Chapter 3

I held that USB drive in my hand, my palm slick with sweat.

"The Final Match."

Those three words felt like a riddle — one pulling me toward the truth hidden behind it.

I went straight to my room and plugged the drive into my laptop.

It was password protected.

I frowned.

What would my father use as a password?

His birthday? My mother's? Their wedding anniversary?

I tried every number I could think of. Wrong every time.

I slumped back in my chair.

"The Final Match..."

If it was connected to a match, maybe the password was connected to chess too.

Something came back to me.

The day my mother died, my father had been in the middle of a game. He printed out the game record afterward and kept it tucked inside his favorite chess book.

He said he wanted to remember that day forever. To remember what his mistake had cost.

I went back to the study and pulled 《Silman's Complete Endgame Course》from the shelf.

I opened it. A slightly yellowed piece of paper slid out.

On it was a printed game record — a complex position, the final move showing the black king caught with no escape.

At the bottom, in handwriting, a single line:

"Rook to f 6. No way back."

My father's handwriting.

My heart lurched.

What if...

I went back to my laptop and typed the combination into the password field: rooktof6.

Enter.

The drive unlocked.

My heart was hammering as I opened the single folder inside.

There was no bombshell confession. No final message.

Just a dense collection of Excel spreadsheets and financial reports.

I went through them one by one, frowning at the screen.

Most of it looked like standard Submer Group accounting. But several files had been flagged in red.

I clicked one open. It was a record of a massive overseas investment — the recipient, an offshore company I had never heard of.

And in the signature field, the name of the person who had authorized the transfer was one I recognized immediately:

Victor Cross.

Vice chairman of Submer Group. My father's most trusted business partner. I've always had a deep respect for him.

My head went blank.

After my father's accident, Victor had been the one who stepped in without missing a beat — steadying the company, reassuring the shareholders, keeping everything from falling apart.

Everyone had praised him. Said he was loyal, capable, the backbone of Submer Group in a crisis.

I had always been grateful to him.

But now, these files — the ones my father had gone out of his way to encrypt and hide — felt like ice water poured straight over me.

My father had been investigating him.

Before the accident, my father had already been building a case against Victor.

That was not a coincidence.

I copied every flagged file onto my own computer and wiped the USB drive.

When it was done, I felt completely hollowed out.

A terrible suspicion had taken shape inside me:

My father's accident was no accident.

And the man impersonating him was almost certainly working with Victor.

I went back to the police.

This time, I didn't say a word about chess or oaths.

I handed the police the suspicious financial records directly and laid out my theory plainly: there were serious financial irregularities inside Submer Group, Vice Chairman Victor Cross was a strong suspect for embezzlement, and my father's car accident might be connected to all of it.

The same officer from last time. When he saw what I'd brought, his expression changed.

"Miss Thorne, we'll open a formal investigation immediately. But until we have solid evidence, please don't do anything that might tip them off."

I nodded.

"I understand."

I didn't go home when I left the station. I got in my car and drove somewhere else.