CHAPTER 3 – The Man Everyone Buried
The words painted across the ballroom wall froze everyone in place.
YOUR FATHER WAS NEVER THE TARGET.
For several long seconds, no one moved.
Then panic erupted.
Guests rushed toward the exits. Women cried. Security officers drew their weapons while paramedics continued pushing Ethan's stretcher through the chaos.
"Lock every entrance!" the head of security shouted.
"No one leaves this building!"
But one person already had.
Adrian.
Isabella's younger brother had vanished without a trace.
Inside the ambulance, Ethan's heartbeat weakened with every passing minute.
The paramedic cut open his blood-soaked shirt.
"The blade missed his heart by less than an inch."
Another medic inserted an IV.
"Stay with us, Mr. Carter."
Ethan grabbed the medic's wrist.
His lips barely moved.
"Protect... Isabella."
Seconds later, he lost consciousness.
The heart monitor screamed.
Back at the hotel, detectives sealed off the ballroom.
Detective Marcus Hale, one of the city's most respected homicide investigators, arrived less than twenty minutes later.
He had spent twenty-five years exposing corporate crimes.
Nothing surprised him anymore.
Or so he thought.
He walked straight toward Isabella.
"You stabbed your husband?"
She nodded silently.
"I did."
"And why?"
"Because I believed he murdered my father."
Marcus extended his hand.
"The letter."
She gave it to him.
He carefully read every line.
Then he stopped.
His expression changed.
"This isn't possible."
"What?"
Marcus pulled a photograph from his own case file.
It showed the wreckage of a car that had exploded twelve years earlier.
"This was officially ruled as your father's death."
He placed the old investigation photo beside the new picture from the letter.
The same man.
The same scar near his left eyebrow.
Only older.
Marcus looked directly at Isabella.
"If this photo is genuine..."
"...then someone convinced an entire country that a dead man was buried."
Meanwhile...
Thirty miles outside the city...
An abandoned monastery sat hidden among thick pine forests.
Inside a dimly lit underground room, an elderly man slowly removed a gray beard from his face.
He wasn't eighty years old.
He wasn't dead.
And his name wasn't the one the world remembered.
He stared at a television showing live news coverage of Ethan's stabbing.
A single tear rolled down his cheek.
"I failed you again..."
A younger man entered the room.
"They've activated Project Lazarus."
The old man's face hardened.
"Who authorized it?"
"They know Isabella has the letter."
Silence.
Then the old man whispered the words he had feared for twelve years.
"They've finally found us."
Back at Carter Global headquarters...
Victoria entered a private office no one else knew existed.
She locked the steel door.
Opened a hidden safe.
Inside were dozens of passports.
Stacks of cash.
Several encrypted phones.
And one thick black folder marked:
PROJECT LAZARUS
Her elegant mask disappeared.
She picked up one secure phone.
"They know."
A distorted voice answered immediately.
"Then eliminate everyone."
"Ethan survived."
"He won't survive twice."
"And Isabella?"
A long silence followed.
Then the voice replied coldly...
"She stopped being your daughter the day she became a witness."
Victoria slowly closed her eyes.
Even she hadn't expected that answer.
Hours later...
The surgeons finally stabilized Ethan.
He remained unconscious.
Outside the intensive care unit, Isabella sat alone, still wearing the bloodstained dress she had worn to kill the man she loved.
Every television station repeated the same headline.
Billionaire Stabbed by Wife During Anniversary Gala.
To the entire world...
She was a monster.
No one knew she had been manipulated.
No one knew someone far more dangerous was still free.
As dawn approached, Detective Marcus received an anonymous package delivered to the hospital.
Inside was an old VHS tape.
A handwritten note read:
"Play this only if Ethan Carter survives."
Marcus frowned.
He found an old player in the hospital archives.
Static filled the screen.
Then the image became clear.
A younger version of Isabella's father appeared, staring directly into the camera.
He looked terrified.
"If you're watching this..."
"...they've already tried to kill Ethan."
Marcus's breathing stopped.
The man continued.
"And if Isabella is standing beside him..."
"...don't trust her mother."
The recording suddenly glitched.
A shadow stepped into the frame behind Isabella's father.
Before the video cut to black, the mysterious figure spoke only one sentence.
A sentence that made Detective Marcus drop the remote.
Because he recognized the voice instantly.
May you like
It belonged to the Chief of Police.
To Be Continued...
