CHAPTER 6 – THE MAN WHO RETURNED FROM THE DEAD KNEW EVERY SECRET
The helicopter blades thundered overhead.
Searchlights turned the quiet neighborhood into daylight.
Emma shielded her eyes as the mysterious man stepped onto the front lawn.
Every armed guard lowered their weapons.
No one spoke.
No one dared move.
Daniel's voice barely escaped his lips.
"...Richard."
Emma's heart skipped a beat.
Richard Carter.
Her father.
The man she had buried twenty years ago.
"It can't be..." she whispered.
The stranger slowly removed his black gloves.
Then, with calm precision, he lifted the hood covering his face.
Emma gasped.
The old family photographs hadn't lied.
The same piercing blue eyes.
The same scar above his right eyebrow.
The same gentle smile she remembered from childhood.
"Dad..."
Tears rolled uncontrollably down her face.
She ran toward him—
—but Daniel grabbed her wrist.
"Don't!"
Emma looked back in shock.
"What are you doing?"
Daniel's face was filled with fear.
"That isn't the man you remember."
Richard smiled faintly.
"Still trying to protect her, Daniel?"
Daniel didn't answer.
Instead, he quietly stepped in front of Emma and the children.
Richard sighed.
"I raised you like a son."
"And this is how you repay me?"
Emma stared between them.
"You know each other?"
Daniel nodded slowly.
"I've known your father since I was nineteen."
"I worked for him long before I met you."
Emma felt as though the ground had disappeared beneath her feet.
"So... our marriage..."
Daniel lowered his head.
"It wasn't an accident."
Emma stepped backward.
"No..."
Richard finally spoke.
"I introduced Daniel to you."
"I wanted someone loyal to protect you."
Emma's voice cracked.
"Protect me from what?"
Richard's expression changed instantly.
The warmth vanished from his eyes.
"From our family."
Before Emma could understand, Richard handed her a thick leather folder.
Inside were newspaper articles stretching back over thirty years.
Missing children.
Illegal experiments.
Powerful politicians disappearing.
Billion-dollar corporations changing owners overnight.
One headline froze her blood.
'CARTER BIOTECH FOUNDER PRESUMED DEAD AFTER LAB FIRE.'
Richard pointed at the article.
"That story was fake."
"The fire never happened."
Emma looked at him in disbelief.
"Why would anyone fake your death?"
Richard answered quietly.
"Because someone inside our family wanted me erased."
He turned another page.
There was a photograph of a board meeting.
Eight people sat around a long black table.
Seven faces were crossed out with red ink.
Only one remained untouched.
Richard pointed to the last person.
Emma's breathing stopped.
It wasn't a stranger.
It wasn't Daniel.
It wasn't Margaret.
It was...
Emma.
"My picture?" she whispered.
Richard nodded.
"You were never supposed to inherit my company."
"You were born to inherit something much more dangerous."
Before Emma could ask another question...
One of Richard's bodyguards ran toward him.
"Sir!"
"We've intercepted the transmission."
Richard's face instantly turned pale.
"They found us."
The guard swallowed hard.
"It's not just them..."
"It's the Board."
Richard turned to Emma with panic in his eyes.
"You have exactly ten minutes."
"After tonight..."
"They won't just want the company."
"They'll want your blood."
At that exact moment...
A loud explosion shook the mansion.
The lights went out.
The emergency generator failed.
And in the darkness...
May you like
A child's terrified scream echoed upstairs.
"SOPHIE IS GONE
