CHAPTER 3 — The Man Who Was Never Supposed to Exist
Richard didn't sleep.
Emily's letter lay open on his desk while the city lights flickered through the glass walls of his penthouse. Every sentence echoed louder than the last.
"The name you've carried your whole life isn't the whole story."
For twenty years, he had blamed Emily for refusing to move on.
Now he wondered if she had been protecting him all along.
A knock interrupted his thoughts.
Three security guards rushed into the office.
"Mr. Carter... someone broke into our records department."
Richard frowned.
"What did they take?"
The head of security hesitated.
"Only one file."
"What file?"
"The one containing your original employment records."
Richard froze.
"Who would steal that?"
Before anyone could answer, every screen inside the office suddenly turned black.
Then white letters appeared.
STOP DIGGING.
A loud alarm echoed through the building.
Outside...
One of Richard's luxury cars exploded into flames.
Employees screamed.
Smoke poured into the night sky.
Whoever was behind this wasn't sending a warning.
They were sending a message.
Across town, Lily sat alone in her mother's study.
She carefully examined the notebook again.
Emily had numbered every page.
Except one.
Page 47 had been cut out.
Someone had removed it years ago.
As she searched the wooden desk, her fingers brushed against a hidden switch beneath the bottom drawer.
Click.
A secret compartment slowly opened.
Inside was an old cassette tape.
No label.
No date.
Only one sentence written in Emily's handwriting.
"If Richard finally tells the truth... let him hear this."
Lily found an old tape recorder in the attic.
The recording began with static.
Then...
Emily's younger voice.
"If you're listening, it means I couldn't stop them."
Richard's voice suddenly interrupted the recording.
"You have to destroy everything!"
Emily answered calmly.
"No."
"They're using you."
Silence.
Then another unfamiliar male voice spoke.
"If Carter refuses, eliminate the woman."
A gunshot echoed.
The tape stopped.
Lily's hands began shaking.
Richard had known about the danger.
Twenty years ago.
But why had he stayed silent?
Richard arrived at Emily's old house moments later.
Before he could knock...
Lily opened the door.
Neither of them spoke.
She simply pressed PLAY.
Richard listened to the recording.
His face lost all color.
He whispered only one sentence.
"Oh God..."
"I thought they killed that tape."
Lily stared at him.
"You knew."
Richard slowly nodded.
"I knew someone wanted your mother silenced."
"Then why didn't you save her?"
Richard looked at the floor.
"Because I believed the people threatening us... were untouchable."
Lily stepped backward in disbelief.
"You abandoned us because you were afraid?"
Richard closed his eyes.
"No..."
"I left because they promised if I disappeared from your lives..."
"They would let you both live."
The room fell completely silent.
Just then...
A black envelope slid beneath the front door.
Inside was only one photograph.
Emily.
Taken three days before her death.
Standing beside a man Richard had believed died twenty-five years earlier.
On the back...
Only six words.
May you like
**HE NEVER DIED.
HE'S WAITING FOR YOU.**
