Daniel's POV
"Stop the video." My hand slammed down on Maya's laptop, closing it before Emma could finish her sentence.
The person who's going to kill me is already inside our house.
Inside our house. Someone I trusted. Someone Emma trusted.
My mind raced through possibilities. The housekeeper? The gardener? James?
No. Not James. He'd been with our family since before Emma was born.
"Daniel—" Maya reached for the laptop.
"Don't." I stood, my whole body shaking with rage I could barely contain. "We're not watching the rest. Not until I figure out who—"
"Who what? Who's the traitor?" Maya stood too, getting in my face despite being a foot shorter. "That's exactly why we need to watch it now. Emma was about to tell us who killed her."
"And what if it's someone in this room?" The words came out harsher than I meant.
Maya flinched. James went very still by the door.
"You think I killed your sister?" Maya's voice went deadly quiet. "I didn't even know she existed until I found her body."
"Not you. But someone close to me. Someone I trust." I looked at James. "Someone who has access to everything."
James met my eyes without flinching. "If you're accusing me, just say it."
The words stuck in my throat. James had been my father's best friend. He'd stood beside me at my parents' funeral. He'd taught Emma how to ride a bike. He'd been there for every birthday, every Christmas, every terrible moment when I thought I couldn't do this alone.
But Emma had said the killer was already inside our house.
"I'm not accusing anyone," I said finally. "But we're not watching that video with anyone else present. Maya and I. Alone. That's final."
"That's stupid," Maya shot back. "We need James's help—"
"We need to stay alive." I grabbed the laptop. "For all we know, Emma's email was hacked. That video could be a trap. Or someone could be tracking it, waiting to see who watches it so they can eliminate us too."
Maya's eyes narrowed. "Or you're scared of what Emma's going to say. Scared she'll name someone you love. So you'd rather hide from the truth than face it."
Her words hit like a punch to the gut.
"I raised Emma from the time she was three years old." My voice came out cold, controlled, everything I needed it to be. "I gave up college, friends, any chance at a normal life. I built my entire empire around keeping her safe. And I failed." The ice cracked. "So don't you dare tell me I'm hiding from the truth. I've been drowning in it since the moment I saw her body."
Silence filled the room.
Maya's expression softened slightly. "I'm sorry. That was unfair."
"Yes. It was." I turned to James. "Leave us. Go to the youth center. Find those pictures Emma hid. I'll handle Maya and the video."
"Daniel—"
"That's an order."
James's jaw tightened, but he nodded. "You have one hour before that lunch meeting. Don't waste it fighting." He looked at Maya. "Keep him alive. He's too stubborn to do it himself."
He left, closing the door quietly behind him.
The moment we were alone, Maya snatched the laptop from my hands.
"Hey—"
"My laptop. My rules." She opened it again, finger hovering over the play button. "We're watching this. Together. Right now. And if you try to stop me, I'm walking out that door and you can solve your sister's murder alone."
"You already agreed to take the case—"
"I can un-agree." Her eyes flashed. "I've had enough of men telling me what I can and can't do. Enough of being controlled and manipulated and treated like I'm too weak or stupid to handle the truth. So here's how this is going to work: We're equal partners. That means equal say in every decision. You don't give me orders. I don't take your money and shut up. We work together or we don't work at all."
Every instinct I had screamed to maintain control. To manage this situation the way I managed everything else in my life—with money, authority, and absolute command.
But looking at Maya—her jaw set, her eyes burning with the same fierce determination Emma had shown—I realized something.
Control was what got Emma killed.
I'd controlled every aspect of her life, thinking it would keep her safe. Private schools. Security. Limited freedom. And she'd still ended up dead on those rocks because I'd been too busy controlling things in Tokyo to notice she was in danger.
"Fine," I said. "Equal partners."
"Really?" Maya looked suspicious. "Just like that?"
"Just like that." I sat back down on the bed. "But I have conditions."
"Of course you do."
"First: You don't take unnecessary risks. If something feels wrong, you walk away. I can't—" My voice caught. "I can't lose someone else."
Maya's expression softened. "Okay."
"Second: Total honesty. No secrets. If you find something that implicates someone I care about, you tell me immediately. Even if you think it'll hurt me."
"Agreed."
"Third: You let me use my resources to help you. Money, connections, whatever you need. I know you don't want to be bought, but Emma deserves every advantage we can give her."
Maya was quiet for a moment. "As long as the resources don't come with strings attached."
"No strings. Just—" I met her eyes. "Just bring my sister's killer to justice. That's all I want."
She nodded slowly. "Then we have a deal."
She pressed play on Emma's video.
My sister's face appeared again, continuing where we'd left off.
"The person who's going to kill me is already inside our house. I don't know which one yet. But I've narrowed it down to three people."
My blood went cold.
"First possibility: James Lin. He's been acting weird lately. Taking phone calls he won't explain. Leaving the house at odd hours. I think someone might be blackmailing him. I found a letter in his room—yes, I snooped, don't tell Daniel—that said 'Pay what you owe or everyone finds out what you did.' I don't know what that means, but it scared me."
Maya and I exchanged looks. James had a secret. Something big enough to be blackmailed over.
"Second possibility: Carmen. My grandmother. I know how that sounds, but hear me out. She's been asking weird questions about Daniel's business. Specifically about his offshore accounts and cryptocurrency holdings. She said she's writing a memoir and wants to include details about how Daniel built his empire. But why would she need to know about hidden money? Unless she's planning something. Or someone is using her to get to Daniel's accounts."
My grandmother. My rock. The woman who'd held our family together after our parents died.
"Third possibility—" Emma's voice dropped to a whisper. "Brian Reeves. Maya's brother. He's been doing construction work on properties owned by Mayor Victoria. But I saw him meeting with Victoria's security team late at night. Saw them handing him envelopes full of cash. He's involved in whatever Victoria is doing. And if he's involved, that means he might know I've been investigating. Which means he might—"
The video distorted. Pixelated. Then went black.
"No!" Maya grabbed the laptop, frantically trying to restart the video. "Come on, come on—"
The screen showed an error message: FILE CORRUPTED.
"It's gone." Maya's voice was hollow. "The rest of the video is gone."
We stared at each other, the weight of Emma's words crushing us.
James, Carmen, or Brian.
One of them was a traitor. One of them might have killed Emma.
"Brian," Maya whispered. "Emma said Brian's involved with Victoria. That he takes cash payments. That he might have known she was investigating."
"It doesn't mean he killed her—"
"But it means he's not a victim. He's a willing participant." Maya's hands shook. "He warned me to leave town. Showed up at my door terrified. I thought he was trying to protect me. But what if he was trying to get rid of me before I discovered the truth about him?"
I wanted to comfort her. Wanted to say her brother was innocent.
But I couldn't. Not when my own grandmother and James were also suspects.
"We can't trust anyone," I said. "Not until we know which one Emma was talking about."
"The lunch meeting." Maya stood abruptly. "We still have to go. Victoria has Brian and Zoe. Whatever my brother's done, I can't let him die."
"If Brian's the traitor, saving him might get us killed."
"And if he's innocent, letting him die makes me as bad as the people who killed Emma." Maya's eyes blazed. "I won't abandon family. No matter what."
I understood that. I'd spent seventeen years refusing to abandon Emma, even when it cost me everything.
"Then we go," I said. "But carefully. We assume everyone is lying until we have proof otherwise."
Maya nodded. "What about the pictures at the youth center? If James finds them—"
"If James is the traitor, he'll destroy them. If he's innocent, he'll bring them to us." I pulled out my phone. "Either way, we'll know the truth soon."
My phone rang before I could pocket it. Carmen's number.
I answered on speaker. "Grandmother?"
"Daniel." Her voice was shaking—something I'd never heard before. "Don't come to the lunch meeting. It's a trap. Victoria knows about Emma's video. She knows you're close to figuring everything out. She's planning to—"
A crash. The sound of something breaking.
"Grandmother?"
Different voice now. Male. Cold.
"Hello, Daniel. This is Marcus Webb. You might have heard of me—I'm the detective who destroyed Maya's life in Los Angeles. I'm looking forward to destroying yours too." His laugh made my skin crawl. "Your grandmother is very brave. She actually tried to fight me. Seventy years old and she nearly broke my nose with that cane of hers."
"If you hurt her—"
"You'll what? Call the police? I am the police. Or at least, I was." Marcus's voice went hard. "Here's what's going to happen. You and Maya are going to come to the yacht club. Alone. Unarmed. You're going to hand over every copy of Emma's videos. And then you're going to get on a boat with us and sail out to where the ocean is nice and deep."
"And if we refuse?"
"Then I start killing your loved ones. One every hour. Starting with dear old grandmother. Then Maya's friend Zoe. Then her brother Brian. Then maybe I'll go find your housekeeper, your gardener, everyone who's ever meant anything to either of you." He paused. "You have thirty minutes. The clock's ticking."
The call ended.
Maya and I stared at each other.
"It's over," she whispered. "They have everyone. They've won."
"No." I stood, my mind racing through options. "They think they've won. But they're missing one thing."
"What?"
"Emma's pictures. The actual evidence. If James finds them, we have leverage. We can trade the pictures for the hostages."
"And if James is the traitor?"
Then we were all dead. But I didn't say that.
My phone buzzed. Text from James: "Found the pictures. You need to see this. Get to the youth center now."
Relief flooded through me. James was innocent. He'd found the evidence.
We rushed to the door.
Maya grabbed my arm. "Daniel, wait. What if this is another trap? What if Marcus took James's phone and sent that text to lure us out?"
She was right to be suspicious. But we were out of options.
"Then we walk into the trap together," I said. "And we fight our way out."
We ran down the stairs and into the parking lot. My car was right where I'd left it.
Except the tires were slashed. All four of them.
"No, no, no—" Maya pulled out her phone to call for help.
A van pulled up. Side door sliding open.
James stumbled out, blood streaming down his face, hands zip-tied behind his back.
And holding a gun to his head was Brian Reeves.
"Hey, sis." Brian's voice was dead. Empty. "Get in the van. Both of you. Or I blow James's brains all over this parking lot."
Maya went white. "Brian, what are you doing?"
"What I should have done the day you arrived in town." Brian's hand shook, but the gun stayed steady. "Getting rid of the problem before it gets rid of me."
He was the traitor. Emma had been right.
And now he had us cornered with no way out.