CHAP 5
CHAPTER 5
The Enemy My Father Warned Me About
The Bennett estate had never felt like home.
It was magnificent.
It was powerful.
It was cold.
Rachel stood silently in the west wing, staring through the floor-to-ceiling windows at acres of snow-covered gardens.
Six years ago, she had escaped this life without looking back.
Now she had returned because her father was dying.
Nothing else.
A gentle knock interrupted her thoughts.
Daniel stepped inside.
"He's awake."
Rachel nodded.
Every step toward her father's bedroom felt heavier than the last.
When she entered, the man lying in the enormous bed barely resembled the titan who had once dominated boardrooms across Europe.
His hair had turned completely white.
His breathing was shallow.
Yet when he saw Rachel, tears filled his eyes.
"You came."
Rachel swallowed hard.
"I almost didn't."
He reached for her hand with trembling fingers.
"I know."
Silence stretched between them.
Years of distance.
Years of pain.
Years that could never be recovered.
Finally, her father spoke.
"There isn't much time."
"Don't."
"Rachel..."
"I don't want to hear it."
"You have to."
His voice weakened.
"I failed your mother."
Rachel closed her eyes.
"So did I."
"No."
He shook his head slowly.
"I failed because I trusted the wrong man."
Rachel looked at him.
"There was only one person outside our family who knew about the financial evidence your mother had uncovered."
His breathing grew uneven.
"He was my closest friend."
Rachel's stomach tightened.
"Who?"
Her father whispered two words.
"William Carter."
The room fell silent.
Rachel stared at him in disbelief.
William Carter.
Elijah's father.
"No..."
"He betrayed me."
"He betrayed all of us."
Rachel slowly stepped backward.
Every memory of Elijah flashed through her mind.
His apology.
His regret.
His confused expression at the gala.
None of it mattered.
If what her father said was true...
Everything connected back to the Carter family.
Her father squeezed her hand one last time.
"Promise me..."
"...never trust a Carter."
Across London, Elijah sat in a rented apartment surrounded by stacks of old newspapers and legal documents.
He refused to believe Rachel had simply vanished.
Someone had erased her past.
People didn't disappear by accident.
They disappeared because someone wanted them forgotten.
Hours later, a retired investigative journalist finally agreed to meet him.
"You've been asking dangerous questions."
"I just want the truth."
The old man slid a yellowed newspaper across the table.
Headline:
Financial Empire Split by Mysterious Betrayal
The article described two business partners.
Jonathan Bennett.
William Carter.
Once inseparable.
Then suddenly...
Enemies.
"What caused it?"
The journalist sighed.
"No one knows."
"But after Mrs. Bennett's murder..."
"Everything collapsed."
Elijah frowned.
"My father was involved?"
"Officially?"
"No."
The journalist leaned closer.
"But rumors..."
He lowered his voice.
"...never really die."
That night, Elijah entered the Carter family archive beneath his father's estate.
He had never been there before.
Dust covered hundreds of old boxes.
Near the back of the room stood a locked steel cabinet.
Inside...
One sealed envelope.
Written in his father's handwriting.
Do Not Open Unless Absolutely Necessary.
Elijah hesitated.
Then broke the seal.
Inside were crime-scene photographs from thirty years earlier.
His blood ran cold.
The Bennett mansion.
Police officers.
Rachel's mother...
And standing only a few feet behind the investigators...
Greg Sullivan.
Young.
Expressionless.
Watching everything.
Why would his father's best friend be at a murder scene before anyone else?
May you like
Elijah whispered to himself.
"What aren't you telling me, Dad?"
