My Cute Neighbor Invited Me to Watch the Meteor Shower… Then Whispered, “Stay After Everyone Leaves.”
Chapter 5
Emma returned to Crawford Investments the next morning.
She acted normal.
At least, she tried.
Her boss, Mark Harrison, greeted her at the elevator.
“Big night?”
Emma smiled.
“Not really.”
“You went to the meteor shower.”
She froze.
“How do you know?”
Mark laughed.
“Social media.”
Emma nodded.
“Right.”
He smiled.
“Come see me later.”
She watched him walk away.
Something felt wrong.
She entered her office.
A folder was waiting on her desk.
No name.
No label.
She opened it.
Inside were copies of her father’s documents.
And one photograph.
Her father.
Noah’s father.
Thomas Crawford.
And Mark Harrison.
Twenty years earlier.
Emma’s heart raced.
Mark had known their families.
She called Noah.
“He was there.”
“Who?”
“Mark.”
“What about him?”
“He knew our fathers.”
Silence.
“Don’t confront him.”
“Why?”
“Because he may know we’re investigating.”
Too late.
Mark appeared in the doorway.
“You wanted to see me?”
Emma closed the folder.
“Yes.”
He smiled.
“What about?”
She held his gaze.
“The old Horizon project.”
Mark’s expression changed.
Only for a second.
Then he smiled.
“I don’t know anything about that.”
“You’re in the photographs.”
He stared.
“Where did you get them?”
Emma smiled.
“That’s not what I asked.”
Mark stepped closer.
“Emma.”
“Yes?”
“Stop digging.”
She remained calm.
“Why?”
“Because some things are better left buried.”
He walked away.
Emma waited until he disappeared.
Then she called Noah.
“He knows.”
“I figured.”
“What do we do?”
“Find your father’s property.”
They drove to the old farm.
The house was abandoned.
Trees had grown around it.
The windows were broken.
But the structure remained.
Emma walked inside.
Every room brought back memories.
Her father’s office.
Her mother’s kitchen.
Her childhood bedroom.
Noah followed.
“Look.”
He pointed to the fireplace.
A stone had been moved.
Behind it was a small compartment.
Inside was a metal drive.
Emma’s hands shook.
She opened it.
There were hundreds of documents.
Then one file.
HORIZON — FINAL REPORT.
She opened it.
A list of executives.
Bank accounts.
Property transfers.
At the bottom was one name.
Thomas Crawford.
Emma stared.
“He did it.”
Noah shook his head.
“Not necessarily.”
The file showed payments made by Crawford.
But the money had been returned.
Emma frowned.
“Why?”
Noah read further.
“Your father was trying to stop him.”
Then they found another document.
A secret agreement.
Thomas had promised to expose Horizon.
But he disappeared before doing so.
Emma asked:
“Where did he go?”
Noah pointed to an address.
A private clinic.
They called.
The patient records had been sealed.
But a nurse remembered a man with Thomas’s name.
He had been there fifteen years ago.
Then transferred.
“Where?”
The nurse didn’t know.
But she remembered the receiving hospital.
A facility three states away.
They drove there.
The records had been destroyed.
But someone had left a note.
Thomas Crawford was alive when he left.
Noah stared.
“Your father is alive.”
Emma’s heart pounded.
Then another discovery changed everything.
The patient had been transferred under a different name.
David Collins.
Emma froze.
“That’s my father.”
The two men had survived.
Both had gone into hiding.
Both had left clues.
And both had trusted the same person.
Emma opened the final file.
A photograph appeared.
Her mother.
Alive.
Standing beside Thomas Crawford.
Emma gasped.
“When was this taken?”
Noah checked the date.
Three years after her mother supposedly died.
Emma’s hands went numb.
Her mother was alive too.
And the last line in the file read:
THE FAMILY HAS BEEN WATCHING.
