chapter 10

Sophia's POV

The drive back to Bennett Accounting was silent. The unanswered questions seemed to fill every corner of the car.

Dad disappeared from a hospital room after receiving a mysterious message. Someone searched the company's old records. The missing pages from a twenty-year-old agreement were suddenly more valuable than $800,000

None of these made sense to me, yet somehow, every road seemed to lead back to the same place.

I looked out of the window as the rain streaked across the glass. The familiar streets, the towering office buildings, the crowds weaving through the pavement… they all felt strangely distant as if I was seeing them through someone else's eyes.

Damien's voice broke the silence “What are you thinking?”

I let out a quiet breath “I'm trying to remember”.

“Remember what?”

“Everything”.

He glanced at me “the past few days?”

“No” I turned to him “ the years before all of this”.

“I grew up inside that company. I know every employee by name. I know who stays late on Fridays, who drinks too much coffee, who forgets birthdays. But now…” I shook my head. “Now I feel like I've been working in a place full of strangers.”

Damien didn't answer immediately. “When trust is broken," he said at last, "you begin questioning memories you never thought twice about.”

His words settled heavily in my mind, because they were true.

The car pulled into the underground parking garage beneath Bennett Accounting.

The building looked exactly as it has always looked. Solid, professional and respectable. Yet walking through the revolving doors felt entirely different.

Every conversation stopped when I entered. Employees looked up from their desks, some offered polite smiles, others quickly looked away.

Rumors travelled so fast. By now, everyone already knew about the missing money, about my dad's collapse. They knew clients were leaving. What they don't know is whether the company will survive.

Claire hurried toward me before I reached my office. “There you are,” her voice lower than usual.

“We've been trying to reach you”. Claire continued.

“My phone was on silent”

She glanced briefly at Damien before lowering her voice even further. “Someone has been inside your father's office”.

I stopped walking “what?”.

“We thought it was you”

“It wasn't me”.

Claire swallowed hard “the cleaners found the door unlocked”.

A cold feeling crept over me “I locked it before I left yesterday”.

“I know” Claire replied

Without saying more words, I headed for Dad's office. The door stood slightly open. Nothing looked disturbed at first glance.

The desk, the bookshelves, the framed photographs…. Everything appeared exactly where it belonged. But appearance could be deceiving, so I stepped inside.

Damien followed, quietly closing the door behind us.

I moved around the room slowly, allowing my eyes to take every detail.

If someone searched this office, they must have either been incredibly careful… or they knew exactly what they were looking for.

My gaze settled on the bookshelf behind his desk, something felt wrong.

I walked towards it, ran my fingers along the spines of the books.

Then I noticed one accounting handbook had Ben placed back upside down.

Dad would never have done that. As I pulled it from the shelf, a folded envelope slipped out and landed on my feet.

The envelope was old, its edges had yellowed with age. Across the front, were five simple words written in my father's handwriting. I picked up the envelope.

“It's sealed” I whispered

Damien looked at the envelope but made no move toward it.

“It was hidden for a reason”. I said as I turned it over . I noticed that the flap had never been opened, my father's initials were pressed into the wax seal.

My hands trembled as I muttered “I shouldn't”

Damien's gaze remained on me “only you can decide that.”

I stared at the envelope for several long seconds, before I carefully broke the seal.

Inside was a single handwritten letter. I unfolded it, the first line stole the air from my lungs. ‘Sophia, if you're reading this, then events have unfolded exactly as I feared’.

The letter shook slightly in my hands as I kept reading ‘The money isn't the real reason our family is in danger’.

I exchanged a glance with Damien before I continued.

‘Twenty years ago, I made a decision that has haunted me everyday since. I believed I was protecting everyone I loved. Instead, I gave someone the power to destroy us whenever they chose’.

A strange unease settled over the room. There was no confession, no names, just fragments and pieces of a story my father never told us. Then my eyes reached the final paragraph, what I saw made my heart skip. ‘Whatever you do, don't let them find the ledger’.

“The ledger?” I muttered with a confused look.

There was no explanation, no indication of what ledger he meant. Only one final sentence ‘Trust your instincts, not your memories’. The letter ended there.

I slowly lowered the paper

“So,” Damien said quietly, “your father knew this day might come”.

I nodded numbly before saying “but what's the ledger”.

Before any of us could speculate further, hurried footsteps echoed outside the office. The door burst open, Ethan stood in the doorway breathing hard, his face had gone completely white.

“Sophia…” Ethan said

“What happened?”

He looked from me to Damien before speaking “the police just called”.

Every muscle in my body tensed.

“They found dad” Ethan continued.

Hope flared inside me immediately “where is he?”

“They found his car”. Ethan replied.

My smile faded upon hearing that “what about Dad?”

There was a terrible silence before Ethan finally spoke “the car was abandoned”.

The letter slipped from my fingers and drifted to the floor between us. For the first time since this nightmare began… I allowed myself to consider the possibility that my father didn't disappear, he was taken.

"No.” The word left my mouth before I could stop it.

Dad couldn't have been taken. He was too careful and stubborn. Too smart to walk into a trap without realizing it. “There has to be some mistake”

Ethan's face told me otherwise “I wish there was”.

The room seemed to shrink around us. I looked from Ethan to the letter lying on the floor, then to Damien. For a moment, nobody spoke. The pieces were beginning to fit together, and I hated the picture they were forming.

Damien bent down, picked up the letter carefully and handed it back to me. “Keep this somewhere safe.”

I folded it with trembling fingers and slipped it into my bag. “What did the police say?” I asked Ethan.

“They found Dad's car less than twenty minutes ago.”

“Where?”

“A side street in Canary Wharf.”

My brows drew together. “That's nowhere near the hospital.”

“I know.” Ethan said slowly

“Were there any signs of an accident?”

He shook his head. “No.”

“Blood?”

“No.”

“A struggle?”

“They wouldn't tell me over the phone.” Ethan muttered.

I closed my eyes for a brief moment. If the police were withholding information, it meant they weren't ruling anything out.

“We're going there.” I said.

Damien stood. “let's go”

I turned to him. “This is a police investigation now.”

“I know.”

“You don't have to involve yourself.”

A faint smile crossed his face. “I crossed that line the moment I handed you that file.”

I couldn't argue with him. Ten minutes later, the three of us were on our way to Canary Wharf. The rain had finally stopped, leaving the roads slick beneath the afternoon light.

No one spoke during the journey, each of us was trapped inside our own thoughts. Mine kept returning to the letter. ‘don’t let them find the ledger’. The words echoed in my head.

What ledger? Where was it? And why would someone go to such lengths to find it?

When we arrived, blue police lights flashed against the surrounding buildings. A small crowd gathered behind the barrier. Dad's dark blue Mercedes sat abandoned beside the pavement. The driver's door was slightly open.

Just then, one of the detectives noticed us approaching.

“I'm Sophia Bennett.” I said

He nodded sympathetically. “I'm Detective Inspector Collins.” He stepped aside, allowing me a clearer view of the car.

Everything looked normal. Dad's coat hung over the passenger seat. His reading glasses rested nearly in the cup holder. Even his travel mug remained in the centre console. It looked less like someone had vanished…. And more like they'd stepped away for a moment.

My eyes swept across the interior, then something caught my attention. “Dad’s briefcase”

The detective frowned “what about it”

“It isn't here”

Ethan looked inside the car “you are right”

Dad never went anywhere without that old leather briefcase. For years, we joked that he loved it more than his own children. If the briefcase was missing… then whatever happened wasn't random.

Detective Collins made a note in his notebook. “Was there anything valuable inside?”

I exchanged a glance with Damien. “I don't know,” I answered carefully.

The detective studied me for a second, as if he sensed I wasn't telling him everything. Before he could press further, another officer hurried toward him. “Sir”

The detective asked, “What is it?”

“We found CCTV from the building opposite”

The detective looked at us. “Excuse me”

The officers walked a few metres away, speaking in hushed voices. I folded my arms tightly across my chest. "This is getting worse."

Damien didn't disagree. Instead, he walked slowly around the vehicle, studying it from every angle. He wasn't looking at the obvious things. He was looking at details, tiny details.

His gaze settled on the rear tyre. "What?" He crouched. Without answering, he brushed his fingers against the rubber. When he stood, there was a faint streak of white powder on his fingertips.

I frowned. "What is that?"

He rubbed it between his fingers. "Construction dust."

I looked around. There wasn't a construction site anywhere nearby.

He noticed my confusion. "This car has been somewhere else today."

"How do you know?" I asked

"Fresh concrete dust." Damien replied, nodding toward the tyre.

“And none of the surrounding streets are under construction.” I stared at him. “You figured that out from a tyre?”

Damien turned to me “I notice things.”

Apparently, detective Collins returned a few moments later with a changed expression. "We've reviewed the footage."

"And…?" I asked slowly, rolling my eyes.

He hesitated. “Your father arrived here alone.”

Relief flickered inside me. "So he wasn't forced."

"I'm not done." The detective opened a tablet and turned the screen toward us. The footage was grainy, but clear enough.

Dad's Mercedes pulled to the curb. A few seconds later, another black SUV stopped behind it. When the driver's door of the SUV opened, a tall, broad shouldered man stepped out. His face hid beneath the brim of a dark cap.

He walked directly to Dad's car, dad claimed out. The two men spoke briefly, there was no struggle, no shouting. Then… dad handed the man his briefcase.

“What?” I said as I leaned closer.

The footage continued. The stranger opened the briefcase, then nodded and handed it back. Dad shook his head, the stranger closed the briefcase and carried it away.

“What does that mean?” Ethan whispered

The footage ended with dad getting into the stranger's SUV. The two vehicles remained exactly where they were, but only the SUV left, leaving dad's car behind.

Mr Collins looked at me. “Do you recognize the man?”

I shook my head “no”.

“The vehicle?”

“No”

He nodded. “If you remember anything, contact me immediately”.

As the officers returned to their work, I turned slowly toward Damien. "You knew this wasn't about the money."

He met my eyes. "I suspected."

"And now?"

His expression became unreadable once more. "Now I'm certain."

"Certain of what?"

He looked toward the empty street where the SUV had disappeared. "Your father wasn't kidnapped."

A small spark of hope ignited inside me. "He wasn't?"

"No." His next words extinguished it just as quickly. “He went to protect something, and whoever called him knew exactly where to find it.”

A gust of wind swept through the street. For the first time, I realized the missing money was never the real target, it was only a distraction.