Chapter 3: The Last Recording
964 Words
The drive home felt endless.
Rain streaked across the taxi window as the city lights blurred into golden smears.
Aria sat in silence, Damien’s business card tucked into one hand and the silver flash drive clutched tightly in the other.
Her father’s flash drive.
She had searched for it after his death.
The police had never found it.
His office had been emptied.
His belongings had mysteriously disappeared.
And now…
It had resurfaced in Damien Ashford’s possession.
Nothing made sense anymore.
Her phone vibrated.
St. Catherine’s Hospital
She answered immediately.
“Miss Bennett?”
“Yes.”
“We’ve managed to stabilise your mother for now.”
Aria closed her eyes in relief.
“But she’ll need surgery soon.”
“How long do I have?”
There was a brief pause.
“Seven days.”
Her heart sank.
“The estimated cost is two hundred thousand pounds.”
She whispered a quiet thank you before ending the call.
Seven days.
She didn’t even have a tenth of that amount.
Her eyes drifted to Damien’s business card.
No.
She wasn’t ready.
Not yet.
She needed answers first.
⸻
An hour later, Aria unlocked the door to her tiny apartment.
The room was barely large enough for a sofa, a narrow bed, and a small wooden desk.
She switched on the light and carefully placed the flash drive on the desk.
It looked exactly as she remembered.
Silver.
Scratched around the edges.
Her father’s initials engraved on one side.
T.B.
Her fingers trembled as she plugged it into her ageing laptop.
The screen remained blank.
Then a password request appeared.
Biometric verification required.
She frowned.
“My father’s fingerprint?”
She remembered what Damien had said.
A family DNA match.
She searched the drawer until she found an old envelope containing one of her father’s hairbrushes she had kept after his death.
It sounded ridiculous.
But she had nothing to lose.
The drive came with a small authentication pad.
She carefully placed a strand of hair onto the scanner.
For several tense seconds…
Nothing happened.
Then—
ACCESS GRANTED
Aria gasped.
Folders began appearing one after another.
Financial records.
Company reports.
Emails.
Contracts.
Hundreds of files.
But one folder immediately caught her attention.
LAST RECORDING
She hesitated.
Then double-clicked it.
The video opened.
Static filled the screen before the image slowly came into focus.
Her father appeared.
Thomas Bennett.
His normally neat hair was untidy.
Dark circles shadowed his tired eyes.
His white shirt was stained with blood near the shoulder.
He looked over his shoulder several times before speaking.
“If you’re watching this…”
He took a shaky breath.
“…then I was right.”
Aria’s hand flew to her mouth.
Tears blurred her vision.
“Dad…”
Thomas forced a weak smile.
“Aria… sweetheart…”
“I’m sorry.”
“I wasn’t able to protect you.”
She began crying silently.
“I know they’ll call me a thief.”
“They’ll say I committed fraud.”
“They’ll tell the world I betrayed my partners.”
He shook his head.
“I didn’t.”
“I swear to you…”
“I didn’t.”
The recording crackled.
Thomas glanced nervously toward the office door.
“They’re coming.”
His breathing became uneven.
“You have to listen carefully.”
“It wasn’t Ashford Group.”
Aria froze.
“It was someone…”
“…inside Ashford Group.”
Her heartbeat quickened.
“I found documents proving someone had been stealing company funds for years.”
“They needed a scapegoat.”
“They chose me.”
The camera shook violently.
A loud bang echoed somewhere beyond the office.
Thomas looked terrified.
“They know I have the evidence.”
“If anything happens to me…”
“…don’t stop searching.”
Another loud crash.
Someone was trying to force the office door open.
Thomas quickly reached toward the camera.
“There’s one person you must never—”
The video distorted.
Static covered the screen.
“No…”
Aria whispered desperately.
The image flickered back for a single second.
Her father’s face filled the screen.
His voice came through in broken fragments.
“Don’t trust…”
The screen glitched again.
“…Victor…”
The recording ended.
Silence.
Aria stared blankly at the black screen.
Victor.
Victor Ashford.
Damien’s uncle.
The name echoed endlessly inside her mind.
She quickly replayed the recording.
The file refused to open.
Instead, a message appeared.
FILE CORRUPTED
“What?”
She clicked again.
Nothing.
Again.
Nothing.
The recording had disappeared.
“No…”
Panic surged through her.
She searched every folder.
The video was gone.
Completely erased.
Her breathing became frantic.
“That’s impossible.”
A sudden notification flashed across her laptop.
Remote Access Detected
Someone else was inside her computer.
Before she could react, file after file began deleting itself.
Financial records.
Emails.
Contracts.
Everything.
“No!”
She frantically unplugged the flash drive.
The laptop screen went black.
The room fell into complete silence.
Aria’s heart pounded violently against her chest.
Someone had known the drive had been opened.
Someone was watching.
Her phone rang.
An unknown number.
With trembling fingers, she answered.
“Hello?”
A distorted male voice spoke.
“You should have left the past buried.”
Her blood ran cold.
“Who are you?”
“You’ve already heard too much.”
The line crackled.
Then the voice whispered one final sentence.
“If you value your mother’s life…”
“…stay away from Victor Ashford.”
The call ended.
At that exact moment—
Someone knocked three times on her apartment door.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Aria wasn’t expecting anyone.
She slowly looked toward the door, her pulse hammering in her ears.
Then the doorknob began to turn.
- Writer
- chap_listContents
- likeADD