Chapter 12 - The Missing File.
The technician checked the drive again.
One file had been deleted less than an hour earlier.
Its name was simple.
ELENA-WARD-FINAL.
Marcus looked at Damian.
"What was in it?"
Damian smiled.
"Something your sister would rather you never see."
Elena did not react.
"Recover it."
The technician warned that the file might be damaged, but fragments could remain.
As police officers arrived at the resort and formally took custody of Damian, Patricia, and Celeste, the recovery software began working.
Celeste did not resist.
Before she was escorted away, she stopped in front of Elena.
"I didn't mean for Ruby to go into the water."
Elena's expression did not change.
"You meant to frighten a child into silence."
Celeste looked down.
"I know."
"Then live with the truth of what you chose."
Marcus watched the woman he had planned to marry disappear through the doors.
He looked empty rather than angry.
Elena stayed beside him.
They did not speak until Ruby entered holding Tomas's hand.
The child looked toward the empty ballroom.
"Is the wedding still canceled?"
Marcus crouched.
"Yes."
Ruby touched his bow tie.
"Are you sad?"
Marcus swallowed.
"A little."
Ruby hugged him.
"You can be sad with us."
Marcus closed his eyes and held her.
The technician called Elena over.
"We recovered part of the deleted file."
It was not a bank record.
It was an audio recording dated six months after Sophia's death.
Elena's own voice played through the speaker.
"Marcus can never know. If he finds out what Sophia discovered, he will destroy the company trying to avenge her."
Marcus slowly stood.
Elena felt the room change.
The recording continued.
"I moved the remaining files out of his reach. I will take responsibility if I have to."
Then static swallowed the rest.
Marcus looked at Elena.
"You knew?"
"Not about Damian."
"But you knew Sophia had found fraud."
Elena nodded.
"I found one of her preliminary reports after the funeral."
Marcus's face hardened.
"And you hid it from me."
"You were barely functioning."
"That wasn't your decision to make."
"I was trying to keep you alive."
Marcus laughed without humor.
"So you protected me by letting the people who killed my sister stay inside my company?"
The accusation hurt because part of it was true.
Elena did not defend herself.
"I made the wrong choice."
Marcus stepped away.
"You made it for me."
Ruby watched both of them, frightened by the sudden coldness.
Elena lowered her voice.
"Not here."
Marcus looked at Ruby and stopped.
Later, after the child was asleep, he met Elena on the same pier where the wedding had ended.
The storm had passed.
Broken flowers floated in puddles between the boards.
"Tell me everything," Marcus said.
Elena did.
She told him she had found Sophia's notes, moved them to the island house, and hired a private investigator who disappeared after three weeks.
She had believed the trail had gone cold.
"Why didn't you tell me when Celeste entered my life?"
"Because I had no proof connecting her."
"You still suspected something."
Elena nodded.
"That's why we created code red."
Marcus stared at the dark water.
Then Elena's phone buzzed.
A message from the technician appeared.
MORE FILE RECOVERED.
She opened it.
One line from her old recording had returned.
May you like
A line Elena did not remember saying.
"If anything happens to Ruby, Marcus must never learn who her father really is."
