Chapter 15 - EMILY KNEW
Charles had met Emily.
That was the secret.
Investigators recovered an email Emily sent him nine days before Sophie was born.
Charles,
I reviewed the Northstar proposal. The ownership disclosures don't make sense. Do not approach Daniel again until you explain who is actually behind it.
My hands shook reading her words.
Emily had caught the inconsistency.
She hadn't uncovered Vanessa.
She hadn't uncovered Martin.
But she knew Charles was hiding something about Northstar.
Charles responded that the structure was routine.
Emily didn't believe him.
The night she went into labor, she had apparently planned to send supporting documents to our corporate attorney.
She never got the chance.
Charles and Vanessa were at St. Catherine's because Charles was panicking.
According to his statement, he wanted access to Emily's laptop before I found the documents.
Vanessa came because she was already helping Northstar.
That was grotesque.
But it still wasn't murder.
They exploited the chaos around my wife's medical emergency to protect a financial scheme.
Charles claimed they never entered Emily's treatment area.
Hospital access records supported that.
Vanessa had remained in a public waiting area.
Charles briefly entered Emily's room only after she had been moved for emergency care and I had gone with her.
Nathan's old observation placed them there.
Access logs confirmed part of it.
Emily's laptop disappeared that night.
I had assumed it was lost during the hospital chaos.
It hadn't been.
Charles admitted taking it.
That was the payoff.
Emily had discovered the first layer.
Charles stole the device containing her concerns.
After Emily died, I was grieving and vulnerable.
Vanessa entered my life through Nathan, then through me.
The plan evolved.
I stood in Emily's old home office, furious at myself for never questioning the missing laptop.
Rachel said quietly, “You were burying your wife and raising a newborn.”
I didn't answer.
There was no comfort in that.
Then investigators recovered something from Charles's storage unit.
Not Emily's laptop.
Its hard drive.
Charles had removed it before disposing of the computer.
A forensic specialist recovered deleted files.
Most were ordinary.
One folder was encrypted.
The password hint read:
SOPHIE'S FIRST SONG.
I knew it.
Emily used to sing “You Are My Sunshine” while pregnant.
The password opened the folder.
Inside were Northstar ownership diagrams, emails, and handwritten notes Emily had scanned.
At the bottom was one document that changed the entire case.
A list of names.
Charles.
Martin.
Vanessa.
And beside Vanessa's name, Emily had typed:
Possible recruiter. Ask Eric Dawson.
Emily had known Vanessa existed.
May you like
Before I did.
📖 Emily's recovered files proved she had traced Vanessa to Eric, and her final notes contained the first direct clue to who actually designed the scheme. 👇
