For several seconds, I could hear nothing except rain striking the cabin roof.<\/p>\n
The stranger stood inside the doorway with one hand braced against the frame. Water darkened the shoulders of his jacket. His face was thinner than the face in my childhood photographs, the jaw softer with age, the hair almost entirely silver, but none of that mattered.<\/p>\n
I knew his eyes.<\/p>\n
Daniel Blackwell looked at me as though he had spent years imagining this moment and had discovered that imagination had prepared him for none of it.<\/p>\n
"Audrey."<\/p>\n
My name sounded broken in his voice.<\/p>\n
I couldn't answer.<\/p>\n
Carter remained slightly in front of me, his body still positioned protectively between the door and where I stood. Then he looked at my face, understood, and moved aside.<\/p>\n
Samuel whispered, "Daniel."<\/p>\n
My father finally noticed him.<\/p>\n
"Sam."<\/p>\n
Samuel crossed the room in three strides.<\/p>\n
He stopped before touching him.<\/p>\n
"You son of a bitch."<\/p>\n
Daniel's mouth trembled.<\/p>\n
"I know."<\/p>\n
Samuel hit him.<\/p>\n
Not hard enough to knock him down, but hard enough that the sound cracked through the room.<\/p>\n
Carter stiffened.<\/p>\n
I didn't move.<\/p>\n
Daniel accepted it without raising his hands.<\/p>\n
Samuel stared at him, breathing heavily.<\/p>\n
"Twenty-two years."<\/p>\n
"I know."<\/p>\n
"You let us think you were dead."<\/p>\n
"I know."<\/p>\n
"Your daughter thought you were dead."<\/p>\n
Daniel looked at me.<\/p>\n
"I know."<\/p>\n
I found my voice.<\/p>\n
"Stop saying that."<\/p>\n
He went silent.<\/p>\n
"Every time you say you know, you make it worse."<\/p>\n
His shoulders dropped.<\/p>\n
"You're right."<\/p>\n
I almost laughed.<\/p>\n
Everyone had become very good at telling me I was right after deciding my life for me.<\/p>\n
I held up the letter dated October 14, 2018.<\/p>\n
"You wrote this."<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
"You knew I might come here."<\/p>\n
"I hoped you never would."<\/p>\n
"Why?"<\/p>\n
"Because coming here meant Richard had reached you."<\/p>\n
I touched my cheek without thinking.<\/p>\n
His eyes followed my hand.<\/p>\n
"What happened to your face?"<\/p>\n
Nobody answered.<\/p>\n
Daniel took one step toward me.<\/p>\n
I stepped backward.<\/p>\n
He stopped immediately.<\/p>\n
"Who did that?"<\/p>\n
I looked directly at him.<\/p>\n
"Richard."<\/p>\n
Something changed in my father's face.<\/p>\n
Not surprise.<\/p>\n
Recognition.<\/p>\n
The quietness frightened me more than shouting would have.<\/p>\n
"When?"<\/p>\n
"This morning."<\/p>\n
"Why?"<\/p>\n
"Apparently I didn't understand how women are expected to behave in his house."<\/p>\n
Daniel's hand tightened around the doorframe.<\/p>\n
Carter spoke behind me.<\/p>\n
"My father hit her."<\/p>\n
Daniel turned toward him for the first time.<\/p>\n
"And you are?"<\/p>\n
"Carter Sterling."<\/p>\n
The name landed exactly as I expected.<\/p>\n
Daniel's eyes narrowed.<\/p>\n
"Richard's son."<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
"My husband," I said.<\/p>\n
My father's head turned sharply toward me.<\/p>\n
"Your what?"<\/p>\n
"We got married two days ago."<\/p>\n
Daniel stared at Carter.<\/p>\n
Then at me.<\/p>\n
The silence became almost absurd.<\/p>\n
Of all the revelations waiting in that cabin, apparently my marriage was the one Daniel Blackwell had not anticipated.<\/p>\n
"You married Richard Sterling's son?"<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
"Did you know who he was?"<\/p>\n
"When I met him? No."<\/p>\n
"And when you married him?"<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
Daniel closed his eyes.<\/p>\n
"Audrey."<\/p>\n
I felt anger rise.<\/p>\n
"Don't."<\/p>\n
"What?"<\/p>\n
"Don't say my name like I've made some terrible mistake you need to protect me from."<\/p>\n
"I didn't mean\u2014"<\/p>\n
"You don't get to disappear for twenty-two years and come back with opinions about my husband."<\/p>\n
Carter looked down.<\/p>\n
Daniel absorbed the blow.<\/p>\n
"That's fair."<\/p>\n
"Stop agreeing with me."<\/p>\n
He almost smiled.<\/p>\n
It vanished quickly.<\/p>\n
"All right."<\/p>\n
Samuel picked up Daniel's cane and handed it to him.<\/p>\n
"What happened to your leg?"<\/p>\n
"Car accident."<\/p>\n
"When?"<\/p>\n
"2019."<\/p>\n
"Where have you been?"<\/p>\n
Daniel looked at me.<\/p>\n
"Mostly Maine."<\/p>\n
"Thomas Vale?"<\/p>\n
His eyes changed.<\/p>\n
I held up the letter.<\/p>\n
"You left the address."<\/p>\n
"Then you found the box."<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
He nodded slowly.<\/p>\n
"Thomas Vale is the name I've been using."<\/p>\n
Carter glanced at me.<\/p>\n
"So the address is his."<\/p>\n
"Was," Daniel said. "I haven't lived there for almost a year."<\/p>\n
"Why?"<\/p>\n
"Because Richard started looking again."<\/p>\n
Samuel stepped closer.<\/p>\n
"How did you know?"<\/p>\n
"Someone accessed an old property record connected to the address. Two days later a man sat outside the house for six hours."<\/p>\n
"Richard's man?"<\/p>\n
"I couldn't prove it."<\/p>\n
I stared at him.<\/p>\n
"You've spent twenty-two years running from Richard."<\/p>\n
Daniel looked at me.<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
"What would you call it?"<\/p>\n
"Trying to stay ahead of him."<\/p>\n
"That sounds like running."<\/p>\n
"Sometimes it was."<\/p>\n
"Why?"<\/p>\n
He looked toward Carter.<\/p>\n
I understood.<\/p>\n
"Carter stays."<\/p>\n
My husband turned toward me.<\/p>\n
"You sure?"<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
Daniel didn't argue.<\/p>\n
He limped toward the table and lowered himself carefully into a chair. The movement explained the cane. His left leg remained stiff, and when he sat, pain crossed his face before he could hide it.<\/p>\n
I hated myself for noticing.<\/p>\n
I hated him a little for making me care.<\/p>\n
Samuel switched the lamp back on.<\/p>\n
The cabin filled with weak yellow light.<\/p>\n
Daniel looked at the metal box on the desk.<\/p>\n
"How much have you read?"<\/p>\n
"Enough to know Richard found you here in 2018."<\/p>\n
Daniel nodded.<\/p>\n
"What happened?"<\/p>\n
"He came alone."<\/p>\n
"How did he find you?"<\/p>\n
"I still don't know."<\/p>\n
"Eleanor said he disappeared for two days and came home with blood on his coat."<\/p>\n
Daniel stared at me.<\/p>\n
"Eleanor told you that?"<\/p>\n
"Today."<\/p>\n
He looked away.<\/p>\n
"Then she finally stopped protecting him."<\/p>\n
"She says she was afraid."<\/p>\n
"She was."<\/p>\n
"You sound like you're defending her."<\/p>\n
"I'm explaining her."<\/p>\n
"Everybody has explanations."<\/p>\n
Daniel met my eyes.<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
I sat across from him.<\/p>\n
"Tell me about Lake Briar."<\/p>\n
Rainwater dripped from his coat onto the floor.<\/p>\n
He removed it slowly.<\/p>\n
"I'd been here for about six months. Richard arrived shortly after midnight."<\/p>\n
"Did he threaten you?"<\/p>\n
"He offered me money first."<\/p>\n
"For what?"<\/p>\n
"Permanent silence."<\/p>\n
"About the company?"<\/p>\n
"About everything."<\/p>\n
"How much?"<\/p>\n
"Five million."<\/p>\n
Carter gave a disbelieving laugh.<\/p>\n
Daniel looked at him.<\/p>\n
"Your father was already having liquidity problems. Five million was probably painful."<\/p>\n
"Why offer it?"<\/p>\n
"Because I'd discovered he was using the same subcontractor scheme again."<\/p>\n
Carter's expression hardened.<\/p>\n
"The companies in Elias's binder."<\/p>\n
"Some of them."<\/p>\n
"You knew Elias had the binder?"<\/p>\n
"I gave it to him."<\/p>\n
"Then why disappear from him?"<\/p>\n
Daniel hesitated.<\/p>\n
I noticed.<\/p>\n
"Answer."<\/p>\n
"I learned someone had been leaking information."<\/p>\n
"Who?"<\/p>\n
"I didn't know."<\/p>\n
"Elias?"<\/p>\n
"I suspected everyone."<\/p>\n
Samuel folded his arms.<\/p>\n
"Including me?"<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
Samuel's face tightened.<\/p>\n
Daniel continued before he could respond.<\/p>\n
"Richard knew things only four people knew. Me. Elias. Samuel. And one other person."<\/p>\n
"Who?"<\/p>\n
Daniel looked toward the rain-darkened window.<\/p>\n
"Eleanor."<\/p>\n
My breath caught.<\/p>\n
"Your sister."<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
"Did you suspect her?"<\/p>\n
"I didn't want to."<\/p>\n
"But?"<\/p>\n
"I had to."<\/p>\n
Samuel shook his head.<\/p>\n
"Eleanor was terrified of Richard."<\/p>\n
"Fear makes people reveal things they don't intend to reveal."<\/p>\n
I thought of her washing blood from his coat.<\/p>\n
"What happened when Richard came here?"<\/p>\n
Daniel rubbed his left hand over his knee.<\/p>\n
"He demanded the records. I refused. He told me Audrey was an adult now and he could reach her whenever he wanted."<\/p>\n
I felt Carter stiffen beside me.<\/p>\n
"What did you do?"<\/p>\n
"I told him if he went near you, everything would be released."<\/p>\n
"To whom?"<\/p>\n
"Federal investigators. Investors. Banks. Reporters."<\/p>\n
"And?"<\/p>\n
"He laughed."<\/p>\n
Daniel's eyes hardened.<\/p>\n
"He said nobody would believe a disgraced thief who had spent twenty years hiding."<\/p>\n
"Then what?"<\/p>\n
"We fought."<\/p>\n
"Again."<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
"Who started it?"<\/p>\n
"I did."<\/p>\n
That surprised me.<\/p>\n
Daniel didn't soften it.<\/p>\n
"He showed me a photograph of you. I hit him."<\/p>\n
I looked down at my hands.<\/p>\n
"What photograph?"<\/p>\n
"You leaving a restaurant in Manhattan."<\/p>\n
"When?"<\/p>\n
"October 2018."<\/p>\n
I remembered living there then.<\/p>\n
I had been twenty-three.<\/p>\n
"Did I know Carter?"<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
"Then Richard was watching me before I met his son."<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
That changed something important.<\/p>\n
Richard could not claim I had entered his family as part of a scheme.<\/p>\n
He had known who I was first.<\/p>\n
"Why didn't he approach me?"<\/p>\n
"Because I told him what would happen."<\/p>\n
"What?"<\/p>\n
Daniel looked at me.<\/p>\n
"Blackwell Capital would begin acquiring every Sterling obligation it could."<\/p>\n
Carter sat forward.<\/p>\n
"So the debt strategy started as protection."<\/p>\n
"Partly."<\/p>\n
"Not revenge?"<\/p>\n
Daniel gave him a tired look.<\/p>\n
"Anyone who tells you revenge had nothing to do with it is lying."<\/p>\n
At least he admitted it.<\/p>\n
"What happened after you hit Richard?"<\/p>\n
"He came at me. We went through the desk."<\/p>\n
Daniel pointed toward the dark stain on the wall.<\/p>\n
"I struck my head there."<\/p>\n
I looked at the stain.<\/p>\n
"Your blood."<\/p>\n
"Mostly."<\/p>\n
"Mostly?"<\/p>\n
"I broke Richard's nose."<\/p>\n
Despite everything, Samuel smiled.<\/p>\n
"Good."<\/p>\n
Daniel gave him a look.<\/p>\n
Samuel shrugged.<\/p>\n
"I've waited twenty-two years."<\/p>\n
I almost laughed.<\/p>\n
It felt wrong.<\/p>\n
It also felt human.<\/p>\n
"So Richard left?"<\/p>\n
"Eventually."<\/p>\n
"Why didn't he kill you?"<\/p>\n
Daniel's expression changed.<\/p>\n
"He could have."<\/p>\n
"But?"<\/p>\n
"I had arranged a dead-man release. If I failed to make contact within seventy-two hours, records would go out."<\/p>\n
"The letter says you didn't contact Elias."<\/p>\n
"I didn't."<\/p>\n
"Then why weren't the records released?"<\/p>\n
"Because Elias wasn't controlling the mechanism."<\/p>\n
Samuel frowned.<\/p>\n
"Who was?"<\/p>\n
Daniel looked at me.<\/p>\n
"Your aunt."<\/p>\n
I stared at him.<\/p>\n
"Marjorie?"<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
The room seemed to shift again.<\/p>\n
"My aunt knew you were alive?"<\/p>\n
"Not everything."<\/p>\n
"Did she know in 2018?"<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
I stood.<\/p>\n
The chair scraped backward.<\/p>\n
"You have got to be kidding me."<\/p>\n
"Audrey\u2014"<\/p>\n
"She raised me."<\/p>\n
"I know."<\/p>\n
"She watched me mourn you."<\/p>\n
"I know."<\/p>\n
"Stop saying that!"<\/p>\n
Daniel flinched.<\/p>\n
I walked toward the window because I needed distance from every person in the room.<\/p>\n
Aunt Marjorie had sat beside me at school concerts.<\/p>\n
She had taught me to drive.<\/p>\n
She had held me when I cried on my eighteenth birthday because I could no longer remember my father's voice.<\/p>\n
And she had known.<\/p>\n
"Why?"<\/p>\n
Daniel's answer came quietly.<\/p>\n
"Because I begged her."<\/p>\n
I turned.<\/p>\n
"Why would she agree?"<\/p>\n
"Because Richard had threatened you."<\/p>\n
"Again."<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
"That's everyone's answer."<\/p>\n
"Because it was the reason."<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
I shook my head.<\/p>\n
"It was your reason. It wasn't my choice."<\/p>\n
Daniel looked down.<\/p>\n
"You're right."<\/p>\n
This time I didn't tell him to stop agreeing.<\/p>\n
I wanted him to feel it.<\/p>\n
Carter approached slowly.<\/p>\n
"Audrey."<\/p>\n
I lifted a hand.<\/p>\n
"Please."<\/p>\n
He stopped.<\/p>\n
I asked Daniel, "Did you ever see me?"<\/p>\n
"From a distance."<\/p>\n
My throat closed.<\/p>\n
"When?"<\/p>\n
"Several times."<\/p>\n
"How many?"<\/p>\n
"I don't know."<\/p>\n
"You know."<\/p>\n
He looked ashamed.<\/p>\n
"Maybe twelve."<\/p>\n
I stared at him.<\/p>\n
"Twelve times."<\/p>\n
"Over twenty years."<\/p>\n
"You watched me?"<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
"Did you come to my college graduation?"<\/p>\n
His silence answered.<\/p>\n
I remembered that day.<\/p>\n
Aunt Marjorie crying.<\/p>\n
An empty chair I had imagined my father sitting in.<\/p>\n
"You were there."<\/p>\n
"Across the courtyard."<\/p>\n
My eyes burned.<\/p>\n
"Why didn't you come to me?"<\/p>\n
"I saw two men I recognized from Richard's security contractor."<\/p>\n
"Maybe they weren't there for you."<\/p>\n
"Maybe."<\/p>\n
"You chose maybe over me."<\/p>\n
His face crumpled.<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
That answer finally contained no defense.<\/p>\n
I wiped my eyes angrily.<\/p>\n
"Good. At least we understand each other."<\/p>\n
Daniel looked older suddenly.<\/p>\n
"I don't expect forgiveness."<\/p>\n
"Good."<\/p>\n
"I hoped for the chance to explain."<\/p>\n
"You're getting it."<\/p>\n
"More than I deserve."<\/p>\n
Samuel turned away, giving us privacy without leaving.<\/p>\n
Carter stared at the floor.<\/p>\n
I returned to the table.<\/p>\n
"Why are you here tonight?"<\/p>\n
Daniel looked at the metal box.<\/p>\n
"Because someone entered this cabin yesterday."<\/p>\n
We all went still.<\/p>\n
"Who?"<\/p>\n
"I don't know."<\/p>\n
"How did you know?"<\/p>\n
"A motion sensor sent an alert."<\/p>\n
"You still monitor the cabin?"<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
"So you came back."<\/p>\n
"I wanted to see what they'd taken."<\/p>\n
Samuel frowned.<\/p>\n
"You walked into a potentially compromised location alone?"<\/p>\n
Daniel smiled faintly.<\/p>\n
"I've made worse decisions."<\/p>\n
"I can name several."<\/p>\n
Daniel almost laughed.<\/p>\n
Then his expression changed.<\/p>\n
He reached for the notebooks in the box.<\/p>\n
"Was anything missing?"<\/p>\n
"We wouldn't know."<\/p>\n
He counted them.<\/p>\n
"One."<\/p>\n
My pulse quickened.<\/p>\n
"What?"<\/p>\n
"A red notebook."<\/p>\n
"What was in it?"<\/p>\n
"Names."<\/p>\n
"What names?"<\/p>\n
"People connected to Richard's subcontractor network. Bank officers. Nominees. Lawyers."<\/p>\n
Carter leaned forward.<\/p>\n
"Current people?"<\/p>\n
"Some."<\/p>\n
"Anyone at Sterling?"<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
"Who?"<\/p>\n
Daniel looked at him.<\/p>\n
"Your chief financial officer."<\/p>\n
Carter went still.<\/p>\n
"Martin Keene?"<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
Carter cursed.<\/p>\n
"He's been with us eighteen years."<\/p>\n
"Exactly."<\/p>\n
I asked, "Would Martin know about the debt default?"<\/p>\n
"Almost certainly."<\/p>\n
Carter pulled out his phone.<\/p>\n
"No signal."<\/p>\n
Samuel checked his.<\/p>\n
"Same."<\/p>\n
Daniel looked toward the window.<\/p>\n
"There usually is."<\/p>\n
A cold feeling moved through me.<\/p>\n
"Usually?"<\/p>\n
"Two bars near the porch."<\/p>\n
Samuel walked outside.<\/p>\n
He returned thirty seconds later.<\/p>\n
"Nothing."<\/p>\n
Daniel stood with difficulty.<\/p>\n
"There's a signal booster behind the cabin."<\/p>\n
We followed him.<\/p>\n
The rain had weakened.<\/p>\n
Samuel swept his flashlight along the wall.<\/p>\n
A cable hung loose.<\/p>\n
Cleanly cut.<\/p>\n
Carter touched it.<\/p>\n
"This wasn't weather."<\/p>\n
"No," Daniel said.<\/p>\n
Headlights suddenly appeared between the trees.<\/p>\n
My heart jumped.<\/p>\n
Another vehicle approached the cabin.<\/p>\n
Daniel's face changed.<\/p>\n
"Inside."<\/p>\n
Nobody argued.<\/p>\n
We moved quickly.<\/p>\n
Samuel locked the door.<\/p>\n
Carter switched off the lamp.<\/p>\n
The vehicle stopped.<\/p>\n
Doors opened.<\/p>\n
More than one.<\/p>\n
I counted footsteps on the gravel.<\/p>\n
Two people.<\/p>\n
Maybe three.<\/p>\n
Daniel moved toward the desk and pulled a small key from beneath it.<\/p>\n
He opened a floor compartment I hadn't noticed.<\/p>\n
Inside were document cases.<\/p>\n
"Take these."<\/p>\n
Samuel grabbed them.<\/p>\n
"What are they?"<\/p>\n
"Original share certificates."<\/p>\n
My breath caught.<\/p>\n
"Daniel."<\/p>\n
"Take them."<\/p>\n
Carter helped Samuel lift the cases.<\/p>\n
The porch creaked.<\/p>\n
Someone tried the door.<\/p>\n
Then a man's voice called through it.<\/p>\n
"Mr. Blackwell?"<\/p>\n
Nobody answered.<\/p>\n
The voice continued.<\/p>\n
"We only want the documents."<\/p>\n
Daniel looked at me.<\/p>\n
Recognition passed through his face.<\/p>\n
"You know him?" I whispered.<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
"Who?"<\/p>\n
He leaned close.<\/p>\n
"Martin Keene."<\/p>\n
Carter stared at him.<\/p>\n
His own CFO was standing outside.<\/p>\n
Martin called again.<\/p>\n
"Carter, I know you're in there."<\/p>\n
Carter's face went pale.<\/p>\n
"How?"<\/p>\n
Daniel whispered, "He followed you."<\/p>\n
I thought of the tracker.<\/p>\n
"No. We moved the tracker."<\/p>\n
"Then there's another."<\/p>\n
Carter checked his phone.<\/p>\n
Nothing.<\/p>\n
His watch.<\/p>\n
Nothing.<\/p>\n
Then he touched his jacket.<\/p>\n
His face changed.<\/p>\n
"My company access badge."<\/p>\n
Daniel nodded.<\/p>\n
"Sterling security tags have location telemetry."<\/p>\n
Carter looked sick.<\/p>\n
Outside, Martin spoke again.<\/p>\n
"Richard wants everyone home."<\/p>\n
I almost laughed.<\/p>\n
"Of course he does."<\/p>\n
Daniel pointed toward the back bedroom.<\/p>\n
"There's another exit."<\/p>\n
Samuel carried the cases.<\/p>\n
We moved quietly.<\/p>\n
Before entering the bedroom, I looked back.<\/p>\n
A shadow crossed the front window.<\/p>\n
Then another.<\/p>\n
Daniel opened a narrow door hidden behind a wardrobe.<\/p>\n
Cold air rushed in.<\/p>\n
A path led downhill toward the lake.<\/p>\n
"We follow the shore north," he whispered. "There's another road half a mile away."<\/p>\n
Carter went first.<\/p>\n
Samuel followed with the cases.<\/p>\n
I stepped outside.<\/p>\n
Daniel remained behind me.<\/p>\n
"Go."<\/p>\n
"What about you?"<\/p>\n
"I'll slow you down."<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
"Audrey."<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
He stared at me.<\/p>\n
For twenty-two years, my father had made choices about my safety without asking me.<\/p>\n
I wasn't allowing another.<\/p>\n
"You come with us."<\/p>\n
Footsteps sounded inside the cabin.<\/p>\n
Daniel looked toward the door.<\/p>\n
Then back at me.<\/p>\n
"All right."<\/p>\n
We moved down the wet path.<\/p>\n
Behind us, wood splintered.<\/p>\n
Someone had forced the front door.<\/p>\n
We reached the lake.<\/p>\n
Samuel turned north.<\/p>\n
Then Daniel stopped.<\/p>\n
"What?"<\/p>\n
He stared across the water.<\/p>\n
A second set of headlights appeared on the opposite shore.<\/p>\n
He whispered something I couldn't hear.<\/p>\n
"What did you say?"<\/p>\n
Daniel looked at me.<\/p>\n
"This isn't Richard trying to scare us."<\/p>\n
"How do you know?"<\/p>\n
"Because Martin would never come here without permission."<\/p>\n
"Richard's permission?"<\/p>\n
Daniel shook his head.<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
Carter stared at him.<\/p>\n
"Then whose?"<\/p>\n
My father looked back toward the cabin where flashlights now moved behind the windows.<\/p>\n
"Someone inside Blackwell Capital has been feeding Richard information."<\/p>\n
Samuel went still.<\/p>\n
Daniel continued.<\/p>\n
"And if Martin knew we'd be here tonight, that person knew before Richard did."<\/p>\n
I thought of the only people who had known our destination.<\/p>\n
Samuel.<\/p>\n
Elias.<\/p>\n
Eleanor.<\/p>\n
And us.<\/p>\n
The betrayal my father had suspected in 2018 had never ended.<\/p>\n
Someone we trusted had just led Richard's people directly to Lake Briar.<\/p>\n
For several seconds, I could hear nothing except rain striking the cabin roof. The stranger stood inside the doorway with one hand braced against the frame. Water darkened the shoulders … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insightdrama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9091"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9111,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9091\/revisions\/9111"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}