Chapter 9 – The Ghost Of The Past

My blood ran cold.

The beautiful, sunlit garden suddenly felt like a trap.

I stared at the photo on my phone. My father, smiling, standing in front of his old hardware store. He had died of a sudden heart attack two years before I met James.

Did James ever tell you why he chose you?

“Emily?” Luca’s voice broke through the ringing in my ears. “Are you okay? You’re pale.”

I quickly locked my phone and slipped it into my pocket. “I’m fine. Just… just a little dizzy.”

Luca’s brow furrowed with immediate concern. “Let’s get you inside.”

As we walked back into the mansion, my mind raced.

James had told me he targeted me because I was an orphan. A lonely girl with no family to ask questions when he disappeared.

But the text implied something much darker.

I waited until Luca went to his study to finalize some paperwork. Then, I locked myself in the downstairs powder room and called Detective Miller, the only honest cop left in Chicago who had helped us arrest Valentina.

“Miller,” his gruff voice answered.

“Detective, it’s Emily Carter. I need you to look up an old police report for me.”

“Emily, what’s wrong? Are you safe?”

“Yes. But I need to know about my father’s death. Robert Carter. Seven years ago.”

I heard Miller tapping on a keyboard. “Give me a second… Okay, got it. Cause of death was a massive myocardial infarction. Heart attack.”

“Was there an autopsy?” I asked, my hands shaking.

“Let’s see… No. The coroner ruled it natural causes. No foul play suspected.”

Reversal.

My father’s death wasn’t a murder. The text was just a cruel mind game.

“Wait,” Miller said, his tone shifting. “There’s an addendum on the file. The paramedic who pronounced him dead on the scene.”

“Who was it?”

“A private contractor. Name of Adrian Cole.”

The phone slipped from my sweaty fingers and clattered onto the marble sink.

Adrian Cole. James’s fake name.

James hadn’t met me randomly at a diner. He was the paramedic who had pronounced my father dead.

He hadn’t just ruined my marriage. He had killed my father.

A heavy knock on the bathroom door made me jump.

“Emily?” Luca called softly. “There’s a package for you at the front gate.”

I opened the door, trying to force a smile.

We walked to the front foyer. A guard handed me a small, pristine white box wrapped in black ribbon.

I untied the ribbon and popped the lid open.

Inside lay a heavy silver rosary.

It wasn’t just any rosary. It was my father’s. The one he was buried with.

Luca saw the color drain from my face. “What is it?”

“It’s my father’s,” I whispered, pure terror gripping my chest.

Beneath the rosary was a folded piece of paper.

A visitor’s pass to the Federal Penitentiary.

Approved for 3:00 PM today. To visit Inmate 4092: James Walker.

TITLE: The Final Confession

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