Chapter 6 - The Watcher in the Dark
|
The gravity of the situation hung heavy in my living room. Two hundred thousand dollars in laundered money wasn't a small-time scam. It meant Damian was involved in something much darker than a successful restaurant business.
Before Robert could print the ledgers, Chloe’s phone buzzed loudly on the coffee table.
She froze. We all stared at the illuminated screen.
Caller ID: Damian.
“Don’t answer,” Robert said quietly, his tone authoritative.
The ringing stopped after five agonizing rings. Then, a text message appeared on the screen.
Come home tonight, Chloe. We can fix this. You know you belong here.
Chloe squeezed her eyes shut, trembling violently. Before I could comfort her, a second message chimed.
Your mother doesn’t know what she’s interfering with. She's going to get hurt.
My blood ran cold. He was threatening me. But it was the third message that made the air in the room completely vanish.
The phone chimed again. This time, it wasn't from Damian’s number. It was from an Unknown Number.
There was no text. Just a photograph attached.
Chloe tapped the screen to open the image. It was a high-resolution, clear photograph of me, Margaret Miller, standing in the driveway of my own house. The timestamp on the image showed it had been taken less than five minutes ago, just as the sun was beginning to rise.
Beneath the photo, a single line of text appeared:
Damian isn’t the one you should fear.
Robert leaped from his chair and rushed to the front window, pulling back the heavy curtains. I ran up behind him, my heart hammering against my ribs.
May you like
Down the street, parked halfway under the shadow of an oak tree, a black SUV with tinted windows slowly pulled away from the curb, its tires rolling silently over the wet asphalt.
“Mom…” Chloe whispered behind us, her voice hollow with absolute terror. “I know that car.”
