The Sister Under Watch
Chapter 07 - The Sister Under Watch
Sophie lived in a narrow apartment building across from a twenty-four-hour bakery. The man watching her had chosen his position carefully, but Mara recognized him from Mercer security records. He was a contractor Graham had hired three months earlier.
Mara contacted the authorities and kept Sophie on the phone while officers approached from the rear street. The contractor drove away before they reached him, but cameras captured his license plate. More importantly, Sophie was safe.
The package outside her door contained a memory card and a note in Evelyn’s handwriting.
PLAY ONLY WITH JULIAN, CHARLES, AND AUDREY PRESENT.
They gathered in the bakery’s closed upstairs office. Audrey inserted the card into an offline computer. A video opened.
Evelyn appeared wearing the same blue dress from the engagement preparations. Behind her was the basement wall of Harbor House.
“I don’t know how much time I have,” she said. “Graham thinks I found only the duplicate invoices. I found the original authorization files, too. He used Charles’s digital signature, but the approval requests came from Lucas’s access account. That is why neither man could expose him without appearing guilty.”
She held up a small silver drive.
“The complete audit is not in this recording. I gave it to the one person Graham never notices.”
The image shifted. A banquet server from the Mercer hotel stood beside her.
Charles recognized him as Ben Ortiz, a college student who worked weekend events. During the gala setup, Evelyn had asked Ben to keep the drive hidden in his uniform locker. If she failed to meet him by nine, he was to deliver the black bag to Charles.
Graham had watched the garage but ignored the staff corridors.
Sophie began to cry when the video ended. “Where is she now?”
The office phone rang.
Julian answered.
For a moment, there was only breathing. Then Evelyn said, “I’m safe.”
She had reached a church shelter across the river and borrowed a volunteer’s phone. She refused to reveal the address until the contractor watching Sophie was detained.
Julian closed his eyes. Relief nearly took his voice.
“I thought you left me.”
“I thought you would trust me long enough to look inside the bag.”
He had no defense.
Charles stepped toward the phone. “Evelyn, I am sorry. I should have acted when you came to me.”
“You can apologize after we stop him,” she replied.
The silver drive was still in Ben’s locker at the hotel—the same hotel where Graham planned to sign the takeover agreement at midnight.
Julian looked at Charles.
May you like
The engagement gala had become their battlefield.
Now they would return to it with the one thing Graham believed he had destroyed: the truth.
