Chapter 8 — The Video That Could Destroy the Holloways
Chapter 8 — The Video That Could Destroy the Holloways
The address was written on a small piece of paper sitting beside my coffee cup.
I had looked at it a hundred times.
A quiet street on the other side of town.
An old apartment building.
A place where nobody would expect a secret to be hiding.
But secrets were rarely kept in impressive places.
Sometimes they were hidden in ordinary rooms.
Behind ordinary doors.
By ordinary people who were simply trying to survive.
And now one of those people was finally ready to speak.
“Are you sure we should go?”
Hannah’s voice broke the silence.
I looked at my daughter.
She had barely slept.
None of us had.
Not after that phone call.
Not after hearing the name Rachel Whitmore again.
Daniel stood near the window, watching the street.
“We need to be careful.”
Laura nodded.
“She could be telling the truth.”
“Or it could be a trap,” Daniel added.
Nobody argued.
Because we all knew what Grant Holloway was capable of.
A man who could manipulate the media.
A man who could turn victims into villains.
A man who could make an entire city question reality.
He would not simply sit back and watch everything collapse.
“He knows we’re looking,” Laura said.
I looked at her.
“How?”
She placed her phone on the table.
“There was an article published an hour ago.”
My stomach tightened.
“What article?”
She turned the screen toward us.
ANONYMOUS SOURCES QUESTION EVELYN CARTER’S MOTIVES
Again.
Another attack.
Another attempt to make me look unstable.
Daniel shook his head.
“They’re trying to distract everyone.”
“No,” Laura said.
“They’re trying to scare us.”
I picked up my coat.
“Then they’re too late.”
Everyone looked at me.
“For the first time, they’re the ones who are worried.”
The apartment building looked abandoned.
The paint on the walls was peeling.
The hallway lights flickered.
Nothing about the place suggested that something important was waiting inside.
But when we reached the third floor, a woman was already standing behind the door.
She looked terrified.
The moment she saw me, she stepped back.
“You actually came.”
I nodded.
“You called me.”
The woman looked over my shoulder.
“Did anyone follow you?”
Daniel answered.
“No.”
She studied us for several seconds.
Then she opened the door.
“Come in.”
Her name was Olivia Grant.
She had been Rachel Whitmore’s assistant for almost five years.
She made coffee but never drank it.
Her hands shook too much.
“I’ve replayed that night in my head thousands of times.”
I sat across from her.
“What happened?”
She looked down.
“Rachel was different after she met Grant.”
Hannah quietly listened.
“At first, she was happy.”
Olivia smiled sadly.
“She used to talk about him constantly. She thought she found someone powerful, successful, and protective.”
She paused.
“But then protection became control.”
The room became silent.
“She started canceling plans. Avoiding friends. Apologizing for things she didn’t do.”
Hannah looked away.
Because she knew exactly what that felt like.
“Then one night, she called me.”
Olivia’s eyes filled with tears.
“She whispered, ‘Olivia, I think something is wrong with him.’”
My hands tightened.
“What did you tell her?”
“I told her to leave.”
Olivia swallowed.
“And she said she was trying.”
Olivia walked to a small cabinet.
She removed a black box.
“I kept this hidden because I was afraid.”
Inside was a small flash drive.
My heart started racing.
“This is the video?”
She nodded.
“Rachel recorded it.”
Laura leaned forward.
“Why?”
“Because she knew nobody would believe her.”
Olivia looked at Hannah.
“That was the thing about Grant.”
She spoke quietly.
“He didn’t just hurt people.”
“He made sure they looked unreliable afterward.”
Nobody moved.
Because that was exactly what he was doing to us now.
Olivia placed the flash drive on the table.
“But there’s something you need to understand.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
“The video is not the only thing on here.”
She took a deep breath.
“There are messages.”
“From who?”
Her answer made the room freeze.
“Margaret Holloway.”
Hannah whispered:
“His mother?”
Olivia nodded.
“She knew everything.”
Laura immediately connected the drive to her laptop.
The screen loaded.
Folders appeared.
One was labeled:
Rachel — Evidence
Another:
Holloway Family Communications
Daniel stared.
“They kept records.”
Olivia nodded.
“Rachel believed one day she would need proof.”
Laura opened the first folder.
Photos.
Emails.
Screenshots.
Then she clicked on the video.
The screen went black.
A timestamp appeared.
Three years earlier.
The camera angle was from inside a living room.
Then Rachel appeared.
Her face was pale.
Her eyes were red.
She was crying.
Hannah grabbed my hand.
The video continued.
A man's voice entered the room.
Grant.
Even before seeing him, we knew.
“Rachel, you’re overreacting.”
Rachel looked toward him.
“You threatened me.”
Grant laughed.
“No one is going to believe that.”
The room went completely still.
Because those words were not an accusation.
They were his own voice.
His own mistake.
Rachel shook her head.
“You always do this.”
“Do what?”
“Make people think I’m the problem.”
Grant stepped closer.
“You need help.”
Rachel backed away.
“Don’t say that.”
“You’re emotional.”
“You’re controlling me.”
The video suddenly paused.
Everyone was frozen.
Laura looked at us.
“This is enough to change everything.”
But I wasn’t looking at the screen anymore.
I was looking at Hannah.
Because I saw the pain on her face.
She wasn’t just watching Rachel.
She was seeing herself.
Then the laptop made a sound.
A notification appeared.
Everyone turned.
Laura frowned.
“What is that?”
She checked the screen.
Her expression changed.
“What?”
Daniel moved closer.
“Laura?”
She looked up slowly.
“The file was accessed.”
My heart dropped.
“By who?”
She checked the information.
Then her face went pale.
“Someone remotely connected.”
Hannah whispered:
“Grant?”
Laura didn’t answer immediately.
She didn’t need to.
Because we all knew.
Someone knew.
Someone had found out.
And that meant one thing.
The Holloways were no longer waiting for us to attack.
They were coming after us.
Thirty minutes later, another message appeared on Olivia’s phone.
Unknown sender.
One sentence.
No explanation.
No signature.
Just five words.
You should have stayed silent.
Olivia dropped the phone.
And for the first time since this battle began…
I saw fear on someone else’s face.
Not mine.
Not Hannah’s.
Not ours.
The fear belonged to the people who thought they could never be exposed.
Grant Holloway had spent years burying the truth.
But now the truth had a voice.
A video.
And witnesses.
I picked up the flash drive.
“We don’t hide this.”
Everyone looked at me.
“We release it.”
Laura nodded slowly.
“But once we do that…”
She paused.
“There is no going back.”
I looked at the evidence in my hand.
Then at my daughter.
“There was never going back.”
The clock on the wall moved forward.
The deadline was getting closer.
And somewhere inside the Holloway mansion…
Grant Holloway was finally realizing something.
The woman he tried to destroy…
May you like
Was the one person he should have feared.
Ten hours remained.
