My blood went cold.
The name on the screen was:
SARAH.
My sister was calling.
But she wasn’t calling from home.
She was calling from the lobby downstairs.
And somehow…
she knew I was here.
PART 2
I stared at the phone.
Sarah.
Her name was still glowing on the screen.
For a few seconds, neither Marcus nor I moved.
Then the phone stopped ringing.
The office became completely silent again.
Marcus looked at me.
“You shouldn’t answer that.”
His voice was calm now.
Too calm.
I slowly picked up my phone from the desk.
“Why?”
He didn’t respond.
Instead, he walked toward me.
I stepped back.
“Stay where you are.”
Marcus stopped.
Then he sighed.
“Emily, listen to me. Your husband was investigating something he didn’t understand.”
“My husband wasn’t stupid.”
“I didn’t say he was.”
“You just said he didn’t understand it.”
Marcus looked away.
That was when I knew he was hiding something.
I opened the folder again.
My hands were still shaking, but I forced myself to look carefully at the photographs.
The first one showed Sarah outside a bank.
The second showed her getting into a black car.
The third showed her talking to a man beside a gas station.
I turned the photograph over.
There was a date written on the back.
October 14.
I froze.
That was the day before Liam died.
I looked at Marcus.
“Who is this man?”
He said nothing.
“Marcus.”
Still nothing.
I held up the photograph.
“Who is he?”
Marcus finally looked at me.
Then he said quietly:
“Ask your sister.”
Before I could answer, someone knocked on the office door.
Three times.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Marcus’s face changed.
He looked genuinely frightened.
“Who’s there?” he called.
A woman’s voice answered from the other side.
