CHAPTER 4: THE MAN WHO ATTENDED HIS OWN FUNERAL
CHAPTER 4: THE MAN WHO ATTENDED HIS OWN FUNERAL
Emma couldn't breathe.
The phone call echoed in her mind.
"Never trust the man who raised you."
Impossible.
Her adoptive father, Daniel Carter, had died in a construction accident fifteen years ago.
She had stood beside his coffin.
She had watched it lowered into the ground.
She had cried until she had no tears left.
So who had just warned her?
Before she could think, another message appeared on her phone.
A single photo.
No caption.
No sender.
Emma zoomed in.
Her heart nearly stopped.
It was an old cemetery...
And standing beside Daniel Carter's grave...
Was Daniel Carter.
Alive.
The picture had been taken less than an hour ago.
Emma drove through the night.
Rain hammered the windshield as she reached the small cemetery where her father had supposedly been buried.
The grave was exactly as she remembered.
Fresh flowers.
The old wooden cross.
The same faded photograph.
But something was different.
The soil around the grave had recently been disturbed.
Emma dropped to her knees and brushed away the wet dirt with trembling hands.
Within minutes...
Her fingers struck wood.
A coffin.
She stared in disbelief.
The cemetery records said the grave had never been opened.
So why did it look freshly buried?
She found a rusted crowbar leaning against a nearby shed.
Ignoring the storm, she forced the coffin open.
Her body froze.
The coffin...
Was empty.
No bones.
No clothes.
No body.
Nothing.
Only a yellow envelope resting inside.
Written across it in faded black ink were four words:
"I HAD NO CHOICE."
Inside was a handwritten letter.
Emma...
If you're reading this, then my biggest fear has come true.
The people chasing you are the same people who destroyed your mother.
I let the world believe I was dead because it was the only way to keep watching over you.
I'm sorry for every birthday I missed.
I'm sorry you grew up believing I abandoned you.
But if they discover I'm alive...
They'll kill us both.
Emma's tears mixed with the rain.
He was alive.
He had been alive all these years.
Then headlights swept across the cemetery.
Three black SUVs rolled slowly through the iron gates.
Emma ducked behind a marble tombstone.
Men in black suits stepped out.
Each carried a flashlight.
One of them spoke into a radio.
"She's here."
Another replied calmly.
"Don't shoot."
"The Chairman wants her alive."
Emma frowned.
The Chairman?
Richard Ashford had never been called "Chairman."
That meant...
Someone even more powerful was behind everything.
Then another luxury car entered the cemetery.
A silver Rolls-Royce.
The rear door opened.
An elderly man stepped out, supported by a cane.
Every guard immediately lowered their heads.
No one dared look him in the eyes.
The old man smiled as he stared directly toward Emma's hiding place.
His voice was calm...
Almost grandfatherly.
"I know you're hiding, Emma."
"You've grown into a beautiful young woman."
Emma's blood ran cold.
She had never seen him before.
Yet somehow...
He knew her name.
He slowly removed an old pocket watch from his coat.
Inside was a tiny photograph.
A young Margaret...
Holding a newborn baby.
Standing beside...
Him.
The old man's smile widened.
Then he whispered the words that shattered everything Emma thought she knew.
"Richard Ashford isn't your father."
"He's your older brother."
May you like
Emma's world collapsed.
TO BE CONTINUED...
