Chapter 8 - The Accountant’s Warning
The letter was signed by Olivia Grant, Ethan’s former financial controller.
Emily remembered her.
Olivia had left Caldwell Development abruptly four months earlier.
Ethan claimed she had stolen company funds.
The letter told a different story.
Olivia discovered that Ethan and Grant Mercer had been transferring investor money through shell companies.
When she refused to alter the books, Ethan threatened her.
He then accused her of embezzlement.
Olivia escaped before he could have her arrested, but she feared no one would believe her.
The sealed envelope contained a storage-unit key and a handwritten account number.
Rebecca called the number attached to Olivia’s letter.
No answer.
Richard said, “She may be hiding.”
Margaret examined the envelope.
“There’s a return address in Franklin.”
Captain Bennett dispatched a deputy to check it.
Meanwhile, Emily was taken to the hospital.
Doctors documented swelling on her face, injuries to her shoulder, bruises in multiple stages of healing, and the mark on her forehead.
Richard remained beside her.
He did not ask why she had stayed.
He did not say he had warned her.
He held her hand while a nurse photographed injuries she had spent months hiding.
At one point, Emily whispered, “I feel stupid.”
Richard shook his head.
“He trained you to doubt yourself. That isn’t stupidity.”
“I lied to you.”
“You were surviving.”
Emily began crying.
For the first time, she allowed herself to cry without worrying that Ethan would call her dramatic.
Rebecca arrived after midnight.
Olivia had been found alive.
She had been living under her sister’s name in Kentucky.
When Rebecca told her Ethan had been arrested, Olivia agreed to return.
But she added a warning.
“The storage unit doesn’t just contain business records.”
“What else is there?” Rebecca asked.
“A video archive.”
Emily’s stomach tightened.
“Videos of what?”
Olivia answered quietly.
“Ethan recorded people without their knowledge. Employees. Investors. Women he dated.”
Emily remembered the hidden camera she once found in the guest bedroom.
Ethan claimed it was part of the security system.
Olivia continued.
“He used the recordings for leverage. And there’s one video involving Margaret.”
Margaret went pale.
“What video?”
Olivia hesitated.
May you like
“The night your husband died.”
👉 Ethan had built his fortune on blackmail, and the oldest recording could prove that his father’s death was not the accident everyone believed.
