Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN FROM ADRIAN’S PAST
I couldn’t breathe.
I stared at the photograph in Adrian’s hand.
The woman beside him looked familiar.
Not because I knew her.
But because I had seen her face every day of my life.
My mother.
The same eyes.
The same smile.
The same small scar near her eyebrow.
My mother.
But that made no sense.
She had never met Adrian.
At least…
That was what I believed.
“Where did you get this?” I asked.
My voice barely came out.
Adrian looked at me.
“I don’t know.”
His hands tightened around the photo.
“I have never seen this before.”
Beatrice suddenly spoke.
“Give me that.”
Everyone turned.
She had gone pale.
For the first time, she wasn’t acting like the powerful woman who controlled everything.
She looked like someone whose biggest secret had just been uncovered.
Adrian noticed.
“You know this picture.”
“No.”
Her answer came too quickly.
Daniel immediately looked suspicious.
“You’re lying.”
Beatrice glared at him.
“You work for my son, not against me.”
Daniel didn’t move.
“And my job is protecting him.”
Adrian looked back at his mother.
“Tell me the truth.”
Silence.
Then Beatrice sat down.
Slowly.
Like she had suddenly become older.
“I knew your mother.”
I felt my heart stop.
Adrian looked confused.
“My mother?”
Beatrice nodded.
“Emma’s mother.”
Nobody spoke.
The room felt smaller.
“How?”
Beatrice looked at me.
“She worked here.”
My eyes widened.
“No.”
My mother had never told me that.
Never.
Beatrice continued.
“Her name was Sarah Carter.”
The sound of my mother’s name coming from her mouth made my skin crawl.
“She was not a maid.”
I frowned.
“What do you mean?”
Beatrice looked away.
“She was an accountant for the Vale companies.”
Adrian stepped forward.
“Why have I never heard of her?”
Because that was the question.
The question nobody could answer.
Beatrice closed her eyes.
“Because your father erased her.”
The room went silent.
Adrian’s expression changed.
“My father?”
“Yes.”
I felt dizzy.
My entire life had just shifted.
The woman I thought I knew.
The family I thought I understood.
Everything was becoming a lie.
“Why?”
Beatrice looked at Adrian.
“Because Sarah discovered something.”
“What?”
She didn’t answer immediately.
And that scared me.
“Your father’s company wasn’t as clean as everyone believed.”
Adrian’s face hardened.
“My father built this company.”
“Yes.”
Beatrice looked at him.
“And he destroyed people to protect it.”
Nobody spoke.
I looked at the photograph again.
My mother standing beside a young Adrian.
Why would she be near him?
Why would Beatrice hide this?
Then another thought entered my mind.
The pregnancy records.
The investigator.
The attacks.
Maybe this wasn’t about my baby.
Maybe my baby had uncovered something much older.
Daniel suddenly received a message.
He looked at the screen.
Then his face changed.
“What?”
Adrian noticed.
“Daniel?”
The lawyer looked at me.
“I found the person who sent the video.”
My heart raced.
“Who?”
Daniel hesitated.
Then he answered.
“Someone who worked for your mother.”
My eyes widened.
“My mother has been dead for twelve years.”
Daniel nodded.
“I know.”
The room froze.
“Then who?”
Daniel looked at Adrian.
“The person using her old company access…”
He swallowed.
“Is someone inside the Vale family.”
A cold silence filled the room.
May you like
And then Beatrice whispered:
“He’s back.”
