CHAPTER 2: THE SECRET BENEATH THE BILLIONAIRE'S DEATH
The room exploded into chaos.
One worker staggered backward.
Another nearly collapsed.
Emily stared at the horrifying sight.
The severed hand was attached to a hidden compartment built into the bottom of the coffin.
A compartment nobody should have known existed.
Police arrived within minutes.
The cremation was immediately canceled.
Investigators carefully examined the coffin.
What they discovered shocked them even more.
The hidden compartment was large enough for a person to fit inside.
And someone had recently been there.
There were fingerprints.
Hair.
Drops of blood.
Most disturbing of all—
Fresh scratch marks covered the inside walls.
Emily felt sick.
Someone had been trapped inside.
Alive.
A forensic team searched the compartment.
Then they found a small digital recorder.
The battery was almost dead.
An officer pressed play.
Richard's voice filled the room.
The recording had been made only hours before his death.
"If you're hearing this, then something has gone terribly wrong."
Everyone went silent.
Richard continued.
"My children have been trying to force me to transfer control of the company."
Emily felt her blood run cold.
"I recently discovered evidence that someone inside my family has been stealing millions from company accounts."
The room remained motionless.
Richard took a shaky breath.
"If anything happens to me unexpectedly, do not trust the official explanation."
Then came the sentence that changed everything.
"Jason and Victoria know more than they admit."
Emily nearly dropped the recorder.
The police immediately launched a criminal investigation.
Within forty-eight hours, shocking evidence emerged.
Richard had secretly hired private investigators before his death.
The investigators had documented dozens of suspicious financial transactions.
Millions of dollars had disappeared.
Fake companies.
Forged signatures.
Offshore accounts.
All connected to Jason and Victoria.
When detectives attempted to question them, both suddenly disappeared.
News channels covered the story nonstop.
The billionaire's children became the focus of a nationwide manhunt.
But Emily couldn't stop thinking about one question.
Who had been inside the hidden compartment?
Three days later, forensic scientists finally identified the blood.
The results stunned everyone.
The blood belonged to Richard's personal attorney.
Michael Carter.
A man who had vanished the same night Richard died.
Emily immediately remembered something.
The attorney had called her two days before the billionaire's death.
He had sounded frightened.
He wanted to tell her something important.
But the meeting never happened.
Now she understood why.
Someone had silenced him.
Then another discovery changed everything.
Security footage from Hawthorne Mansion had been deleted.
Almost all of it.
Except one corrupted clip recovered by computer specialists.
The footage showed Michael Carter entering Richard's bedroom on the night of his death.
He never came out.
Emily realized the horrifying truth.
Richard's death wasn't an accident.
It wasn't natural.
And somewhere, Michael Carter might still be alive.
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The question was:
Would they find him before Jason and Victoria did?
