False Beginning - S01 E04

Story 1 week ago

False Beginning - S01 E04

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 4

False Beginning

Sarah spun around quickly, but the office was empty. She was so scared that she could not move her legs for a long second. Her heart was hitting her chest like a loud drum. The floor had made a very sharp noise. It sounded just like a footstep on the old wood. She really thought someone was standing right behind her. She thought the mean man with the dark suit had found her. She thought he was going to take the golden key away. She slowly began to turn her body all the way around. Her hands were still resting on the big wooden desk. She did not want to look, but she knew she had to. She spun around very fast. Her eyes were wide and she was ready to scream for help.

But the office was empty. There was nobody there. The room was just as quiet as it was when she first walked in. Sarah looked at the door. It was still closed. She looked at the shadows in the corners of the room. They were just regular shadows from the tall chairs and the many books. She looked at the big window across the room. The wind was blowing very hard against the old glass. The window was shaking in its frame. That was the noise she heard. It was just the wind and the old building moving. Sarah let out a very long breath. She felt a little bit silly for being so scared of the wind. She wiped the sweat from her forehead with her wet sleeve. Her heart began to slow down just a little bit.

She turned back to the black notebook in the hidden drawer. The golden key was still in the tiny lock. The piles of money were still there, looking very bright and very wrong. Sarah felt a strange and heavy feeling in her stomach. It was like she had swallowed a big stone. She reached out and touched the black leather of the notebook. It felt cold to her touch. She began to read the pages more slowly this time. She wanted to make sure she understood every word. She wanted to believe she was wrong about her husband. She wanted to believe that Tom was still the hero she loved.

Her eyes grew wide as she read the words inside. The notes were very clear and easy to read. Tom was not the man everyone thought he was. He was not just a lawyer who helped poor people for free. That was only a mask he wore. It was a story he told the town so they would love him and trust him. The notebook showed the truth that was hidden for a long time. Tom was not helping the poor people of the city because he was kind. He was doing something very bad. He was taking money from very bad people. These were people who did things that hurt others. They were people who stole and people who were mean to everyone.

Tom was taking their money to help them stay out of jail. The notebook called him a fixer. Sarah did not know that word in a law office, but the notes explained it. A fixer was a man who made problems go away for bad people. He was a man who lied to the police. He was a man who hid the truth to protect people who broke the law. If a bad man got into trouble, he would call Tom. Tom would use his magic with words and his secrets to make sure the bad man did not go to prison. And for this, the bad men gave him the big piles of cash Sarah saw in the drawer.

Sarah felt sick to her stomach. She had to sit down on the floor because her legs felt very weak. The man she loved was a liar. The man she thought was a hero was actually helping the villains. She thought about all the times Tom came home and told her about his day. He would tell her stories about helping a poor family find a new house. Now she wondered if those stories were even real. Were they all just lies to make her smile? Had she been living with a total stranger for ten long years? She looked at the gold ring on her finger. It felt like it was burning her skin.

She looked around the quiet office. She thought about their beautiful house. It was a big house with a green garden and a white fence. She thought about her nice clothes and the soft rugs she liked to walk on. She thought about the expensive food they ate for dinner every night. Suddenly, all those things did not feel nice anymore. All of it was bought with bad money. It was money that came from hurting people. It was money that came from lies and secrets. Every pretty thing she owned felt dirty now. She felt like she wanted to throw all her clothes away. She wanted to leave the house and never go back.

Sarah looked at the money in the drawer again. There were thousands and thousands of dollars. It was more money than a good person could earn in a very long time. She realized that Tom’s free work for poor people was just a clever trick. It made everyone think he was a saint. It made the police trust him. It made the judges believe him. It was the perfect way to hide his bad work. Sarah felt a deep and heavy sadness in her heart. She felt like her whole life was a puzzle that had been put together the wrong way. She felt like she was waking up from a dream into a nightmare.

She wanted to close the drawer. She wanted to turn the golden key and hide the notebook forever. She wanted to run away from this office and go back to the hospital. She wanted to pretend she never found the hidden drawer. Maybe if she did not know the truth, she could still love Tom. But she knew she could not go back now. The truth was out. She could not unsee the names in the notebook. She could not unsee the piles of cash. She knew she had to find out everything. She had to know how deep the secrets went.

As she started to push the drawer shut, her hand touched something else. It was at the very back of the drawer, behind the money. It was a thick blue folder. It was made of heavy paper and it felt very full. Sarah pulled it out. She saw some writing on the front. On the front of the folder, someone had written her own name in big, black letters: SARAH.

Sarah’s heart skipped a beat. Why would Tom have a secret file about his own wife? She was his wife. He knew everything about her. They talked every day. They shared their lives. Why did he need a folder with her name on it? And why was it hidden in the secret drawer with the bad money and the names of criminals? Sarah felt a new kind of fear. This fear was sharp and cold. It made the hair on her arms stand up. She felt like she was being hunted.

She sat back on the rug and put the blue folder in her lap. She was afraid to open it. She was afraid of what she might find inside. Was there more bad news? Was there a secret about her that she did not even know? She touched the edge of the paper. It felt old and a little bit dusty. She slowly opened the folder. The first thing she saw was a piece of paper that was yellow and very dry. It was a very old newspaper story from twenty years ago.

Sarah looked at the picture in the newspaper. It was a picture of two cars that had been in a very bad crash. The cars were crushed and broken. Sarah felt a sharp pain in her chest. She knew this story very well. This was the story about the accident that killed her parents when she was a little girl. She was only five years old when it happened. She remembered the loud noise and the bright lights. She remembered crying for her mommy and daddy in the dark.

She began to read the old story. It said that her parents were driving home on a rainy night just like last night. Another car had hit them very fast. The police said it was just a bad accident. They said the other driver was not found. Sarah had lived with her aunt after that. She had grown up missing her parents every single day. She had told Tom all about this when they first met. He had held her hand and told her how sorry he was. He had been so kind to her. He had promised to always take care of her.

But why was this story in Tom’s secret file? Sarah looked deeper into the folder. There were more papers. There were police reports that she had never seen before. There were pictures of the other car that hit her parents. The other car was a black car. Sarah’s eyes went wide. She thought about the black car she saw across the street from her house last night. Was it the same kind of car? Was someone from her past coming back?

She read a note that was clipped to the police report. The note was in Tom’s handwriting. It was a very old note. It said: The witness has been handled. The file is closed. Sarah felt the world spinning around her. The witness has been handled. What did that mean? Did it mean that someone saw the accident? Did it mean that Tom knew who killed her parents? Did it mean he helped the person who killed them?

Sarah looked at the date on the note. The note was written many years ago, long before she even met Tom. She felt a cold chill that went all the way to her bones. Had Tom been involved in the accident that killed her parents? Had he been the fixer for the person who hit them? Was that how he knew her? Did he marry her because he felt bad, or was it something even worse? Was their whole marriage just a way for him to keep an eye on her so she would never find out the truth?

Every memory of her ten years with Tom started to feel like a big lie. Every time he said I love you, it felt like a trick. Every hug felt like a trap. Sarah began to cry, but no sound came out. She was too shocked to make a noise. She felt like she was drowning in a sea of secrets. Her parents were gone because of a bad accident, and now her husband was in the hospital because of a bad accident. Were they linked? Was the person who hurt Tom the same person who hurt her parents?

She held the old newspaper story tight in her hands. She wanted to scream. She wanted to break everything in the room. She felt so much anger and so much hurt. She looked at the blue folder and saw there were more papers inside. She was about to reach for them to see what else was hidden. She wanted to know the name of the person Tom helped. She wanted to know why he had her name on the folder.

But then, something happened. The air in the room suddenly turned very cold. It was like someone had opened a giant freezer door. Sarah felt the chill on her face. She looked at the door. She had closed it when she came into the office. She was sure of it. She always closed the door to feel safe.

A cold wind suddenly blew the office door wide open.

The door hit the wall with a very loud bang. The sound echoed through the empty office building. Sarah jumped and dropped the blue folder. The papers flew all over the floor like white birds. The old newspaper story landed right at her feet. Sarah looked at the open doorway. The hallway outside was dark and silent. The wind was howling through the building now. It felt like a ghost was walking into the room.

Sarah tried to stand up, but her dress got caught on the corner of the big wooden desk. She was stuck. She stared at the dark opening of the door. She expected to see the man in the dark suit standing there. She expected to see someone coming to take the folder away. The wind blew her hair across her face. She could not see clearly. Her heart was racing so fast she could hear it in her ears. She felt like she was not alone.

Who is there? she tried to say, but her voice was just a small whisper.

Nobody answered her. The only sound was the wind and the papers moving on the rug. The cold air made her shiver. She felt like she was being watched by a hundred eyes. The secret of her parents, the secret of the money, and the secret of Tom’s life were all around her. And now, the door was open, and something was coming for her. The light in the office flickered and then it went out. Sarah was alone in the dark with the secrets and the open door.

Why do you think Tom was keeping a secret file about the accident that killed Sarah's parents?

Do you think Tom was the person who caused the accident twenty years ago, or was he just covering it up for someone else?

What do you think is behind the office door that just blew open? Is it a person or just the wind?

If you found out your whole life was paid for with bad money, what is the first thing you would do?

The plot is thickening and the danger is getting closer! Sarah has discovered a connection between her husband and the death of her parents. What will she find in the rest of the blue folder? Don't wait to find out!