The Dying Father

Jake's POV

Jake burst through the hospital doors and ran right into chaos.

Doctors and nurses were running into his father's room. Machines were beeping loudly. Someone was shouting directions about medicine and heart rates.

"What's happening?" Jake grabbed a nurse by the arm.

"Your father went into heart arrest twenty minutes ago. We got his heart going again, but he's very weak."

Jake pushed past the medical team and saw his father lying still on the bed. His skin was gray, and his breathing was so weak it barely moved his chest.

"Dad?" Jake whispered.

His father's eyes opened slowly. "Jake... you came back."

"I'm here, Dad. What happened? You were fine when I left."

"The strangest thing..." His father's voice was barely a whisper. "A man came to visit me. Said he was an old friend. But I didn't recognize him."

Jake's heart started racing. "What did he look like?"

"Tall, maybe fifty years old. He had cold eyes. He said he wanted to welcome you home."

The threatening texts. Someone had already been here.

"Dad, what did he do to you?"

"He shook my hand. His grip was very strong. Then he left, and a few minutes later I started feeling sick."

Jake looked at his father's right hand. There was a tiny red mark on his hand, like a pin prick.

Someone had poisoned his father.

"Dad, I need to ask you something important. Are you connected with dangerous people?"

His father's eyes widened. "What? No, son. I just handle divorces and wills. Nothing dangerous."

"Then why did someone leave photos of you taking money from criminals?"

His father tried to sit up but was too weak. "What photos?"

Jake pulled out his phone and showed his father the pictures from the envelope. His father's face went totally white.

"Oh God," his father whispered. "They found out."

"Found out what? Dad, what have you been doing?"

His father closed his eyes. "Twenty years ago, I made a terrible mistake. A friend asked me to hold some money for him. Said it was for his daughter's college fund. I didn't ask questions."

"What kind of money?"

"Dirty money, Jake. Drug money. By the time I realized what it was, they had me trapped. They said if I didn't help them, they'd hurt you and your mother."

Jake felt sick. His father had been threatened for twenty years.

"I never wanted this life," his father continued. "I just wanted to practice law and raise my family. But these guys... they don't let you go."

"Who are they, Dad?"

"I don't know all their names. They call themselves the Circle. Powerful people in town. They've been using my law office to hide their crimes."

A doctor stopped them. "Mr. Morrison needs to rest. His heart is still very fragile."

"Five more minutes," Jake begged.

The doctor shook his head. "I'm sorry. We need to run more tests."

As the medical team prepared to move his father, Jake leaned close to his ear.

"Dad, where did you hide the evidence? There has to be proof of what they've been doing."

His father grabbed Jake's shirt with surprising power. "The safe. Behind your grandfather's picture in the office. The combination is your birthday."

"What's in the safe?"

"Everything. Names, bank records, pictures. Twenty years of proof. But Jake..." His father's grip tightened. "If you open that safe, there's no going back. They'll come after you too."

"I don't care. I won't let them hurt you anymore."

His father smiled sadly. "You always were braver than me."

The nurses wheeled his father away for tests. Jake sat alone in the empty room, his mind running. His father had been living in fear for twenty years, protecting secrets that could destroy strong people.

Now those same people wanted Jake to take over.

Jake's phone buzzed. Another text message: "Your father is still living because we allow it. Meet us at the old building at midnight. Come alone. Bring the photos."

Jake checked the time. It was already 11:30 PM. He had thirty minutes to decide whether to fight or surrender.

He chose to fight.

Jake drove to his grandfather's law office, using his father's keys to get inside. The building was dark and creepy, but Jake wasn't scared anymore. He was angry.

His grandfather's picture hung behind the old desk, just like his father had said. Jake lifted it carefully and found a small safe built into the wall.

His birthday: 05-15-1989.

The safe clicked open.

Inside were dozens of files, computer disks, and photos. Jake grabbed everything and stuffed it into a bag. Whatever his father had been hiding, it was enough to bring down some very important people.

Jake was about to leave when he heard footsteps outside.

Someone was coming.

Jake turned off his flashlight and hid behind the desk. The front door opened slowly, and three guys walked inside. Jake recognized one of them from the hospital - the man who had poisoned his father.

"Morrison's son was here," one of them said. "I can smell his cologne."

"Find what he took. The judge wants those files destroyed tonight."

The judge? Jake's blood ran cold. A judge was involved in this plot.

The men started searching the office with flashlights. Jake knew he had only minutes before they found him.

He crawled toward the back door, pulling the briefcase behind him. But just as he reached for the handle, a hand grabbed his shoulder.

"Going somewhere, counselor?"

Jake spun around and found himself face to face with his own cousin, Sheriff Dale Morrison.

"Dale? What are you doing here?"

Dale pointed a gun at Jake's chest. "My job. Which includes making sure you don't cause trouble for our friends."

"You're one of them."

"I've been one of them for fifteen years, Jake. It pays much better than being an honest cop."

Jake felt his world crashing down. His own family member was part of the plot that had been terrorizing his father.

"Dale, please. Dad is dying. Just let us have peace."

"Peace?" Dale laughed. "Jake, your father has enough proof to send half the town to prison. There can't be any peace until that proof disappears forever."

Dale cocked his gun. "Sorry, cousin. Nothing personal."

But before Dale could pull the trigger, the lights went out.

The entire building went dark.

In the confusion, Jake heard someone else enter the room. There were sounds of fighting, a gun going off, and then quiet.

When Jake's eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw Dale lying asleep on the floor.

A woman's voice spoke from the shadows: "Jake Morrison?"

"Who are you?"

"Someone who's been waiting a long time to meet you. My name is Maya Chen, and I think we can help each other."

A flashlight clicked on, showing a young Asian woman with determined eyes.

"I'm the editor of the town newspaper, and I've been investigating the same people who killed your father."

"My father isn't dead."

Maya's expression got grim. "He will be by morning unless we stop them. The drug they gave him has a twelve-hour delay. We have maybe six hours to find the cure."

Jake's heart stopped. "How do you know about the poison?"

"Because I've been watching the Circle for two years. And Jake? Your father isn't their first victim."

Maya stepped closer, her face serious. "There have been seven strange deaths in this town over the past five years. All people who got too close to the truth. All people who threatened the Circle's power."

"What do you want from me?"

"I want to bring them down. But I can't do it alone. I need someone with legal training, someone who understands proof and courtrooms."

Jake looked at the suitcase full of his father's secrets, then at his unconscious cousin on the floor.

"If I help you, they'll kill us both."

Maya smiled sadly. "They're already planning to kill us both. The question is: do we die fighting, or do we die hiding?"

Before Jake could answer, Maya's phone buzzed with an important message.

Her face went white as she read it.

"What is it?" Jake asked.

"They just arrested two teens for crimes they didn't commit. A rich kid named Tommy Whitfield for murder, and a poor kid named Danny Santos for burning."

"So?"

Maya looked up at Jake with fear in her eyes. "Because according to my sources, both boys saw something they shouldn't have. Something connected to your father's proof."

"The Circle is framing harmless kids to cover their tracks. And if we don't stop them in the next six hours, those boys will disappear forever."

Jake understood the horrible truth: this conspiracy was bigger than just his father. Innocent people were being destroyed to protect the Circle's secrets.

And he was the only one who could save them all.