CHAPTER 4: The Dead Man Who Knew Everything
The ballroom fell into complete silence.
Emily couldn't breathe.
The man standing twenty feet away...
Looked exactly like her brother, Daniel.
The same piercing blue eyes.
The same scar above his left eyebrow.
The same calm smile she remembered from childhood.
Five years ago, she had identified his body.
She had stood beside his coffin.
She had thrown the first handful of dirt onto his grave.
She had mourned him every single day.
Yet here he was...
Alive.
"Impossible..." Emily whispered.
Daniel took one slow step forward.
"It's really me."
Tears filled Emily's eyes.
She wanted to run into his arms.
Instead...
The lead federal investigator suddenly drew his weapon.
"Nobody move!"
Every guest screamed.
Daniel immediately raised both hands.
"I'm not your enemy."
Ryan's face turned pale.
"No... no... you can't be here."
For the first time that night...
Ryan looked truly terrified.
Emily noticed something strange.
Ryan wasn't afraid of being arrested.
He was afraid of Daniel.
"Who are you?" Emily asked, her voice shaking.
Daniel looked at her with sadness.
"I'm your brother."
"No," Emily snapped. "My brother died."
Daniel slowly reached into his jacket.
The investigators aimed their guns.
"Easy!" he said.
He pulled out a faded photograph.
Emily froze.
It was taken on her tenth birthday.
Only three copies had ever existed.
One belonged to her.
One had been buried with Daniel.
The third...
Had disappeared years ago.
On the back of the photograph was a handwritten message.
"Always protect your little sister. —Dad."
Emily's knees nearly gave out.
Only her father could have written those words.
Before anyone could speak...
The ballroom lights suddenly went out.
Darkness.
Complete darkness.
People screamed.
Glass shattered somewhere across the room.
Then—
Three gunshots.
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
When the emergency lights finally flickered on...
Ryan was gone.
His handcuffs lay broken on the marble floor.
One federal agent was unconscious.
Another was bleeding from his shoulder.
Daniel had disappeared.
But something else caught Emily's attention.
On the stage...
Lying where Ryan had been standing...
Was a black envelope sealed with red wax.
Her name was written across it.
Inside was a single sheet of paper.
Three chilling sentences.
"Daniel never died."
"Your father never died either."
"The funeral was the first lie... not the last."
At the bottom was an address.
An abandoned cemetery outside the city.
Below it, six handwritten words made Emily's blood run cold.
May you like
"Dig up your father's grave alone."
To Be Continued...
