CHAPTER 7 – The Flash Drive Was Empty
The countdown had already begun.
58 minutes.
Emily gripped the tiny flash drive so tightly her fingers turned white.
Jason loaded a pistol from the security safe, but Richard stopped him.
"If you walk in with a gun..."
"You'll never walk out with your son."
Jason threw the weapon aside.
"I don't care about me."
"I just want him alive."
The lawyer suddenly smiled.
"You still don't understand Sophia."
He inserted the flash drive into a laptop.
The screen flashed.
NO FILES FOUND.
Jason exploded.
"What?!"
Emily stared in disbelief.
"It... it's empty."
Richard calmly removed the drive.
"No."
"It's a key."
He unscrewed the metal casing.
Inside was another object.
A tiny golden memory chip no bigger than a fingernail.
Sophia had hidden the real evidence inside the fake drive.
Emily inserted the chip.
Hundreds of encrypted videos appeared.
The first video opened automatically.
Sophia looked directly into the camera.
"If you're watching this..."
"I'm probably dead."
Jason's knees gave out.
Tears streamed down his face.
Sophia continued.
"Jason..."
"If Vanessa is still alive..."
"Never believe she's working alone."
Emily frowned.
"What does she mean?"
Sophia clicked something off-screen.
A photograph filled the monitor.
Everyone stopped breathing.
Standing beside Vanessa...
was Richard Carter.
Emily's father.
The room froze.
Emily whispered,
"Dad...?"
Richard's face went pale.
"That's impossible."
The timestamp was from seven years ago.
One year before Jason even met Emily.
Jason slowly backed away.
"You knew her..."
Richard shook his head violently.
"No..."
"I've never..."
But before he could finish—
The second video started playing by itself.
Sophia spoke only six words.
"Trust no one wearing the Carter name."
Silence.
Emily slowly looked at her father.
Then at Jason.
Then back at the screen.
May you like
Someone inside the Carter family had ordered Sophia's death.
And they were standing in that room.
