Chapter 3 - SHADOWS OF THE PAST
The weight of Vanessa’s words hit Emily harder than any physical blow. The cold rain felt suddenly scalding on her skin.
"You're lying," Emily said, though her voice betrayed a dangerous tremble. "My parents died in a brake-failure accident on Highway 9."
"Brake failure?" Vanessa laughed, a bitter, hysterical sound. "My father paid the mechanic ten thousand dollars to cut those brake lines! Your father refused to sell his quantum encryption patent to Harrison Corp. So my father made sure your family disappeared—and he kept you close so he could monitor you and make sure you never recovered your father’s primary ledger!"
Before Emily could process the horror of the confession, the sound of heavy footsteps echoed from the garden entrance. Mr. Harrison’s head of security, a ruthless man named Viktor, appeared out of the storm, holding a suppressed pistol.
"Miss Vanessa, get behind me," Viktor said, his voice as cold as ice. He didn't look at Vanessa with warmth; he looked at Emily like a target that needed to be eliminated.
"Viktor," Vanessa gasped, gasping for breath. "She knows. She played the second file."
Viktor’s eyes narrowed. "Then she doesn't leave this estate alive."
Emily didn't hesitate. She threw herself sideways into the thick ivy of the hedge maze just as a soft thwip sound echoed behind her. A bullet tore through the leaves where her head had been a second before.
She ran through the dark labyrinth, her chest burning, her shoes abandoned long ago. The estate wasn't just a home; it was a fortress, and now it was a hunting ground.
My father didn't die in an accident, Emily thought frantically, her mind spinning with fifteen years of false memories. The man I called my benefactor... is the monster who murdered my family.
She reached the edge of the maze that led toward the cliffside overlook bordering the rear of the estate. Below lay a hundred-foot drop into the crashing waves of the rocky ocean bay.
She was trapped. Behind her, the heavy boots of Viktor and the hysterical breathing of Vanessa drew closer.
"There's nowhere to run, Emily!" Viktor’s voice called out from the dark. "Make this easy. Mr. Harrison is already in cardiac arrest inside. Once you're gone, Miss Vanessa inherits everything, and the police will hear a sad story about how a guilty thief jumped off the cliff."
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Emily reached into her dress lining. She didn't just have a remote control. She pulled out a small, metallic flash drive glowing with a soft blue LED light—the true primary ledger of her father’s company, which she had recovered from the safe inside the house earlier that evening.
"You want this?" Emily yelled into the dark storm. "Come and take it!"
