Chapter 10 - Twenty Marks
Detective Ruiz moved us to a secure Sterling property in Connecticut.
The estate where I had grown up looked smaller than I remembered.
The library fireplace still carried the small scratch I made with a toy when I was six.
My bedroom remained almost unchanged.
My mother had preserved everything.
A stack of unopened birthday cards sat inside the desk.
There were seven cards.
One for every year I had stayed away.
I opened the first.
Clare,
You do not have to apologize before coming home.
You only have to come home.
Love, Mom.
I sat on the floor and cried until the pain in my back forced me to stop.
My father found me there.
For once, he did not try to solve anything.
He sat beside me.
“I thought silence would make you strong,” he said.
“It only made me lonely.”
“I know.”
“I wanted you to call.”
“I wanted you to come.”
We had both waited for the other person to surrender.
Matthew had filled the years between us with lies.
My father told me he had investigated Matthew before our wedding.
He discovered unpaid debts, false academic claims, and a former girlfriend who accused him of violence.
The woman later withdrew her statement.
My father confronted Matthew privately.
Matthew recorded the conversation and played only selected parts for me.
He made it sound as though my father had offered him money to leave.
That recording became the final reason I walked away.
“I should have shown you the full investigation,” my father said.
“I was afraid you would think I was controlling you.”
“You were controlling me.”
“Yes.”
The admission surprised me.
“But Matthew’s manipulation does not excuse my pride.”
We sat quietly.
Then Marcus entered with news.
Federal investigators were ready to accept our voluntary disclosure.
However, the files on Samuel’s server required a physical authentication key.
The key was stored inside NexusCore’s original Queens office.
The building had been abandoned after the company moved to Manhattan.
Matthew had purchased it privately and never sold it.
I knew why.
The original prototype server was hidden beneath the floor.
It contained every early data set and version history.
It could prove when the stolen files were added.
It could also prove when I removed them and rebuilt the model.
“We retrieve the server tonight,” I said.
My father refused.
My mother refused more loudly.
Marcus warned that Matthew probably expected us to go there.
“That is exactly why I have to go,” I said.
“Matthew believes the twenty marks on my body made me afraid of him.”
I stood carefully.
“They did.”
I looked at my father.
“But fear does not mean obedience.”
At midnight, we entered Queens through the rear alley.
May you like
The old office door was already open.
Inside, twenty white orchids formed a path toward the basement.
