C13 THE NIGHT DANIEL DIED

Isabella did not sleep. The message on her phone repeated itself in her mind: her father had known who changed the agreement, and he had met that person on the night he died. If the warning was true, Daniel’s final hours held the answer she had spent years searching for. Someone had known the truth all along, and someone else had worked hard to bury it.

At six the next morning, she found Alexander in the study, surrounded by documents. He looked exhausted, but he was already reviewing his father’s old notebook. Isabella showed him the message, and he read it twice before asking whether the sender had offered proof.

“Not yet,” she replied. “But whoever sent it knows more than we do.”

Alexander explained that Martin Cole remained unreachable. His home had been checked, but nobody answered the door. The security team was examining whether Martin had accessed the company archive remotely after leaving Sterling Global.

Isabella placed the photograph of Daniel’s car on the desk. The timestamp appeared unreliable, and she wanted to know whether the image had been altered. Alexander had forwarded it to a digital specialist, who promised to examine its metadata.

“Where did your father go on the night Daniel died?” Isabella asked.

Alexander searched his memory. Richard had claimed he spent that evening at home preparing for a business meeting. Yet after his father’s funeral, Alexander had discovered a restaurant receipt among his belongings. He had never understood why Richard kept it.

He retrieved a small notebook from a cabinet. Several pages near the back had been removed, but one entry remained: D. Hart. Late meeting. Original required. No witnesses beyond R.M.

Isabella pointed at the initials. “Robert Mercer.”

“Possibly. But we still need to establish what happened.”

Mercer had been a legal adviser trusted by both families. His signature appeared on the partnership agreement, and the anonymous sender had claimed he signed it without writing it. Now the notebook suggested he had attended a private meeting with Daniel and Richard shortly before Daniel’s death.

Alexander called Elaine Porter, his father’s former assistant. She remembered arranging private appointments that never appeared on the corporate calendar. Richard sometimes used a conference suite in Sterling Global’s former headquarters, a building sold after his death.

Elaine also remembered a complaint from a maintenance supervisor about locked cabinets left behind in the suite. The property manager had promised to deal with them, but Elaine had never received confirmation that the cabinets were emptied.

Alexander contacted the building’s management company and requested access. The manager agreed to meet them that afternoon.

During the drive, Isabella confronted Alexander about the restaurant receipt. He admitted that he had seen it before but had been too focused on protecting Sterling Global to investigate its significance.

“You accepted your father’s explanation because it was easier than questioning him,” she said.

Alexander did not argue. He admitted he had believed Daniel broke the agreement and caused Hartwell Designs to collapse. Now he could no longer be certain that either claim was true.

The old Sterling building stood between newer towers, its entrance preserved despite the renovations around it. The property manager led them to the seventh floor and unlocked a narrow office suite.

The room had been mostly cleared. A long table stood near the windows, and a filing cabinet remained against the wall. Dust covered the surfaces, but several boxes were stacked in one corner.

Alexander examined the cabinet while Isabella searched the boxes. Most contained routine paperwork. Then she found a thin envelope wedged behind a drawer. Daniel Hart’s name was written across its front in blue ink.

She opened it carefully. Inside was a single sheet bearing a short message.

Bring the original agreement. The copy has been changed. If Richard learns what is missing, none of us will be safe.

There was no signature. Beneath the message appeared an address and a time: 9:30 p.m., on the night Daniel died.

Isabella recognised the address immediately. It belonged to a restaurant near the riverfront, close to the location shown in the photograph of Daniel and Richard. The meeting had not been a coincidence. Their fathers had gathered to discuss the altered agreement, and someone had known what they planned to do.

Alexander photographed the letter and sent it to the digital specialist. A faint stamp appeared near the bottom of the page. Under the desk lamp, he could make out the initials of a private security company once hired by Sterling Global.

The company had closed years earlier, but its old records might reveal who entered the building that evening.

Before they could leave, Alexander received a call from his security director. Martin had finally responded to a message. He claimed he was away on a family matter and knew nothing about the missing files. He refused to return to the office until he had spoken with his lawyer.

Isabella suspected fear lay behind his refusal. Alexander, however, insisted they needed evidence before accusing him of anything. He asked the security director to preserve the access logs and arrange a formal interview.

The property manager interrupted them as they prepared to leave. He had remembered a visitor who came several weeks after Richard’s death. A woman had asked whether personal belongings remained in the suite. She carried a photograph and seemed frightened when questioned about whom she represented.

Isabella turned back. “What did she look like?”

The manager described a dark-haired woman with a small scar near her left eyebrow.

Isabella froze. Her mother had a faint scar in precisely that place.

Alexander watched her expression change. For years, Isabella had believed her mother knew nothing about the secret partnership. Yet the woman had visited the room after Richard died, possibly searching for something left behind.

The manager could not remember the visitor’s name. He only recalled that she had asked about documents and left quickly after learning that the cabinets had not been opened.

Isabella struggled to process the discovery. Her mother might have known about the agreement. She might even have known why Daniel died. But why would she keep such a secret from her own daughter?

They left the building with the letter and returned to the car. Alexander promised to help Isabella discover why her mother had visited the suite, but she was tired of promises that came without answers.

Her phone vibrated.

The unknown sender had written again.

YOUR MOTHER TOOK THE ORIGINAL. ASK HER WHAT SHE DID WITH IT.

Isabella read the message twice. Her mother had been dead for years. If the warning was genuine, the original agreement might have passed through her hands before disappearing. Perhaps she had hidden it to protect Isabella. Perhaps she had been protecting someone else.

Alexander reached toward her hand, then stopped when she looked at him. He did not insist on comforting her. For once, he seemed to understand that trust could not be demanded simply because they were married.

Isabella saved the message and stared through the window. Every discovery had changed the story she believed about her father. The company’s collapse might have been engineered, the agreement deliberately altered, and the truth concealed by people who had been welcomed into both families.

She turned to Alexander. “We’re finding the original agreement. Nobody gets to decide what I’m allowed to know.”

He nodded, and they left the building with evidence that Daniel had known about the altered contract before his death.

But one question followed Isabella all the way home.

If her mother had taken the original agreement, why had she never told her daughter?

And what had she done with it?