CHAPTER 7: The Assassin Pulled the Trigger... But Emily Was Ready
The black sedan roared through the intersection.
It slammed into Emily's SUV with enough force to spin it across the road.
Glass exploded everywhere.
Detective Sarah barely had time to shout.
"Emily! Get down!"
A masked gunman jumped out before the vehicles had even stopped moving.
He wasn't trying to escape.
He was coming to finish the job.
Two shots rang through the night.
Police officers returned fire as terrified pedestrians ran for cover.
The gunman disappeared into a nearby warehouse, with detectives chasing close behind.
Inside the damaged SUV, Emily slowly lifted her head.
Blood trickled down her forehead.
But she was alive.
Sarah helped her out just as officers tackled the shooter to the ground.
When they ripped off his mask, Emily froze.
It was Mason.
One of the two men Daniel had hired on the yacht.
Only this time, he wasn't smiling.
He was terrified.
"I didn't have a choice!" Mason screamed. "He said he'd kill my family!"
Sarah grabbed him by the collar.
"Who?"
Mason looked straight at Emily.
"Richard Carter."
Silence.
Emily closed her eyes.
Her uncle hadn't just planned her murder.
He had ordered another assassination after learning she had survived.
But Mason wasn't finished.
"There was someone else..." he whispered.
"The money didn't come from Richard."
Emily frowned.
"What do you mean?"
"He answered to someone even more powerful."
Sarah and Emily exchanged uneasy glances.
"Who?"
Before Mason could answer...
A single gunshot echoed from the rooftop.
The bullet struck Mason in the chest.
He collapsed instantly.
Chaos erupted once again.
The sniper vanished into the darkness before police could reach the building.
Mason's final breaths were shallow.
He grabbed Emily's wrist with trembling fingers.
"There’s... a safe..."
"...under your father's old cabin."
Emily leaned closer.
"What's inside?"
Mason coughed blood.
"The truth..."
"...about why they wanted you dead."
His hand fell limp.
He was gone.
Hours later, before sunrise, Emily and Detective Sarah stood outside the abandoned lakeside cabin where Emily had spent every summer as a child.
Dust covered the porch.
The place had been untouched for years.
Emily knelt beside the old stone fireplace exactly where Mason had described.
She pried up a loose floorboard.
Beneath it sat a rusted steel lockbox.
Inside were property deeds...
Old photographs...
A faded handwritten will...
And one sealed envelope with her father's handwriting.
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Across the front, in bold ink, were seven chilling words:
"Open this only if they kill me."
