That was the night of the fire.
When Chris found out about her visit and reached out, it was through a cautious text. Then another. Then a string of messages that sounded half-loving, half-coded. They were rebuilding something fragile. He’d mentioned CCTV cameras once — being watched by a thousand eyes. Emma hadn’t thought much of it at the time, but now… it felt like the key. If she could prove she was there that night, talking to Pete, she’d have her alibi.
She told the police about being at the house. They apparently tried to contact Pete a few times, but he never responded. Chris was her best way in. Her only chance to convince Pete. Or get the video evidence that she was there that night.
Then Chris disappeared.
No trace. No explanation. Just gone, like smoke. As was her one chance at proving she didn’t light that match
Since then, she’d tried everything. Messaging Pete, begging him to help. Pleading that she only needed him to say they’d spoken that night, to confirm she’d been there before the fire started. But Pete was scared. He said James would never allow it, didn’t want him involved, didn’t want any footage shared.
If only James were out of the picture.
Now, as she drives through the quiet streets, that conversation replays over and over. If she can’t find Chris, she needs Pete. Or at least, she needs Jamesout of the way.Without him, she might finally get to the truth — and to her freedom.
Yes, she wants to find her brother. Of course she does. He’s blood, memory, unfinished business. But beneath that—beneath the guilt and nostalgia—there’s a deeper truth she can’t escape.
She doesn’t just want her brother.
She needs her alibi.
And time is running out.
Chapter 57
DANIEL
Daniel sits in the car, engine off, the only sound the low hiss of rain on the windscreen. His body throbs with pain — ribs, shoulder, the dull pulse behind his eyes from where he hit the stairs. Every movement feels jagged. He grips the steering wheel, trying to steady his breathing, but his chest still rattles like a cracked pipe.
The laptop sits on the passenger seat. His last hope.
He’s already past his midnight deadline. The people he owes don’t do grace periods. They do reminders — sharp, physical ones. He’s seen what happens when they get impatient.
He checks his phone again. No new messages, but he knows they’re coming. They know where he lives. They know his car. They’ll be looking all the right places. If Tom’s called the police — and he will have, of course he will — then there’ll be sirens in the mix too. The debt collectors and the law, a tag team designed to crush whatever’s left of him.
He looks at the laptop again, rubs his jaw. This was his desperate last attempt. To spend the last few hours trying to get into Tom’s online banking. He’d not tried previously because he didn’t want it to be flagged if he got it wrong. But we’re beyond that now.
Tom inherited over a million. Daniel knows it. He was married to him; he’s entitled to a share. Legally, ethically. That’s what he told himself at first.
But before he even made a start with his banking, he noticed the video files. A folder on the desktop that wasn’t there last time he looked.
He wasn’t really interested in them, but curiosity is a weakness he’s never learned to master. He clicked. And then clicked again.
What he saw made his stomach turn.
The first few were small — arguments, shouting, a shove, a thrown glass. Then worse: violence, fear. Always the same man — tall, sharp, angry — and another man taking the hits. The footage had the eerie, fixed perspective of CCTV, emotion drained by cold technology. But the final video… that one he watched twice.
The fight in the kitchen. The chaos. The man — the victim — trying to fight back, failing. And the knife. Over and over.
Daniel had seen death before, but not like that.
He recognised the attacker. Not the name — that hadn’t come up — but the face. He’d seen him leave the same house he’d watched Tom and his new boyfriend come out of as he followed them.
So, this is what Tom’s caught up in. Wealth, deceit, violence.
And maybe, just maybe, opportunity.
He can use this. A video of a man being murdered — that’s leverage. That’s worth something. If the people in that house are mixed up in it, they’ll pay to make it go away.
