Chapter 17: The Truth Cole Hid

The police arrived before Cole could answer me.

The detective immediately separated us and began asking questions.

I kept thinking about Wes's final words.

"The original plan wasn't to protect you."

Cole had spent five months telling me that every cruel thing he did was for my safety.

Now I wasn't sure I believed any of it.

After the detective finished speaking with Nathan and Elise, he approached me.

"Ms. Mara, we found something in the station."

"What?"

He handed me a small envelope.

My name was written across the front in my father's handwriting.

I stared at it.

"Where did you find this?"

"Inside a locked compartment beneath the old ticket counter."

My hands trembled as I opened it.

There was only one letter inside.

"Mara, if you're reading this, then the people I trusted have failed you."

My eyes filled with tears.

"I need you to know that the financial scandal was never an accident. Someone deliberately destroyed my reputation because I discovered what they were doing."

I continued reading.

"Do not trust anyone who tells you they are protecting you. The person closest to you may be the one who benefits most from your silence."

I slowly lowered the letter.

Cole was standing several feet away.

He looked at me with an expression I couldn't read.

The letter continued.

"There is one person I believe can keep you safe, but only if he finally chooses the truth over his fear."

At the bottom was a name.

Cole.

My heart stopped.

I looked up at him.

"You knew about this letter?"

Cole shook his head.

"No."

"Then why did my father mention you?"

Cole stepped closer.

"Because your father asked me to protect you years ago."

I stared at him.

"Years ago?"

"Before he died."

The pieces inside my head began falling into place.

Cole had known my father.

He had known about Richard.

He had known there was evidence.

And instead of telling me, he had built an entire lie around me.

"What else did you hide?"

Cole closed his eyes.

"Everything."

My chest tightened.

"Tell me."

"Your father's death wasn't caused by the financial scandal."

I couldn't breathe.

"What are you saying?"

"He was killed."

The world seemed to stop.

For eight years, I had believed my father had died after losing everything.

Now I was being told that someone had deliberately taken his life.

"Who?"

Cole looked toward Richard's empty seat in the police vehicle.

"We don't know yet."

"But you suspected Richard."

"Yes."

"And you still worked with him?"

"I was trying to get evidence."

I shook my head.

"You should have trusted me."

"I know."

Elise walked toward us.

"Mara, there is one more thing."

I turned to her.

"What?"

She handed me a second photograph.

It showed my father standing beside Cole when Cole was much younger.

On the back was a date.

The day before my father's death.

Beneath it were six words.

"He told Cole who betrayed him."

I looked at Cole.

"Who?"

His face became completely pale.

"My father."

I stared at him in shock.

The man I had loved for six years had just revealed that his own father might have been connected to the death of mine.