Ethan followed anyway.
And he watched as Victor carried the knife upstairs… and hid it under Mom’s bed.
I felt sick.
Because part of me remembered something too.
A strange detail I had dismissed at the time.
The blood on Mom’s robe—it wasn’t splattered. It looked… smeared.
Like it had been placed there.
Not earned.
Hours later, the officers returned.
They found the hidden drawer.
Inside it—documents. A USB drive. And photographs.
One photo changed everything.
It showed Victor standing beside a man I didn’t recognize.
Behind them, barely visible—my father.
On the back, in my father’s handwriting:
“If anything happens to me, it wasn’t Caroline.”
The USB drive contained more.
Videos from my father’s auto shop.
Victor exchanging money with that same man.
Illegal deals. Off-the-books transactions.
And one audio recording.
My father’s voice—angry.
“I’m going to report you.”
