CHAPTER 4 – THE FILE NAMED "INSURANCE"
CHAPTER 4 – THE FILE NAMED "INSURANCE"
The next morning, I drove to my office before sunrise.
The building's security guard looked surprised.
"You're here early."
"I need my old laptop."
The laptop had survived five years untouched in a locked cabinet after my accident.
I connected the flash drive.
Nothing happened.
Then...
A single folder appeared.
INSURANCE
Inside were only three files.
Audio_01.mp3
Ledger.xlsx
ReadMe.txt
I opened the text file first.
One sentence.
If you're reading this, something has gone terribly wrong.
No signature.
No explanation.
Just those words.
I clicked the audio recording.
Static filled the speakers.
Then...
my father's voice.
I nearly stopped breathing.
My father had died six years earlier from what everyone believed was a heart attack.
Yet here he was.
Recording something in secret.
"If anything happens to me," he said calmly, "this recording must reach Caleb."
I froze.
"My wife doesn't know I'm making this."
Every hair on my arms stood up.
"I discovered financial transfers that cannot be explained."
Pages rustled.
"The accounts lead to shell companies controlled by someone inside the family."
My father's breathing became uneven.
"I confronted Margaret."
I gripped the edge of the desk.
No.
No...
"I wanted to believe there was an innocent explanation."
Silence.
Then...
"I was wrong."
The recording crackled.
"If she realizes I copied these records..."
A loud bang interrupted him.
"What was that?"
Another voice echoed faintly in the background.
Female.
Angry.
Too distorted to understand.
My father whispered urgently.
"If anything happens to me, trust Hannah."
The recording ended.
I stared at the screen.
Unable to move.
Unable to think.
Five years.
My father had tried to warn me before he died.
And the one person he trusted...
was the very woman my mother had convinced me to hate.
Before I could process another thought—
my phone rang.
It was an unknown number.
I answered.
"Hello?"
A distorted male voice spoke only one sentence.
"You should have let the past stay buried."
The line went dead.
One second later...
Every monitor in my office went black.
Then the fire alarm exploded throughout the building.
At the same instant, smoke began pouring from beneath my office door.
May you like
Someone hadn't just found us.
They had found the flash drive.
