I stopped.
Sarah watched me silently.
I continued.
The money wasn’t stolen from the company.
My eyes moved down the page.
It was being moved into accounts belonging to people who didn’t know they were involved.
I looked at Marcus.
He had gone completely still.
“What does that mean?”
Marcus said nothing.
I kept reading.
One of those accounts belongs to someone in our family.
My heart stopped.
I looked at Sarah.
She closed her eyes.
“It’s mine,” she whispered.
I couldn’t speak.
Sarah continued.
“Liam discovered that money had been transferred into my account.”
“But you didn’t steal it.”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“I didn’t know about it.”
I looked at Marcus.
He finally spoke.
“Your sister was being used.”
I shook my head.
“By who?”
Marcus looked at the USB drive in my hand.
“That’s what Liam was trying to find out.”
I plugged the USB into the computer.
There were dozens of files.
Bank statements.
Emails.
Scanned contracts.
And photographs.
Then I saw a folder with one name.
PROJECT EMILY.
My heart started pounding.
“What is that?”
Marcus stepped forward.
“Don’t open it.”
I clicked it.
The screen filled with documents.
My name appeared on the first page.
My address.
My phone number.
My bank information.
My husband’s name.
I stared at the screen in disbelief.
Someone had been collecting information about me.
For months.
Maybe years.
Then I saw the final document.
It was a scanned insurance policy.
Liam had taken out a life insurance policy shortly before his death.
The beneficiary wasn’t me.
It was Sarah.
I turned slowly toward my sister.
“Why?”
Sarah began crying.
“I didn’t know.”
“You didn’t know?”
“I swear.”
Marcus suddenly walked toward the computer.
“We need to leave.”
I stood up.
“Why?”
“Because if those files are still there, whoever created them knows we’ve accessed them.”
The office lights suddenly went out.
Everything went black.
Sarah grabbed my hand.
Then we heard footsteps in the hallway.
Someone was coming.
Marcus whispered:
“Don’t move.”
The footsteps stopped outside the door.
Then someone tried the handle.
Once.
Twice.
Then a man’s voice came through the door.
“Marcus?”
Marcus looked at me.
I had never seen fear in his eyes like that before.
The voice spoke again.
“You should have destroyed the files.”
And then I heard the door begin to unlock.
