CHAPTER 2 — EVERY LIE HAD A PRICE
The ambulance doors closed behind Emily.
The older man remained standing in the rain outside the mansion.
His phone vibrated.
"Sir."
"We've completed the background investigation."
He listened silently.
Every report made his expression colder.
The young man—Daniel Brooks—
had never loved Emily.
Not once.
He had deliberately targeted her.
Someone had anonymously paid him twenty million dollars to marry her...
gain access to her future inheritance...
and eliminate her before her father's identity became public.
The older man closed his eyes.
"So it wasn't greed."
"It was a contract."
"Yes, sir."
"And we identified the client."
Several photographs appeared on his phone.
The woman in the red dress.
Victoria Brooks.
Daniel's mother.
The same woman who had pretended to be horrified only minutes earlier.
She wasn't a witness.
She had financed everything.
Inside the mansion, Victoria confidently spoke with detectives.
"My son simply lost control."
"It was a family argument."
She smiled.
She believed money would erase another crime.
Then the front doors opened.
The older man walked back inside.
Everyone instinctively stepped aside.
He tossed a folder onto the table.
Bank transfers.
Hidden accounts.
Recorded phone calls.
Life insurance documents.
Murder agreements.
Victoria's smile disappeared.
"What...is this?"
He answered calmly.
"The evidence."
"You forgot one thing."
"I own the company that stored every file you thought you deleted."
Police officers slowly turned toward Victoria.
One detective quietly placed handcuffs around her wrists.
She whispered...
"You can't prove I ordered it."
The older man looked at her without emotion.
"No."
"But your own son already did."
Daniel's recorded confession began playing across the ballroom.
His voice filled the silence.
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"My mother said Emily had to disappear..."
Victoria collapsed.
