The Billionaire They Buried

Chapter 3: The Last Message

An officer led me to a small interview room and unlocked the door. "Your visitor is inside."

The man who stood when I walked in looked like he hadn't slept his suit still sharp despite the hour, but something heavy sitting behind his eyes. "Mr. Ethan Hayes. Thank you for agreeing to see me."

"I'm sorry do I know you?"

"No. My name is Benjamin Brooks. I've been Charles Hayes's personal attorney for over thirty years."

My grandfather's lawyer. I sat across from him, and the door closed behind me, leaving the two of us alone with whatever he had come to say. For a moment neither of us spoke. Then he opened his briefcase and pulled out an ivory envelope, and the second I saw the handwriting on it, For Ethan my breath caught. that handwriting looks familiar.

"When did he write this?"

"About three weeks ago."

I looked up sharply. "Three weeks? He knew?"

Benjamin let out a slow breath. "He believed his life was in danger."

"If he thought someone wanted to hurt him, why didn't he tell me?"

"He wanted to. But he believed someone close to him couldn't be trusted." The words landed like a punch. Someone close. Someone inside the family. I looked down at the envelope, and it suddenly felt too heavy to hold.

My dear Ethan,

If you're reading this, then my greatest fear has come true.

My throat tightened. I wiped my eyes before anything could fall.

Before anything else, I need you to remember one thing. I have never doubted you. Not once. You are innocent.

Three words I needed more than I realized, after everything that had happened that night. I kept reading.

Someone has spent a very long time putting pieces into place. By now, they have convinced the world that you are guilty. That was always part of the plan. Don't trust what you see. The people crying beside my body may be the very people responsible for putting me there.

Ryan,Victoria, and the board members faces moved through my mind one after another had one of them really done this, or was Grandfather talking about someone else entirely?

For years, I've been searching for something hidden inside Hayes Group. I believed it was only financial corruption at first. I was wrong. The deeper I dug, the more dangerous it became.

A chill worked through me. Whatever he had uncovered had frightened him enough to prepare for his own death.

Some truths are worth dying for. Others are worth living long enough to expose. Promise me you won't let anger guide you. Find the truth first. Revenge can wait.

That sounded exactly like him trying to steady me even now. At the bottom of the page, one final line stood alone: Trust no one... except the man carrying this letter.

I lowered the paper slowly. "So he trusted you."

"With my life."

"Why?"

A faint smile crossed Benjamin's face. "Because years ago, your grandfather saved it. Thirty-one years ago, I was a young lawyer handling a fraud case. I uncovered evidence against some very dangerous people. They wanted the evidence to disappear along with me. They tried to frame me for the crime."

"Your grandfather was the only person who believed I was innocent. He hired the best investigators, proved I had been framed, and helped me rebuild my career. I owed him everything after that."

I looked back at the letter. "So when he asked me to protect this"

"I didn't hesitate."

We sat in silence for a moment before I finally asked the question that had been eating me up. "Do you know who poisoned him?"

His expression hardened. "I wish I did. I know enough to tell you this wasn't random. Whoever poisoned Charles knew exactly what they were doing."

"The board? Business rivals? The government?"

He shrugged. "I honestly don't know. But your grandfather believed the conspiracy reached far beyond the Hayes family."

Frustration rose in my chest. "Then where do I even start?"

Before he could answer, an officer knocked and stepped in. "Mr. Brooks, the detectives need Mr. Hayes back in the interrogation room."

Benjamin checked his watch. "I'll need another minute." The officer hesitated, then nodded and stepped back out, and Benjamin turned to me again, his voice lower now. "There wasn't enough time for Charles to explain everything." He reached into his briefcase and pulled out a small brass key on a worn leather tag, then pressed it into my palm. The tag read "Safe Deposit 317".

"A bank?"

"Yes."

"What's inside?"

"I've never seen it. He never told me. Only that if anything happened to him, everything would begin there."

I closed my hand around the key. It felt heavier than its size had any right to.

"You must keep it hidden," Benjamin said. "No one can know you have it. I'm serious, Ethan — if the wrong person discovers that key, they'll come after you before you ever reach that safe deposit box."

"They're already coming after me."

"Yes. But right now they think they've won. I would like to keep it that way for as long as possible." He stood, buttoned his jacket, and reached for the door before stopping himself. "Oh — there was one last message. He told me that if this day ever came, I was to repeat his exact words." He looked me in the eye. "If they arrest Ethan, then the traitor has already won."

The door opened again before I could respond. "Time's up," the officer said.

Benjamin gave a final nod. "Stay alive, Ethan." Then he walked out without looking back, and I sat there alone with the letter in one hand and the brass key in the other, trying to hold both truths at once that only hours ago my biggest worry had been earning my grandfather's approval, and now he was gone, I was accused of killing him, and somewhere beyond these walls sat a safe deposit box full of answers people were willing to kill for.

I slipped the key into my pocket and closed my fingers around it. Whoever had poisoned my grandfather believed they had buried the truth along with him.

They had no idea what they had started.