CHAPTER 50: THE MAN WHO KNOWS THE SECOND HALF

Amelia couldn't stop staring at Richard Hale's name.

The faded handwriting seemed harmless on the page, but it had changed everything. Richard was alive. He was recovering after everything that had happened at the hotel, and he had agreed to testify against Arthur Whitmore. Amelia had assumed his part in the investigation was already clear.

Now her father's hidden records suggested otherwise.

"Why would Dad write Richard's name?" she asked quietly. "And why didn't Richard ever tell us he knew him?"

Alexander stood beside the window, reading the note again.

"I don't have an answer. Richard's history with Blackwood was more complicated than either of us understood. But I won't guess at his involvement without speaking to him."

"Do you think he knew what happened to my father?"

"He might have known something. That doesn't mean he knew everything."

Amelia placed the note back inside the folder. "I want to see him."

Alexander studied her expression. "He's still recovering. We can contact his doctor first. If he's not well enough to receive visitors, we'll wait."

"I don't want to pressure him. I just need him to know we found something."

Alexander called Jonathan, who arranged contact with Richard's medical team. Later that afternoon, they received permission for a short visit. Richard was staying at a private recovery facility outside the city, where he was receiving treatment and preparing for his formal statement.

The drive was quiet. Amelia held the folder on her lap, occasionally running her thumb over its worn edges.

"Are you nervous?" Alexander asked.

"Yes. What if he tells me something that changes everything I believed about my father?"

Alexander kept his eyes on the road.

"Then you'll have the right to decide what to do with the truth."

She looked at him. "And if he lied?"

"Then he will have to answer for that too."

When they arrived, a nurse led them into a small private room. Richard sat in an armchair beside the window. He looked thinner than Amelia remembered, his silver hair untidy and his movements slower. A blanket covered his legs.

He looked up as they entered.

"Alexander."

"Richard. How are you feeling?"

"Better than I have any right to expect."

His eyes moved to Amelia. Then he noticed the folder in her hands.

His expression changed.

"Where did you get that?"

Amelia approached but stopped a respectful distance from him.

"It belonged to my father. We found it in a storage unit he rented years ago."

Richard stared at the folder.

"Thomas Carter."

"You knew him?"

Richard closed his eyes briefly. "Yes. I knew your father."

Amelia felt something tighten in her chest.

"How well?"

"Well enough for him to trust me with something important."

She placed the folder on the small table between them.

"Then perhaps you can explain why his name was connected to those payments. And why he wrote yours beside a message about a second key."

Richard looked at Alexander before returning his attention to Amelia.

"May I see it?"

She opened the folder and showed him the handwritten note.

Richard's fingers trembled slightly as he read it.

"I recognise this handwriting," he whispered. "Thomas wrote this."

"What did he ask you to keep safe?" Amelia asked.

Richard leaned back, looking suddenly exhausted.

"Certain information about payments made through a company that no longer officially exists. Money was moved through several accounts, and the records were deliberately separated. Your father discovered that some of the transactions were being used to hide money moving inside Blackwood."

Alexander's expression hardened.

"Northbridge Holdings?"

Richard nodded slowly.

"That name was part of it. But the folder you found contains only half the evidence."

Amelia looked down at the papers.

"Why would my father divide the information?"

"Because he believed one complete set of records would be too dangerous if it fell into the wrong hands. He arranged for two separate keys to be needed before the entire information could be accessed."

She thought of the small metal key and the locked wooden container.

"Was the second key with you?"

"No. Thomas never gave it to me. He said it had to remain somewhere else, with someone he trusted."

"Who?"

Richard hesitated.

"At the time, he believed Evelyn knew how to find it."

The room fell silent.

Amelia stared at him.

"Evelyn Blackwood?"

"Yes."

Alexander stepped closer to the table.

"What exactly was Evelyn's involvement?"

"She was investigating the transactions long before your father became involved. She believed the financial records were connected to something much larger than missing company money. Thomas helped her because he had discovered that his name was being used in documents he had never authorised."

Amelia felt her stomach turn.

"Then why did everyone make him look guilty?"

Richard lowered his eyes.

"Because it was easier to blame a man who could no longer defend himself."

"Did you know that was happening?"

He didn't answer immediately.

Amelia's voice became sharper. "Richard, my father was blamed for years. His name was dragged through records, and people treated him like a criminal. You knew him. You knew he wasn't what they said. Why did you keep quiet?"

Richard looked at her, and for the first time, she saw something beyond exhaustion in his face.

Shame.

"Because I was afraid."

"Afraid of whom?"

"People inside the company. People who had influence, money and access to everything. I had a family. I convinced myself that remaining silent was the only way to protect them."

He swallowed.

"Thomas asked me to speak if anything happened to him. I promised I would. But when he died, I chose to protect myself instead. I told myself I would speak when it was safer. Then another year passed, and another. Eventually, silence became easier than admitting what I had done."

Amelia's eyes filled with tears, but she did not look away.

"You let people believe terrible things about him."

"Yes."

"You let my family live with questions you could have helped answer."

Richard nodded.

"I did. I'm sorry, Amelia. I know that doesn't repair anything."

"No, it doesn't."

She picked up the folder. She wasn't ready to forgive him simply because he had finally admitted his fear.

Richard looked towards Alexander.

"I should have told you too. Your father knew there were missing records, and Evelyn was trying to recover them. But the two of you were kept away from different parts of the investigation. That was deliberate."

Alexander's jaw tightened.

"Who kept us away?"

"I don't know everything. I know Evelyn was supposed to locate the second key before she disappeared. After that, I never heard from her again."

Amelia remembered the unopened letter still waiting at home. She thought of the photographs, the warnings and the years of unanswered questions.

"Do you think Evelyn is still alive?"

Richard looked towards the window.

"I don't know. But I never believed the story that she simply disappeared without leaving a trace. She was too careful for that."

They remained with him for several more minutes, but his breathing became heavier and the nurse suggested he rest. Amelia thanked him for speaking, though she made no promise that she forgave him.

As they reached the corridor, Alexander's phone vibrated.

He glanced at the screen. A message had arrived from his investigator.

"What's happened?" Amelia asked.

Alexander stopped walking.

"They traced the old Northbridge records. The subsidiary was dissolved, but some of its accounts were transferred elsewhere. Someone has recently reactivated the company structure under a different name."

"Who?"

"I don't know yet."

He opened the attached report. The first page contained a list of corporate registrations and the name of the newly appointed director.

Alexander's face became still.

Amelia stepped closer.

"What is it?"

He turned the phone towards her.

The name was familiar.

She recognised it immediately from the design exhibition, from the elegant woman in the green suit who had complimented her work and asked careful questions about Alexander's past.

Clara Bennett.

Amelia read it again.

"Clara?"

Alexander didn't answer at first. He scrolled down to the registration details, checking the date and the company's new name.

Then he looked at her.

"The woman from the gallery isn't just connected to the old company, Amelia."

He showed her the final line of the report.

"She's its current director."

And suddenly, the woman who had seemed so interested in Amelia's designs had a much more troubling connection to her father's secrets.