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Part 4 — The Truth My Wife Had Been Hiding
I stared at my wife.
“You’re telling me someone is hunting my brother?”
She nodded.
Daniel tried to sit up, but his strength disappeared almost immediately.
My anger came rushing back.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
My wife wiped her tears.
“Because Daniel begged me not to.”
I looked at my brother.
“Is that true?”
He nodded.
Then he told me what had happened.
Years ago, Daniel had gotten involved with the wrong people. Drugs, debts, and people who promised him easy money had nearly destroyed his life.
But before he disappeared, he had discovered something he wasn’t supposed to know.
He had seen a drug deal involving someone connected to a powerful local businessman.
Daniel had secretly recorded part of it.
Then someone found out.
“They wanted the recording,” Daniel whispered.
“Who?”
He looked at my wife.
She answered for him.
“The man who has been threatening him.”
My heart started pounding.
“Who is he?”
Daniel stared at me.
Then he said a name that made me feel sick.
My wife’s former boss.
The same man who had been trying to buy the property where we lived.
The same man I had trusted enough to discuss my family’s financial problems with.
I stepped backward.
Suddenly, all those strange things that had happened over the past year started making sense.
The anonymous phone calls.
The car that had followed me home twice.
The strange man I’d seen sitting outside our neighborhood.
I had thought I was imagining things.
I wasn’t.
Then my wife grabbed my hand.
“There’s something else.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
She pulled a small phone from her coat pocket.
“This is Daniel’s.”
She pressed play.
A man’s voice came through the speaker.
“You have until Thursday. After that, I’m done waiting.”
My stomach dropped.
“Thursday?”
My wife nodded.
“That’s why I come here every Thursday.”
I looked at the calendar hanging on the wall.
It was Thursday.
My eyes moved toward the window.
A black SUV was parked across the street.
And suddenly the man inside turned his head.
He was looking directly at the house.
My wife grabbed my arm.
“That’s him.”
I felt every muscle in my body tighten.
“Stay here,” I whispered.
My wife looked terrified.
“Where are you going?”
I reached for my keys.
“To find out why he’s been watching us.”
But before I could reach the door, Daniel suddenly shouted from the bedroom.
“DON’T GO OUT THERE!”
I turned around.
His face had gone completely pale.
Then he pointed toward the window.
“That’s not the man who’s been following us.”
I looked back at the SUV.
Daniel whispered something that made my blood run cold.
“That’s the man who was supposed to be dead.”
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