Chapter 6 - THE NAME THAT WAS ERASED
Mara couldn’t move.
For years, she believed her mother’s story was simple.
Anna Ellison was a kind woman who worked too hard, loved her daughters, and died with too many unanswered questions.
That was all.
At least, that was what Mara had been told.
But now Julian Vale was standing in front of her with documents that suggested her mother had been connected to one of the most powerful families in New York.
And someone had tried to erase her.
“What are you not telling me?” Mara asked.
Her voice shook.
Julian looked at the folder in his hand.
“I’m trying to understand it myself.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“No.”
He looked directly at her.
“It’s not.”
For the first time, Mara saw something different in Julian’s eyes.
Not suspicion.
Not arrogance.
Guilt.
“I should have known something was wrong years ago,” he said.
Mara frowned.
“Years ago?”
Julian opened another document.
A newspaper article fell out.
The headline was old.
VALE FAMILY ASSISTANT MISSING AFTER CORPORATE INVESTIGATION.
The picture beside it was blurry.
But Mara recognized the face.
Her mother.
“No…”
She grabbed the paper.
“That’s impossible.”
Julian watched her reaction carefully.
“Your mother worked for my father.”
Mara looked up.
“She never told me.”
“Because she was protecting you.”
The words hit harder than she expected.
Before Mara could respond, Celeste suddenly laughed.
Everyone turned.
The sound wasn’t nervous anymore.
It was angry.
“You’re really going to believe this?”
Julian looked at her.
“Celeste.”
“No, Julian.”
She stepped forward.
“You’re standing here trusting a woman who just appeared with an old necklace and a fake story.”
Mara’s eyes narrowed.
“Fake?”
Celeste pointed at her.
“You don’t know who your mother really was.”
Mara felt something inside her break.
Because that was the one thing she couldn’t accept.
“You knew her.”
Silence.
Celeste froze.
Mara stepped closer.
“You knew my mother.”
Celeste didn’t answer.
That was enough.
Julian saw it too.
“You knew Anna Ellison?”
Celeste looked away.
And that was the moment Julian realized something terrifying.
His fiancée had been hiding secrets long before the engagement.
The question was…
how many?
That night, Mara returned to the small apartment she shared with her sister.
Emily was studying at the kitchen table.
“You’re home early.”
Mara forced a smile.
“Yeah.”
Emily looked at her.
“What happened?”
Mara almost told her everything.
Almost.
But then she saw something on the table.
A brown envelope.
“What’s that?”
Emily looked confused.
“It was delivered this afternoon.”
Mara picked it up.
Her name was written on the front.
No address.
No sender.
Inside was one photograph.
A photograph of her mother standing beside a young Julian Vale.
May you like
And written on the back were six words:
Ask him what happened that night.
