Episode5:THE TRUTH ABOUT HER FATHER
1175 Words
Marlow couldn't breathe.
The message remained on her screen.
Ask Ellis why your father really died.
She read it three times.
Her father.
A man she had spent years believing she understood.
A man whose death had always been explained with one simple sentence:
It was an accident.
Her eyes slowly lifted toward Ellis.
He was already watching her.
“You know something.”
It wasn't a question.
Ellis said nothing.
Marlow's voice shook.
“Why does that person think you know how my father died?”
Ellis's jaw tightened.
“Marlow, listen to me.”
“No.”
She stepped back.
“You've been lying to me from the beginning. You knew about me before we met. You knew things about my life that I never told you.”
“That isn't what you think.”
“Then tell me what I should think!”
Her voice echoed through the office.
The security team outside went silent.
Ellis walked toward her.
“Your father's death wasn't an accident.”
Everything inside Marlow stopped.
“What did you say?”
“He was investigating something.”
“What?”
“A financial operation involving several companies.”
Marlow stared at him.
“My father wasn't a businessman.”
“He was an accountant.”
“He worked for a small firm.”
“He worked for a company that was secretly moving money through shell corporations.”
Marlow shook her head.
“No.”
“I saw the files myself.”
“You're lying.”
“I wish I were.”
She backed away.
Memories came rushing back.
Her father's old office.
The locked drawer.
The phone calls he never explained.
The argument he'd had with someone two days before his death.
She had always thought they were meaningless pieces of a normal life.
Now they felt like clues.
“Why didn't anyone tell me?”
“Because you were never supposed to know.”
Marlow's eyes narrowed.
“Who is ‘they’?”
Ellis didn't answer.
“Ellis.”
He looked at her.
“The people responsible for your father's death.”
Her heart sank.
“You know who killed him?”
“I know who benefited from his death.”
“That isn't the same thing.”
“No.”
He paused.
“But it's where we start.”
---
They returned to the penthouse just before midnight.
Marlow sat on the sofa, staring at an old photograph of her father.
She had found it inside one of the boxes she'd kept since childhood.
Her father was smiling.
His arm was around her when she was six years old.
She remembered that day.
She remembered the park.
She remembered the ice cream he'd bought her.
She remembered him promising that nothing bad would ever happen to her.
A tear slipped down her cheek.
Ellis stood several feet away.
He didn't try to comfort her.
For some reason, that made her trust him a little more.
“Why did you choose me?”
His eyes met hers.
“You already know.”
“No.”
She wiped her cheek.
“I don't.”
Ellis walked toward her.
“Three years ago, my father died.”
Marlow looked up.
“I thought he died of a heart attack.”
“He did.”
“What does that have to do with me?”
“My father's final investigation was connected to your father's.”
She stared at him.
“They knew each other?”
“Yes.”
Marlow's pulse quickened.
“How?”
“I don't know everything yet.”
“Then why marry me?”
Ellis sat across from her.
“Because after my father's death, I found a file.”
“What file?”
“A list of people connected to the investigation.”
Marlow's stomach tightened.
“And my name was on it?”
“No.”
He held her gaze.
“Your father's name was.”
She slowly stood.
“What else was in the file?”
Ellis hesitated.
“What?”
“Your address.”
Her face went pale.
“My address?”
“It was listed as a protected location.”
Marlow stared at him.
“So someone was protecting me?”
“Someone was watching you.”
“Since when?”
Ellis didn't answer.
“Since when, Ellis?”
“Three years.”
Her knees nearly gave way.
Three years.
Someone had been watching her for three years.
And Ellis had known.
She turned away.
“I hate you.”
He accepted the words without defending himself.
“I know.”
“You should have told me.”
“I couldn't.”
“Why?”
“Because I didn't know who I could trust.”
Marlow turned back.
“And now?”
Ellis looked directly at her.
“Now I know I can trust you.”
Something shifted between them.
The anger didn't disappear.
Neither did the fear.
But for the first time, Marlow saw something beneath Ellis's cold exterior.
Fear.
Not for himself.
For her.
---
The next morning, Marlow woke to the sound of voices downstairs.
She stepped out of the bedroom.
Ellis was standing near the entrance.
Brielle was there.
Marlow immediately became tense.
“What is she doing here?”
Brielle looked at her.
“I came to warn you.”
Ellis stepped between them.
“You need to leave.”
Brielle ignored him.
“Your father didn't die because of an accident.”
Marlow froze.
“I know.”
Brielle's eyes widened.
“Then he told you?”
“Ellis did.”
Brielle looked at him.
“You shouldn't have.”
Ellis's expression hardened.
“You've already said too much.”
Brielle laughed bitterly.
“You still don't understand, do you?”
“Understand what?”
She looked at Marlow.
“Your husband isn't protecting you.”
Marlow frowned.
“Then what is he doing?”
Brielle's eyes moved back to Ellis.
“Keeping you close.”
Ellis stepped forward.
“Enough.”
Brielle smiled.
“You really haven't told her.”
Marlow's heart began pounding.
“Told me what?”
Brielle reached into her purse.
She pulled out another photograph.
This one was older.
Much older.
Marlow took it.
Her breath caught.
It showed her father standing beside Ellis's father.
And between them stood a young Ellis.
But that wasn't what shocked her.
In the background was another person.
A woman.
Celeste.
Marlow looked up.
“Why is Celeste in a photograph with my father?”
Ellis went completely still.
Brielle whispered,
“Because your families knew each other long before you ever met Ellis.”
Marlow looked at Ellis.
His silence was answer enough.
Then her phone buzzed.
Another unknown number.
You want the truth?
A second message appeared.
Ask Ellis who ordered your father's death.
Marlow looked up.
Ellis was already staring at her phone.
And for the first time, she wondered if the person she had married to save herself might be the same person she needed to fear.
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