Millionaire Sent Her $200K by Mistake — And He Never Expected What She Did Next!
Chapter 4
Diane refused to talk for the rest of the night.
She simply told Emma:
“You need to leave.”
“Why?”
“Because they know.”
“Who?”
Diane looked toward the curtains.
“The people your father was trying to expose.”
Daniel stood.
“Mrs. Carter, how long have you known they were watching you?”
Diane looked at him.
“Since my husband disappeared.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“Why didn’t you go to the police?”
“Because the police were involved.”
Emma’s stomach dropped.
“Who?”
“I don’t know names.”
“Then how do you know?”
“Because your father told me.”
Daniel moved closer.
“What did he tell you?”
Diane took a breath.
“He said if anything happened to him, I had to protect Emma.”
Emma felt tears in her eyes.
“My father loved me?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did he leave?”
“He didn’t.”
Daniel and Emma exchanged a glance.
“What?”
Diane looked at them.
“Michael was taken.”
Emma stopped breathing.
“Taken?”
“He was investigating the money.”
“Who took him?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is he alive?”
Diane started crying.
“I don’t know.”
Emma knelt beside her.
“Mom.”
“I thought if you believed he left, you’d stop looking.”
“You lied to me for twenty years.”
“I know.”
“Why?”
“Because I wanted you alive.”
Silence filled the room.
Then someone knocked on the door.
Three slow knocks.
Daniel immediately moved in front of Emma.
Diane stared toward the hallway.
“Don’t open it.”
The knocking stopped.
A piece of paper slid beneath the door.
Emma picked it up.
One sentence.
You were warned.
Then the lights went out.
Daniel pulled Emma behind him.
A window shattered.
Glass flew across the room.
Someone fired from outside.
Daniel pushed Emma to the floor.
Diane screamed.
A second shot struck the wall.
Then silence.
Daniel crawled toward the window.
Nothing.
No attacker.
Only a black vehicle disappearing down the street.
Daniel called security.
Then the police.
But Emma could barely hear him.
Her mind was racing.
Someone had known where they were.
They had known about the conversation.
And they had fired a gun to stop it.
Daniel turned to her.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Your mother?”
“She’s okay.”
Diane looked at him.
“You need to take Emma away from here.”
Emma shook her head.
“No.”
Her mother stared.
“Emma.”
“I’ve spent my entire life being afraid of a father I thought abandoned me.”
She stood.
“I’m not doing that anymore.”
Daniel watched her.
“You’re scared.”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
She frowned.
“Good?”
“It means you’ll be careful.”
Emma looked at him.
“That’s what you told me yesterday.”
“I meant it then too.”
The police arrived.
They found no shell casings.
The shooter had used a suppressor.
It was professional.
Not random.
That night, Daniel moved Emma and Diane to a private residence outside the city.
Emma couldn’t sleep.
At 4:00 a.m., she went downstairs.
Daniel was in the kitchen.
He looked up.
“Can’t sleep?”
“No.”
She poured water.
“What happens now?”
“We find out who sent the money.”
“And my father.”
“Yes.”
“And my mother?”
“Yes.”
Emma looked at him.
“Why are you helping me?”
Daniel answered quietly:
“Because I think our fathers died trying to protect the same people.”
Then he opened a laptop.
A bank record appeared.
The original $200,000 transfer had been made from a private account.
But the account wasn’t owned by a charity.
It belonged to a woman.
Daniel stared at the name.
Emma stepped closer.
“Who is it?”
He looked at her.
“Your mother.”
Emma froze.
