CHAPTER 3 — The Letter That Should Have Been Destroyed
Emma didn't notice anything unusual until the end of her shift.
She was exhausted, as always, rubbing the back of her neck while opening her locker.
Then she froze.
Her backpack was exactly where she had left it.
Her spare shoes were untouched.
But lying neatly on the middle shelf was an old ivory envelope.
She had never seen it before.
Across the front, written in elegant blue ink faded by time, were six chilling words.
Give this to Tristan. Trust no one.
Emma's pulse quickened.
"Who put this here?"
No answer.
The hallway outside was empty.
She looked inside the envelope.
One folded letter.
One old photograph.
And one small brass key tied to a faded red ribbon.
The photograph stole her breath.
A little girl—no older than six—stood between a smiling man and woman outside an enormous estate.
The little girl's face looked hauntingly familiar.
Emma.
She turned the picture over.
Written on the back was a date from twenty-four years earlier.
BELLAMY ESTATE.
Emma's knees weakened.
"That's impossible..."
She had grown up believing her parents died in a house fire when she was seven.
She had never heard of Bellamy Estate.
She had never met anyone named Bellamy.
At least...
That's what she had always believed.
The letter inside contained only one sentence.
Richard Bellamy tried to save you. They killed him before he could tell you why.
Emma's breathing became uneven.
Richard Bellamy.
Tristan's father.
The man from the mysterious photograph.
Suddenly...
The lights flickered.
Every locker-room light shut off at once.
Darkness swallowed the room.
Emma instinctively stepped backward.
Footsteps echoed outside.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Someone was standing just beyond the door.
A man's voice whispered through the darkness.
"Miss Carter..."
She held her breath.
"We know you found the letter."
Her blood turned to ice.
The voice continued.
"You have one chance."
"Burn it."
"Forget Tristan Bellamy."
"Or you'll disappear exactly the way your parents did."
Silence.
Then footsteps faded into the distance.
Emma stood frozen for nearly a minute before forcing herself to move.
She rushed into the hallway.
No one.
The security desk reported seeing nothing.
The surveillance cameras covering the locker corridor had mysteriously failed.
Again.
Emma clutched the envelope beneath her jacket.
There was only one person she could trust.
Or at least...
One person she hoped she could.
—
Meanwhile, forty floors above Manhattan...
Tristan Bellamy stared at the confidential report spread across his desk.
His head of security entered without knocking.
"We have another problem."
Tristan looked up.
"The hospital database was breached."
"Only one employee's records were deleted."
"Emma Carter."
Tristan's jaw tightened.
"Who authorized it?"
"No one."
"The intrusion came from inside Bellamy Technologies."
Silence filled the office.
Someone inside his own company...
Was protecting the truth.
Or hiding it.
Then another file slid across the desk.
"Sir..."
"We identified the woman who entered Emma's locker room."
Tristan opened the folder.
His face lost all color.
"No..."
The woman in the surveillance still wore a nurse's uniform.
But she wasn't a nurse.
She had officially died...
Twenty years ago.
According to every government record.
She was Emma Carter's mother.
—
That same night, Emma arrived outside Bellamy Tower.
Rain poured from the sky.
She tightened her grip around the envelope.
Security guards stepped toward her.
Before they could speak, Tristan walked through the revolving doors.
He looked at her.
She looked at him.
Without a word...
She held up the envelope.
"I think..."
Her voice trembled.
"...your father left this for both of us."
The color drained from Tristan's face.
Because he recognized the handwriting immediately.
May you like
It belonged to the man who had died protecting a secret no one was ever supposed to uncover.
END OF CHAPTER 3
