Chapter 9 - THE SECRET IN THE LETTER
Evelyn read the letter twice.
Then a third time.
Lena watched her.
“What does it say?”
Evelyn handed her the page.
Charles Vale had written it shortly before his death.
He confessed that Isabelle was not his biological daughter.
She was the child of Evelyn’s mother and another man.
But that was not the darkest truth.
Charles had discovered the affair when Isabelle was six.
From that day forward, he treated her like an enemy inside his home.
He hid the truth to protect his reputation.
He punished Isabelle for a betrayal she did not commit.
Evelyn closed her eyes.
“She believed I knew.”
Lena looked toward the ballroom monitor.
“Did you?”
“No.”
“But I knew my father was cruel to her.”
“I told myself he was strict.”
“I told myself she was rebellious.”
“I told myself many things because the truth would have required me to act.”
On the monitor, Isabelle pulled herself through the smoke.
Her white gown was torn.
She had blood near her temple.
Adrian followed her.
“You destroyed everything.”
Isabelle slapped him.
“You were supposed to control the room.”
Adrian grabbed her throat.
“You emptied Victoria’s accounts.”
“You tried to kill hundreds of people.”
“You are unstable.”
Isabelle smiled despite his grip.
“And you are recorded.”
She pointed toward a camera above them.
Adrian released her.
Victoria emerged from beneath the overturned table.
She had heard everything.
“You were going to blame me.”
Adrian turned.
“Victoria, listen carefully.”
“No.”
“You listen.”
She removed a small device from her earring.
A hidden microphone.
Adrian’s face changed.
Victoria laughed bitterly.
“You thought I was too stupid to protect myself.”
Isabelle stared at her.
“You recorded us?”
“I recorded everyone.”
Victoria had spent years collecting secrets.
She had used them to control rival families and wealthy donors.
Now those recordings could destroy Adrian and Isabelle.
Evelyn returned to the ballroom through the service door.
Employees and medics were helping injured guests.
Several people looked at her with fear.
Others looked ashamed.
Evelyn approached the three conspirators.
Isabelle saw the letter in her hand.
“What is that?”
“A confession from our father.”
“He was not my father.”
“You knew?”
“I learned when I was seventeen.”
Evelyn froze.
“That was why you disappeared.”
Isabelle’s eyes filled with old fury.
“He called me filth.”
“He told me my mother regretted me.”
“He told me you would inherit everything because you were the real daughter.”
Evelyn stepped closer.
“He lied.”
“He lied about many things.”
“But the trust was always divided equally.”
Isabelle shook her head.
“No.”
Evelyn opened the steel case.
She removed the original trust document.
“Read it.”
Isabelle stared at the page.
Her name was there.
Half of the Vale estate had legally belonged to her since she turned twenty-five.
She never needed to steal it.
She never needed to kill Evelyn.
Isabelle’s hands began to tremble.
“Adrian told me the document was destroyed.”
Everyone turned toward him.
Adrian slowly stepped backward.
Victoria’s expression became murderous.
“You convinced us both that Evelyn stood between us and the money.”
Adrian looked toward the damaged exit.
Then he ran.
But the person waiting outside the ballroom was not one of his guards.
May you like
It was a federal agent.
And behind her stood an entire tactical team.
