PART 4

By sunset, the house was surrounded by reporters.

News vans lined the street.

Neighbors stood outside pretending to water their lawns while watching every police car pull into our driveway.

Tom sat across from me in complete silence.

Finally, he spoke.

“I should have protected you.”

I looked at him.

“No.”

“You should have believed me before it got this far.”

He lowered his head.

“I know.”

Detective Lewis walked inside carrying a folder.

“The fingerprint results came back.”

He opened the file.

“The second set doesn’t belong to Ruth.”

Tom frowned.

“Then whose are they?”

Lewis looked directly at him.

“They belong to your sister.”

Emily.

I blinked.

“Your sister lives in Seattle.”

Tom’s face turned pale.

“She flew in yesterday.”

“What?”

“We confirmed it through airport security footage.”

My mind raced.

“Why would she do this?”

Lewis placed another photograph on the table.

It showed Emily entering our neighborhood at 2:17 a.m.

Another photo showed her leaving forty minutes later.

Then came the final picture.

She wasn’t alone.

Standing beside her…

Was a private investigator.

Tom stared at the image in disbelief.

“I’ve never seen him before.”

Lewis nodded.

“We have.”

He slid one final document across the table.

The investigator had been hired three months earlier.

The client name was blacked out.

But the payment records weren’t.

Every payment had come from the same bank account.

Tom’s mother’s account.

Ruth hadn’t just cut my hair.

She had been secretly investigating me for months.

Following me.

Recording me.

Photographing me.

Trying to find something…

Anything…

That would destroy my career.

I slowly looked toward the front window.

Police officers were walking Ruth toward a patrol car.

For the first time since all of this began…

She looked scared.

Really scared.

As the police door closed behind her, my phone vibrated one last time.

Unknown number.

A single text message appeared.

“You still don’t know why she hated your promotion… Ask your father.”

I stared at the screen.

My father had been dead…

For eight years.

END OF PART 4