CHAPTER 6 — The Butler's Secret
Just after midnight...
Someone knocked softly on Emily's bedroom door.
She opened it cautiously.
Standing there was the elderly butler who had welcomed her at the gala.
"My name is Thomas."
"I've served this family for forty-three years."
His hands were shaking.
"I've waited twenty years to tell someone the truth."
Emily's heart pounded.
"What truth?"
Thomas looked down the empty hallway before quietly locking the door.
Then he reached inside his jacket.
He pulled out an old leather journal.
Its pages had yellowed with age.
Across the cover was written only one name.
Elizabeth Harrington.
"My mother..." Richard whispered from behind Emily.
Thomas nodded.
"This belonged to your daughter."
Emily carefully opened the journal.
Inside...
The very first page contained a handwritten sentence.
"If anything happens to me, never trust Evelyn."
Emily's hands trembled.
Page after page revealed a horrifying story.
Elizabeth had discovered someone inside the Harrington family was stealing hundreds of millions of dollars through fake charities and shell companies.
She had gathered proof.
She planned to expose everything.
Then...
She disappeared.
Richard's face turned white.
"No..."
"This can't be..."
Thomas looked directly at him.
"It wasn't an accident, sir."
"Your daughter wasn't lost."
"She was hunted."
Suddenly...
A loud gunshot echoed through the mansion.
The lights instantly went out.
Darkness swallowed every room.
Then a terrified scream shattered the silence.
"Thomas!"
Emily reached forward...
But the old butler had vanished.
Only the leather journal remained...
May you like
Lying open on the floor...
Covered in fresh drops of blood.
