At my mother’s funeral, the gravedigger quietly pulled me aside and said, “Ma’am, your mom paid me to bury an empty coffin.” I told him to stop playing games. Then he slipped a key into my hand, whispered, “Don’t go home. Go to Unit 16 right now,” and my phone lit up with a message from my mother: “Come home alone.”

The message telling me to come home alone was not meant to guide me.

It was meant to mislead anyone else who might see it.

I opened the garment bag and found my mother’s navy coat, and inside its pocket was another envelope along with a small recording device.

The instructions inside were brief but clear, telling me to contact a detective named Samuel Carter if anyone approached me before sunset.

It also told me to act carefully if Colin tried to reach for me, because he needed to believe I was still unsure.

I called the number immediately, and the detective answered as if he had been expecting me.

He confirmed that my mother had been working with him quietly, investigating financial fraud connected to Franklin for years.

He also revealed that Colin’s involvement was more recent, beginning around the time he started urging me to merge our finances.

I left the storage unit and drove to my mother’s house instead of returning to my own, and I noticed two unmarked cars parked nearby.

When I arrived, Franklin stood on the porch while Victor paced nervously, and Colin pulled into the driveway behind me with urgency.