CHAPTER 10 THE ORIGINAL FILE
CHAPTER 10
THE ORIGINAL FILE
The message from Margaret Prescott stayed on my screen long after the phone went dark.
YOU FOUND THE FILE.
BUT YOU HAVEN’T FOUND THE ORIGINAL.
AND WHEN YOU DO… YOU’LL UNDERSTAND WHY EMILY WAS CHOSEN.
Those words were not a threat.
Not exactly.
They were something more dangerous.
A challenge.
Margaret Prescott was confident.
Too confident.
She wanted me to search.
She wanted me to find something.
That meant one thing.
The original file was not just evidence.
It was the key to everything.
And Margaret believed that when I found it…
I would finally understand her plan.
At 0600 hours, I was back in Daniel’s office.
The walls were covered with documents.
Photos.
Timelines.
Connections.
The Prescott empire was slowly becoming a map.
A map of lies.
Daniel looked exhausted.
“You didn’t sleep.”
“Neither did you.”
He gave a small smile.
“Fair point.”
I placed my phone on the table.
“She wants us to find it.”
Daniel read the message.
His expression changed.
“That’s strange.”
“Why?”
“Because people usually hide evidence.”
“Exactly.”
He looked at the screen again.
“She’s not afraid of us finding the original.”
“No.”
I looked at him.
“She’s afraid of us misunderstanding it.”
We started with the question nobody had answered.
Why Emily?
Not why Ethan married her.
Why the Prescott family targeted her.
There were thousands of wealthy families.
Thousands of influential people.
Why choose the daughter of a military colonel?
Daniel pulled up records.
“Your family history.”
I frowned.
“My family?”
“Yes.”
“I already know my family history.”
“Not this part.”
He turned the laptop toward me.
A genealogy report.
Old documents.
Military records.
I scanned the information.
Then I saw it.
A name.
Thomas Hart.
My grandfather.
“What about him?”
Daniel pointed.
“Your grandfather worked with federal intelligence during the Cold War.”
I stared at him.
“I know he served.”
“But you didn’t know the full extent.”
I looked closer.
Documents.
Classified references.
Old projects.
“What does this have to do with Emily?”
Daniel hesitated.
“That’s what we need to find out.”
Later that day, Claire returned.
She looked more nervous than before.
That immediately caught my attention.
“What happened?”
She closed the door behind her.
“They know I’m helping you.”
The room went silent.
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did they contact you?”
She nodded.
“What did they say?”
Claire looked down.
“They told me I was making the same mistake again.”
“Same mistake?”
“Yes.”
I studied her.
“What happened before?”
Claire took a breath.
“The last person who tried to expose Margaret disappeared.”
My expression hardened.
“Who?”
Claire hesitated.
“Her name was Anna Whitmore.”
“Your sister?”
Claire nodded.
The answer surprised me.
“She worked for Margaret before me.”
“What happened?”
“She found something.”
“What?”
“The original archive.”
The room became silent.
Finally.
A connection.
“Where is Anna now?”
Claire looked away.
“She’s dead.”
Nobody spoke.
Daniel leaned forward.
“What happened?”
“Car accident.”
I noticed Claire’s expression.
“You don’t believe that.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Anna was terrified of driving.”
A pause.
“And because the night before she died, she called me.”
“What did she say?”
Claire closed her eyes.
“She said…”
Her voice shook.
“She said Margaret Prescott had spent years building a weapon.”
“A weapon?”
“Yes.”
Claire looked at me.
“Not a physical one.”
She whispered:
“Information.”
That evening, we discovered the location of the original file.
Not through hacking.
Not through breaking into anything.
Through something much simpler.
A mistake.
The Prescott family had created thousands of documents.
But one person had labeled them all.
Claire.
She remembered the naming system.
The archive was hidden under a private foundation account.
A foundation that looked harmless.
A foundation that funded scholarships.
Medical research.
Community programs.
A foundation praised by politicians.
The Prescott Family Foundation.
The place everyone trusted.
The perfect hiding place.
We accessed the records legally through a court order.
And when the files appeared…
Nobody spoke.
There were thousands.
Names.
Photographs.
Reports.
Private information.
Everyone connected to the Prescott family.
But one folder stood out.
The oldest.
Created twenty years earlier.
The title:
PROJECT LEGACY
Daniel opened it.
Inside was the original file.
The first page was not about Emily.
It was about me.
SUBJECT: VICTORIA HART
I stared at my own name.
The file contained:
My military career.
My assignments.
My personality analysis.
My relationships.
My family.
My strengths.
My weaknesses.
Everything.
But then I saw something that made my blood run cold.
A section titled:
EMOTIONAL LEVERAGE
Under it:
Primary attachment: Daughter — Emily Hart
Assessment: Subject will compromise personal safety, career, and authority to protect daughter.
I closed my eyes.
They had studied me.
Not as a person.
As a target.
But there was more.
A second section.
PHASE TWO: MARRIAGE CONNECTION
Under it:
Objective: Establish long-term relationship with Hart family.
Method: Ethan Prescott marriage alliance.
My hands tightened.
They had planned Ethan’s relationship with Emily.
Then I saw the date.
The date made everyone freeze.
Twenty months before Ethan met Emily.
Daniel whispered:
“They planned this before they even knew her.”
Then we found the reason.
The final pages.
The pages Margaret never wanted anyone to see.
The reason Emily was chosen.
It was not because of my military rank.
Not because of my reputation.
Not because of influence.
It was because of something my grandfather left behind.
A hidden account.
A collection of documents.
Information that could expose powerful people across the country.
My grandfather had hidden it decades ago.
And somehow…
The Prescott family believed my family still had access to it.
Emily read the file that evening.
I watched her expression.
Confusion.
Pain.
Anger.
“They married me…”
She whispered.
“Because they thought I could lead them to something?”
I sat beside her.
“Yes.”
She covered her face.
“I was never a person to them.”
I immediately shook my head.
“No.”
She looked at me.
“That is what they wanted you to believe.”
I held her hand.
“But they were wrong about something.”
“What?”
“They thought your value came from what they wanted from you.”
A pause.
“They were wrong.”
That night, Margaret called.
I answered.
No greeting.
No introduction.
Just silence.
Then:
“You found it.”
“Yes.”
Another pause.
“You finally understand.”
“No.”
My voice was calm.
“I understand what you wanted.”
“And?”
I looked at Emily.
“She is still not yours.”
Margaret laughed softly.
“You think this ends with exposing me?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
I looked at the evidence.
The documents.
The names.
The people harmed.
“This ends when everyone knows the truth.”
Her voice became colder.
“You have no idea how many people are involved.”
“Then I’ll find them too.”
Silence.
Then Margaret whispered:
“You really are your father’s daughter.”
I froze.
“My father?”
“Yes.”
A pause.
“You still don’t know the whole story.”
The call ended.
I stared at the phone.
Because Margaret had just revealed something.
Something she did not mean to reveal.
She knew my family.
Not just my grandfather.
My father.
And suddenly I understood.
This was bigger than Emily.
Bigger than Ethan.
Bigger than the Prescott family.
The Prescott empire was connected to my own family history.
A secret had been buried for decades.
And now…
May you like
It was coming back.
END OF CHAPTER 10
