She Promised Her Best Friend She’d Never Love His Brother — Then He Found the Photograph She Hid for Ten Years

Chapter 4 

The storage facility was nearly empty.

Locker 214 opened with the brass key.

Inside was a cardboard box.

Clara recognized her mother’s handwriting immediately.

Her hands trembled.

Julian stood beside her.

“You don’t have to open it.”

“I do.”

Inside were photographs.

Receipts.

Letters.

And a photograph of Julian’s father speaking to Grant Mercer.

Clara knew the name.

Everyone in Los Angeles did.

Grant was one of the city’s most successful developers.

Julian’s expression hardened.

“He told me he barely knew Mercer.”

Another photograph showed Mercer entering the Reed workshop.

A third showed Clara’s mother holding a folder.

“What was she investigating?” Clara asked.

Julian didn’t answer.

At the bottom was an old cassette tape.

They found a player at the facility office.

The recording began with static.

Then a man’s voice.

Julian’s father.

“If you’re hearing this, Mercer has already started.”

Julian went pale.

“What did he start?”

The recording continued.

“Don’t trust the accounts. The real records are somewhere no one would think to look.”

The tape suddenly stopped.

Clara turned it over.

Nothing.

Then she noticed something written beneath the label.

Anna knows.

Julian stared at the words.

“Anna Vale.”

“Who is she?”

“My father’s accountant.”

“Where is she?”

Julian shook his head.

“She disappeared ten years ago.”