The File Hidden In Eleanor’s Closet
Richard searched Eleanor’s old belongings.
Not because he wanted to.
Because he had no choice.
For years, he avoided touching her things.
Her clothes.
Her journals.
Her photographs.
It felt like stealing from a memory.
But now memories were hiding evidence.
In the back of Eleanor’s closet, behind winter coats, Richard found a locked box.
He remembered it.
Eleanor’s.
He never opened it.
Inside were letters.
Medical records.
And a journal.
The first page had a warning.
If anything happens to me, Richard cannot trust the person closest to him.
Richard stopped breathing.
He read until sunrise.
Eleanor had discovered something months before her death.
Someone had been accessing their accounts.
Someone had been gathering information.
Someone knew everything about the Sterling family.
But the last entry was the one that broke him.
I think Richard is being manipulated.
Not betrayed.
Not involved.
Manipulated.
Richard closed the journal.
For the first time, he considered something.
Maybe Victoria was not the beginning.
Maybe she was only a piece.
Detective Marcus Hale arrived that afternoon.
Richard showed him everything.
The recordings.
The journal.
The medical note.
The detective listened quietly.
Then said:
“Your wife may not be the person who started this.”
Richard looked up.
“Then who?”
The detective placed a folder down.
“We found something connected to Victoria’s past.”
Inside was a photograph.
Victoria.
Years earlier.
Standing beside another man.
Richard recognized him.
A former business partner.
A man who disappeared after a financial scandal.
“Who is he?”
The detective answered:
“Adrian Vance.”
Richard frowned.
“Her father?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
May you like
The detective looked serious.
“He didn’t disappear.”
