Chapter 5 - The Card With No Limit.
Nora grabbed Skyley and pulled her below the window.
The intruder ran across the orchard with the stolen file tucked beneath one arm.
Skyley chased him before fear could catch her.
Branches tore at her cardigan as she closed the distance.
The man jumped the stone wall and landed beside a waiting motorcycle.
Skyley saw a silver phoenix stitched across his black glove.
He sped away before Nora reached the road.
"Phoenix Restoration," Skyley said.
"We still have the photographs I scanned," Nora replied.
They returned to the cottage and called Officer Ortiz.
Skyley finally opened her mother's envelope while they waited.
The letter contained only one handwritten sentence.
If Graham ever asks for the ring, run before you answer.
Graham Hale was Skyley's uncle, her late mother's older brother, and chairman of Hale Hearth.
He had guided Skyley through the company after her grandmother's death.
He had also introduced her to Ethan.
Nora read the warning twice.
"Did your uncle know about the key?"
"He designed the company's first vault system."
They inserted the metal strip into an old Hale Hearth card reader stored in the safe.
The cottage computer awakened and requested a second credential.
Skyley placed the black premium card against the reader.
The screen filled with archived company ledgers hidden from the modern network.
Her mother had created a dormant forensic account before her death.
Every charge made through the black card had been mirrored into it without Ethan's knowledge.
The card had never been unlimited.
It had been bait.
Skyley found transfers from Ethan to Dr. Vale, Phoenix Restoration, and a private investigator who had followed her for fourteen months.
There were also monthly payments approved by G. Hale.
"Your uncle financed the fraud," Nora said.
"Or someone used his credentials."
Skyley wanted the second possibility to be true.
The archive held one more folder labeled ASH PROTOCOL.
Beside it sat surveillance photographs of Skyley entering physical therapy, meeting surgeons, and crying alone in her parked car.
Each image had been labeled with judgments such as unstable, isolated, or camera ready.
The men were not simply tracking her recovery.
They were selecting moments that could be used to redefine it.
Skyley copied the photographs into a folder named EVIDENCE and refused to look away.
It required a password.
Skyley typed 4:17, her mother's initials, and every family date she remembered.
Nothing worked.
Officer Ortiz arrived and examined the broken window.
"The motorcycle was captured at a traffic light."
She showed them a blurred image of the rider.
A dark blue cuff was visible beneath his jacket.
It matched the shirt Ethan had been wearing that morning.
Skyley shook her head.
"He could not have reached the cottage that quickly."
"Then he has help," Ortiz said.
The computer emitted a sharp tone.
Someone inside Hale Hearth was remotely attempting to erase the dormant archive.
Skyley placed the black card against the reader again and blocked the deletion.
The screen displayed the identity of the person fighting her for control.
Chairman Graham Hale was logged in from the kitchen of Skyley's house.
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ONE HOUR TO VACATE | DOMESTIC SUSPENSE
