Chapter 3: Project Emily
Chapter 3: Project Emily
The Carter mansion had never felt so crowded.
Police officers moved quietly through the halls, photographing documents and sealing boxes of financial records. Detectives carried evidence bags from Victoria's private office while forensic specialists copied the contents of every computer and phone they found.
Outside the gates, satellite news trucks lined the street.
Inside the nursery, however, only one question mattered.
What was "Project Emily"?
Detective Sarah Collins placed Victoria's laptop on the dining room table, where a digital forensic analyst was already working.
"It's heavily encrypted," he explained.
"How long?"
"Maybe hours."
Victoria folded her arms.
"You'll never open it."
The analyst smiled faintly.
"I've heard that before."
Minutes later, another investigator entered carrying a portable hard drive.
"We found automatic cloud backups."
The analyst plugged it into his computer.
A loading bar slowly crossed the screen.
Then—
Backup Restored Successfully.
Victoria's confidence disappeared.
"No..."
The analyst clicked a folder marked Archived Plans.
One document immediately caught his attention.
PROJECT EMILY – CONFIDENTIAL
He opened it.
The room fell silent.
The first page contained a photograph of Emily.
Not one she had ever posed for.
It had been taken from a distance while she was leaving the university where she taught children's art classes.
Beneath it was a typed profile.
Age: 25
Occupation: Art Instructor
Financial Status: Limited assets
Family: No influential connections
Personality Assessment: Compassionate. Honest. Easy to manipulate through emotional pressure.
Emily felt sick.
Someone had studied her long before she met Ethan.
The second page was even worse.
It outlined a detailed timeline.
Stage 1: Encourage Ethan to meet Emily.
Stage 2: Gain Emily's trust.
Stage 3: Secure marriage.
Stage 4: Isolate Emily from outside support.
Stage 5: Increase psychological pressure until voluntary divorce.
The words blurred before Emily's eyes.
"This..."
She whispered.
"This can't be real."
Detective Collins looked toward Victoria.
"Would you like to explain?"
Victoria remained silent.
Ethan slowly turned another page.
There were handwritten notes in Victoria's unmistakable script.
"She'll never survive this family."
"If she leaves willingly, Ethan will eventually marry someone suitable."
"Never allow them to become too happy."
Every sentence struck him harder than the last.
He looked at Emily.
"I never knew."
She could barely breathe.
"I believe you."
Richard Lawson adjusted his glasses as he continued reviewing the documents.
"There are payment records."
"Payments?"
He nodded.
"Private investigators."
Martha gasped.
Victoria had hired investigators not only to follow Emily—
She had also monitored Ethan.
Every dinner.
Every vacation.
Every anniversary.
Every hospital visit.
For three years.
Detective Collins found another folder.
This one was labeled Communications.
Inside were dozens of emails.
Most had been deleted.
Fortunately, the cloud backup had preserved them.
The sender's name appeared repeatedly.
Daniel Mercer.
"Who is Daniel Mercer?" Collins asked.
Richard frowned.
"He was Charles Carter's former executive assistant."
"The one who resigned?"
Richard nodded slowly.
"Without explanation."
A search warrant was issued immediately.
Within two hours, detectives located Daniel living quietly in a neighboring state.
He agreed to speak.
"I've been waiting for this day," he admitted.
His video interview appeared on the conference room screen.
"I couldn't keep carrying it."
Detective Collins asked gently,
"What did Victoria ask you to do?"
Daniel lowered his head.
"Everything."
Years earlier, Victoria had approached him with what sounded like harmless requests.
Delay certain emails.
Reschedule meetings.
Intercept phone messages.
At first, he believed she was simply trying to organize Charles's increasingly busy schedule.
Then the requests became darker.
Hide financial statements.
Redirect legal correspondence.
Block communication between Ethan and Emily after they began dating.
"I knew it was wrong."
"Why didn't you stop?"
Daniel's eyes filled with regret.
"Because every time I hesitated..."
He swallowed.
"...she reminded me she could ruin my career."
Emily listened in stunned silence.
Pieces of her past suddenly began fitting together.
The flowers Ethan had supposedly forgotten to send.
The canceled dates.
The unanswered messages.
The mysterious misunderstandings.
None of them had been accidents.
Someone had been quietly pulling the strings.
That evening, Ethan found Emily sitting alone in the nursery.
Sophie slept peacefully inside her crib, unaware of the storm surrounding her family.
Emily held the torn photograph from the previous day.
"I used to think love wasn't enough."
Ethan knelt beside her.
"What do you mean?"
"I thought maybe we kept hurting each other because we weren't trying hard enough."
She smiled sadly.
"But someone wanted us to fail before we even began."
Ethan gently took her hand.
"I can't change what happened."
"No."
She looked into his eyes.
"But we can decide what happens next."
He nodded.
"We face it together."
"For the rest of our lives."
Meanwhile, Victoria sat alone in the mansion's library under police supervision.
Her lawyer had finally arrived.
"Don't answer any more questions," he advised.
She leaned closer.
"They found Project Emily."
His face paled.
"Everything?"
"I don't know."
He closed his briefcase.
"Then we have a serious problem."
Before either of them could continue, Detective Collins entered.
"We've completed another forensic review."
She placed a single printed photograph on the table.
Victoria stared at it.
Her hands began to shake.
It showed Charles Carter's private study on the night before his death.
The image had been recovered from an old security server that everyone believed had been destroyed years earlier.
The timestamp was unmistakable.
11:47 p.m.
Charles sat at his desk signing documents.
Victoria stood behind him.
Holding a medicine bottle.
Across town, the chief medical examiner reopened Charles Carter's case after reviewing the new evidence.
Although years had passed, preserved medical samples still existed in secure storage.
The toxicology department was ordered to conduct advanced testing using modern techniques unavailable at the time of Charles's death.
Detective Collins quietly told Ethan,
"We don't know what we'll find."
Ethan looked toward the family portrait hanging above the fireplace—a portrait taken just months before his father's death.
"I've spent five years believing my father died naturally."
His voice was heavy.
"If someone stole those years from him..."
He couldn't finish the sentence.
Late that night, as investigators packed away the last evidence boxes, Martha approached Emily with a small wooden music box.
"I found this hidden in Mr. Charles's bedroom."
Emily carefully opened it.
Inside lay a folded note.
It wasn't addressed to Ethan.
It wasn't addressed to Victoria.
It was addressed to Emily.
The date on the paper stunned everyone.
It had been written six months before Ethan and Emily first met.
Richard Lawson unfolded the letter carefully.
His eyes widened after reading the first line.
He looked at Ethan in disbelief.
"You need to read this yourself."
Ethan took the letter with trembling hands.
The opening sentence changed everything they thought they knew.
"If you are reading this, then I succeeded in bringing the two of you together—but I fear someone close to me will try to tear you apart before you ever understand why I chose Emily to become part of this family..."
Ethan looked up, speechless.
His father had known Emily long before he did.
May you like
And somehow...
Charles Carter had planned for her to become his daughter-in-law years before fate—or someone else's manipulation—brought them together.
