جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 150

Nobody spoke.The cassette tape lay in the center of the coffee table as though it carried enough weight to crush everyone sitting around it.Christian was the first to reach for it. He turned it over carefully in his hands, studying the faded label that had yellowed with age.If you’re hearing my voice… it means I couldn’t protect my daughter.The words settled over the room like a dark cloud.Daniella couldn’t stop staring at it. Her fingers trembled against her knees. For thirteen years she had searched for answers, believing she was hunting the man who had murdered her father. Every step of her revenge had led her here. Now his voice was only a cassette tape away.“I want to hear it,” she whispered.Christian looked up at her, understanding the desperation in her eyes. “So do I.”Marcus cleared his throat. “There’s one problem.”Everyone turned toward him.“We don’t have anything that can play it.”Christian looked back at the cassette. “I don’t even remember the last time I saw o

Daniella stared at the message until the words began to blur on the screen. Ask your uncle what he knows. She read it again, hoping that somehow the meaning would change, but it didn’t. Whoever had sent it wanted her to question the one person she had spent thirteen years trusting without hesitation. Her uncle had been there after her father’s death. He had been the one who helped her understand what had happened, the one who had encouraged her anger when everyone else expected her to move on. He had been the one who told her that Christian Harper was responsible. He had been the one who taught her how to get close enough to destroy the man she believed had taken her father from her. And now someone was telling her that he knew more than he had ever admitted. “Daniella?” Christian’s voice pulled her back. She locked her phone immediately and slipped it into her coat pocket. “What?” Christian studied her face. “What did the message say?” “Nothing important.” Marcus gave a quiet, humorl

Daniella drove away from her uncle’s house with both hands locked tight around the steering wheel. The conversation refused to settle in her mind. For thirteen years she had believed she understood what happened to her father. She had built her entire life around that single belief. Now one conversation with her uncle had left her with more questions than answers.Her father had been followed before his death. There had been another meeting after the one at the warehouse. Her uncle knew about it, yet the moment Daniella asked who had attended that meeting, he had shut down completely.And then there was the ring.She had seen it earlier that night on the hand of the mysterious figure inside her uncle’s house. It looked almost identical to the ring worn by the unknown man standing in the background of her father’s old photograph.Her phone rang.Christian.Daniella answered. “Hi.”“Where are you?”She hesitated. “Driving home.”“From your uncle’s?”Daniella sighed. “Yes.”“You went the

Daniella barely slept. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw her father’s handwriting and the name that had appeared in his financial records three days before his death: Crown Meridian Holdings. By morning, she had convinced herself there was only one person who could explain why that name had been connected to her father. Her uncle.She waited until Christian left for Harper Global before driving to her uncle’s house. She told Christian she had an appointment, and although he studied her face for a moment, he didn’t question her. Somehow, that made the lie feel worse. He trusted her completely, yet she continued hiding pieces of the truth from him.Her uncle opened the door before she knocked.His eyes immediately moved over her shoulder toward the street.“You came alone?”Daniella noticed the question. “Yes.”He stepped aside. “Come in.”The house looked exactly as she remembered it, but something about it felt different today. Colder. Daniella followed him into the sitting room

Daniella stared at the photograph until the numbers stamped across the bottom began to blur. Three days before her father died. Three days before the life she knew had been ripped apart forever. Her uncle had been there with him, standing outside a building Daniella had never seen before, while an unfamiliar man stood several feet behind them with his face hidden in shadow. She enlarged the image again, but the photograph had been taken from too far away. She could make out the man’s dark suit, broad shoulders and something metallic around his wrist, but nothing that could give her a name. Whoever had sent it had chosen the image carefully. They wanted her to know her uncle had been lying, but not enough to understand why.Daniella looked toward the bed. Christian was still asleep, one arm stretched across the space where she had been lying. For a moment, she considered waking him. She could tell him about the photograph, about Crown Meridian, about her uncle admitting that Christian