Chapter 77 - Project Return
The folder contained hundreds of pages.
Construction contracts.
International employment records.
Property surveys.
Psychological evaluations.
Most had already become familiar during the investigation.
But now they appeared arranged into a timeline.
Samuel spread the documents across the table.
One date appeared again and again.
The month Daniel accepted the overseas contract.
Elias pointed to it.
"Everyone assumes that was the beginning."
"It wasn't."
He turned back twelve more pages.
Another date.
Eighteen months earlier.
"What happened then?" Daniel asked.
Elias slid a photograph across the table.
It showed Daniel's father meeting privately with Victor Hayes.
The location stamp read:
Blackstone Quarry
Daniel looked stunned.
"My father never told me he knew Victor."
"He wasn't supposed to."
Elias continued.
"Your father discovered someone had begun searching for something beneath Carter land."
"He asked Victor to help hide it."
"So Victor was protecting us?"
"Yes."
"For a while."
Daniel frowned.
"What changed?"
Elias remained silent for several seconds.
"Your father became ill."
"He realized he wouldn't live long enough to finish what he had started."
"So he created another plan."
Daniel's heartbeat slowed.
"What plan?"
Elias looked directly into his eyes.
"He decided the safest place for you..."
May you like
"...was on the other side of the world."
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