Chapter 12 - THE AUNT WHO HAD BEEN WATCHING
Caroline's house was destroyed.
Thomas Vale was found unconscious.
Caroline was missing.
Behind a false wall, investigators found surveillance equipment and encrypted drives.
Rebecca Sloan was Caroline.
For ten years, she had lived inside the Caldwell family.
She had watched.
Recorded.
Collected.
At the original dinner, she had worn a hidden camera.
The footage showed Adrian raising the plate.
The impact.
The witnesses looking away.
It also captured Eleanor giving Adrian instructions.
“She will resist.”
“Then what?”
“You remind her what marriage means.”
The recording was devastating.
But Caroline had hidden one final drive.
The clue was carved into the wall.
SAMUEL'S BRIDGE.
My father's bridge.
Beneath it, we found a weatherproof container.
Inside was a recording of the night he died.
Eleanor's voice.
“Has the driver been paid?”
“Yes.”
“And the engineer?”
“He won't reach the state board.”
“What about the daughter?”
“She knows nothing.”
“Keep it that way.”
My father had not died in an accident.
He had been murdered.
Then the phone inside the container rang.
Eleanor.
“You always were curious, Claire.”
She wanted the encryption key.
And she had Caroline.
At midnight, we went to an abandoned warehouse.
Caroline was tied to a chair.
Then Julian stepped out of the darkness.
May you like
He was holding a gun.
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