Chapter 3 - THE TORN PHOTOGRAPH
I stared at the heavy cardstock.
My breathing grew shallow.
My father died in a car accident.
That was what my mother told me.
That was what the police report said.
A rainy night. A slick road. A tragic mistake.
Why would someone leave a note about it in my locker?
And who took my watch?
I didn't go to Vice Principal Davis’s office.
I checked the clock on the hallway wall.
It was 2:50 PM.
I walked down the empty corridors toward the old library.
It was a section of the school that had been closed off for renovations two years ago, filled with dust-covered desks and stacked chairs.
I pushed the heavy wooden doors open.
The room was dim, lit only by the sunlight struggling through dirty windows.
Standing by the window, her back to me, was Olivia Harper.
She wasn't smiling anymore.
She turned around when she heard the door close.
Her eyes were red. Her makeup was slightly smudged.
"I didn't think you would come," Olivia said softly.
Her voice wasn't confident. It was shaking.
"Where is my watch?" I demanded, my hands balling into fists.
"I don't have it," she said, taking a step toward me.
"You humiliated me in front of the entire school!" I yelled, the anger finally breaking through my shock. "And then you robbed my locker?"
"I didn't rob your locker, Emma! I threw that tray at you to save you!"
I stopped.
"What?"
Olivia wiped under her eyes with the back of her hand.
"My father called me during third period," she whispered. "He told me to make sure you were in Vice Principal Davis's office during fourth period. He said if I didn't cause a massive scene and get you sent there, he would cut off my little sister's medical treatments."
I stared at her.
Everyone in town knew Olivia's little sister, Mia, had a rare immune disorder.
"Your own father threatened his child?" I asked.
"He's a monster, Emma," Olivia choked out. "He needed you out of the hallways. He needed you distracted."
"Why?"
"Because while you were in the cafeteria being humiliated, Davis was opening your locker. I saw him walking down your hallway right before lunch. Davis took your watch."
I felt the room spin.
The vice principal of the school stole from a student?
"Why would my father's watch matter to Mr. Harper?" I asked.
"Because of what's inside it," Olivia said.
She reached into her designer skirt pocket.
She pulled out a faded, torn photograph and handed it to me.
"I found this in my dad's home office last night," Olivia said. "Hidden in a locked drawer."
I looked at the photograph.
It was my father.
He was younger, standing in front of a factory I didn't recognize.
Standing next to him, with his arm around my dad's shoulder, was Olivia's father, Marcus Harper.
But that wasn't what made my breath catch.
My father was holding a massive blueprint.
And at the bottom of the blueprint, clear as day, was the logo for Harper Industries.
The company that made Olivia's family billionaires.
"My father didn't build that company, Emma," Olivia whispered. "Your father did. And they killed him for it."
Before I could process the words, the library doors flew open behind us.
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"Well, well," Vice Principal Davis said, stepping into the room. "I told you to wait in my office, Miss Brooks."
In his right hand, the silver chain of my father's watch dangled from his fingers.
