ONE MONTH WITH THE DEVIL

Chapter 36

The message glowed on my phone screen.

I answer to someone higher than Charles.

I stared at the words for a moment. The message was frightening, but I refused to let fear control me. I took a deep breath and placed my phone face down on the kitchen table.

"We're not running from shadows anymore," I said firmly. "We're going to focus on the evidence we have."

Maya pulled her laptop closer and placed it in the middle of the table.

"Then let's find out what your dad left behind. We should start with the USB drive."

I took the small device from my pocket and connected it to the laptop.

Several folders appeared on the screen. They were neatly arranged and labeled with dates and names. Whoever had organized them had been careful to keep everything in order.

I clicked on the folder marked Final Report.

Inside were scanned financial records, email conversations, and pictures of handwritten ledger pages. My heart began to race as I opened the files and started reading.

The more I read, the harder it became to believe what I was seeing.

"Charles wasn't just greedy," I whispered. "He was secretly selling company assets. He'd been doing it for years."

I opened another document and compared the figures with the records in the previous file.

"My dad discovered the missing money and started collecting evidence. He recorded every transaction and kept copies of the emails. Look at these bank transfers. The dates match the emails, and the amounts match the missing money."

I swallowed hard as I looked at the screen.

"This is real proof. Everything is here."

Victor leaned closer to the laptop.

"Then look at this," he said, pointing at a name that appeared repeatedly in the email conversations.

"J.M. School Bursar."

I frowned.

"Who is that?"

Maya's expression changed as she read the name.

"James Mercer," she said slowly. "He's been working at Evergreen High for years. He was already here when your father attended the school."

She turned toward me.

"He handles the school's finances, including tuition payments and scholarships. He has access to students' financial records and information about who receives financial assistance."

My stomach tightened.

"Are you saying he's the reason my scholarship was taken away?"

"It would explain a lot," Maya replied. "If Charles has been using him to get information from inside the school, then your scholarship might never have been safe."

I looked back at the screen, trying to make sense of everything.

"So it wasn't a random decision. James could have helped Charles interfere with my scholarship because he knew how much it meant to me."

"Exactly," Maya said. "He knows which students need financial help and which ones could be easily pressured. If he's been working with Charles, then he's been giving him access to information he shouldn't have."

I leaned back in my chair.

All this time, I'd thought my scholarship had been taken away because of a mistake or some unfair decision. I'd never imagined that someone inside the school could have been working against me.

Charles had known about my financial situation. He knew how badly I needed that scholarship, and he'd used that knowledge to put pressure on me.

"He wanted me to feel trapped," I whispered. "He knew I'd be afraid of losing my future."

Victor reached across the table and gently squeezed my hand.

"He's been using your fears against you, Lara. But now we know more about what he's been doing."

I nodded, although my mind was still racing.

We continued searching through the folders. There were more financial records, copies of emails, and documents that showed how Charles had moved money between different accounts.

Then I noticed a file near the bottom of the list.

It was an audio recording.

The date caught my attention immediately.

It had been recorded exactly one week before my father was admitted to the hospital.

My breath caught in my throat.

"That's Dad's voice," I whispered.

Victor looked at me.

"Are you sure?"

I nodded.

"I know his voice."

My fingers trembled slightly as I clicked on the recording.

For a moment, there was only silence. Then I heard a familiar voice come through the laptop speakers.

My father's voice.

He sounded tired, but there was still strength in his words.

"If you're listening to this, then I'm gone."

My eyes filled with tears.

I pressed my lips together and forced myself to keep listening.

"Charles didn't act alone. He had a partner. Someone who provided money for the deals and protected him whenever things went wrong."

My heart began to pound.

My father paused briefly before continuing.

"That person isn't someone you'd expect. It's not someone you fear. It's someone you trust."

I felt a chill run through me.

"And they've been waiting for me to disappear for a very long time."

The recording stopped.

Nobody spoke.

The room became so quiet that I could hear the faint sound of the laptop fan.

I stared at the screen, hoping there was more to the recording. Maybe another sentence. Maybe a name that would explain everything.

But the file had ended.

Maya was the first to speak.

"Who could he be talking about?"

I shook my head slowly.

"I don't know."

My father's words kept repeating in my mind.

Someone you trust.

Who had been close enough to him to know about Charles's activities? Who had helped Charles while pretending to be on my father's side?

I reached for Dad's notebook, which lay beside the laptop.

"There might be something else in here," I said.

I turned through the pages carefully, checking the entries I'd already read. Most contained dates, names, and notes about the company. Some were difficult to understand, but I recognized several details from the documents on the USB drive.

Then I reached the last entry.

I had looked at that page before, but I hadn't examined every word. The handwriting was shakier than usual, as though my father had been struggling to write.

I leaned closer.

There was a name written in the middle of the page.

It had been circled three times.

My breath stopped.

Dr. Elena Voss.

My mother.

Beneath her name were four words written in my father's shaky handwriting.

Not what she seems.

I stared at the words, unable to understand them.

Then the notebook slipped from my fingers and landed on the table. Its pages fluttered before falling still.

"No," I whispered.

Victor immediately turned toward me.

"Lara?"

I shook my head, refusing to believe what I had just read.

"No. This can't be right."

Victor looked down at the open notebook. His expression changed when he saw the name.

"Lara… your mother?"

I picked up the notebook again, my hands trembling.

"I don't understand," I said. "Why would Dad write that about her?"

My voice broke.

"She loved him. I know she did. She cried every night after he died. She could barely speak about him without breaking down."

Tears blurred my vision as I looked at the page again.

My mother had spent years trying to help me move forward after losing Dad. She had comforted me whenever I missed him and reminded me that he would always be part of our lives.

How could the same woman be connected to the secrets Dad had been trying to expose?

What if there was something about my own family that I had never known?

Victor moved closer to me.

"Maybe she did love him," he said gently.

I looked at him, confused.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not saying your mother is guilty of anything. We don't know the whole story yet. But your dad's words suggest that there's something about her we haven't discovered."

He glanced at the notebook before looking back at me.

"What if she knew about the deals? Not because she wanted to hurt your father, but because she was caught in the middle of something she couldn't control?"

I swallowed hard.

"Why wouldn't she tell me?"

"Maybe she was trying to protect you. Maybe Charles was threatening her, too. Or maybe there's another explanation entirely."

Victor paused.

"What if she's the person Charles has been protecting this whole time?"

Maya shook her head slowly.

"That would explain why your dad's recording said the person was someone you trusted. But we shouldn't jump to conclusions. We need to find out what really happened before accusing anyone."

I knew Maya was right, but that didn't make the pain in my chest disappear.

My father's notebook had raised questions I never imagined asking about my mother.

I wanted to believe there was a simple explanation. I wanted to believe Dad had written those words for a reason that had nothing to do with betrayal.

But I couldn't ignore the evidence.

I looked at the page one last time.

Dr. Elena Voss — not what she seems.

My phone suddenly buzzed on the table.

The sound made me jump.

I turned toward it, hoping it was a message from someone who could explain what was happening. But when I picked it up, my heart began to race again.

There was a new message.

No phone number appeared on the screen. No name. Nothing to show who had sent it.

Just one sentence.

I read it once.

Then I read it again, unable to believe the words in front of me.

My hands went cold.

"What's wrong?" Victor asked.

I couldn't answer.

I simply turned the phone toward him.

He read the message, and his face went pale.

Maya leaned closer to see it, then covered her mouth with her hand.

The message read:

Your mother didn't send me away, Lara. I came back because she asked me to. I've been here all along.

Dad.