Chapter 1 - The Luggage Search
I thought nothing could hurt more than watching my mother’s coffin being lowered into the cold earth.
Then my brother Emilio arrived at the reception with his wife Clarissa.
Both of them were dragging heavy suitcases across the marble floor.
Both were sporting deep tans, looking like they had just returned from somewhere warm and incredibly expensive.
He told us there had been heavy traffic on the highway.
Dad did not believe him for a single second.
He immediately noticed the bright yellow airline tag securely fastened to Emilio's luggage.
Then Dad looked sadly out the window toward the cemetery where my mother was buried.
"Where were you?" Dad asked, his voice trembling with a terrifying rage.
Emilio went completely silent and stared at his expensive shoes.
Clarissa could not even look up to meet our eyes.
Dad stepped forward and slapped Emilio fiercely across the face.
The entire reception room froze in absolute shock.
But the worst part was not that they had missed the funeral.
It was the exact tropical destination where they had been hiding.
Because that destination was connected to something my mother had been secretly investigating before she suddenly died.
And when Dad realized where the airline tag was from, his anger turned into something much darker.
He ordered his armed security men to forcefully search their luggage.
The guards ripped the suitcases open, scattering clothes across the floor.
But beneath the expensive silk shirts was a false bottom made of reinforced steel.
A guard pried it open with a combat knife.
Inside were dozens of encrypted hard drives and a detailed map of a private Caribbean island.
It was the exact same island where my mother supposedly drowned in a tragic boating accident.
Dad picked up a printed photograph that had fallen from the hidden compartment.
He turned completely pale and dropped the picture onto the floor.
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I looked down and saw my mother standing on a white sand beach.
The digital timestamp on the photograph was from yesterday morning.
