Chapter 5 - The Hidden Drive
The words on the legal document blurred as my eyes filled with furious tears.
My grandfather had always hated Preston’s greed and saw the darkness in him long before anyone else.
He had tried to protect Sophie by leaving the fortune entirely to her.
But his protective gesture had turned my innocent daughter into a sixty-million-dollar target.
Preston and David had conspired to frame Sophie for theft and frame me for child abuse.
If they succeeded, I would go to prison, David would get custody, and Preston would steal the fortune.
I asked Chloe why she was risking her own life to give me this classified information.
She looked down at her hands and confessed that she was pregnant.
Chloe said she could never allow a man like Preston to raise her unborn child after seeing what he did to Sophie.
She wanted out of the marriage, but she knew the family would destroy her if she just filed for divorce.
I told her that none of this mattered because the corrupt police had already destroyed the CCTV footage.
Chloe offered a small, defiant smile and reached back into her expensive purse.
She pulled out a small, silver USB flash drive and placed it gently on the table.
She explained that she had paid the hotel's security guard ten thousand dollars to make a backup copy before the police arrived.
This drive held the crystal-clear, unedited video of David and Preston planting the phone.
I grabbed the drive, feeling a massive surge of hope for the first time in hours.
With this evidence, I could expose the corrupt detective, destroy David’s custody claim, and send Preston to prison.
I thanked Chloe and promised to help her escape the family once the dust settled.
We stood up to leave the cafeteria through separate exits to avoid suspicion.
Suddenly, the heavy double doors of the cafeteria slammed shut and locked from the outside.
David stepped out from behind the vending machines, holding a heavy steel crowbar in his hand.
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He looked at the flash drive in my hand and smiled like a predator cornering its prey.
David told us he had tracked the GPS on Chloe’s phone because he never trusted her.
