Chapter 9 - THE TRUTH BEHIND THE PERFECT FAMILY
Adrian wanted to call the police.
I wanted answers.
We argued for almost an hour.
“You could have been hurt.”
“I need to know what happened to my mother.”
“You are carrying our child.”
“And my mother died protecting a secret!”
The room became silent.
Adrian looked at me.
Not angry.
Just hurt.
“I’m scared of losing you.”
Those words changed everything.
Because underneath all the power.
All the money.
All the control.
Adrian was just a man terrified of losing his family.
I took his hand.
“I’m scared too.”
For the first time that day, we stopped fighting.
Then Daniel entered.
“We found something.”
Adrian immediately turned.
“What?”
Daniel placed a tablet on the table.
“Security footage from twelve years ago.”
The video started.
The quality was poor.
But the people were clear.
My mother.
Richard Vale.
And a younger Beatrice.
They were standing in the old company office.
My heart raced.
My mother looked terrified.
Richard was angry.
The audio was damaged.
But one sentence was clear.
Richard’s voice.
“You don’t understand what you’re threatening.”
Then my mother answered.
“If the truth comes out, your entire empire falls.”
The video continued.
Then Richard said something that made everyone freeze.
“You have no idea what I’m willing to do.”
The footage ended.
Nobody spoke.
Adrian looked destroyed.
“My father threatened her.”
Daniel nodded.
“There’s more.”
He opened another file.
A police report.
My mother’s accident.
The official report said it was a mistake.
A rainy road.
A driver losing control.
But the new evidence showed something else.
Brake damage.
A missing vehicle record.
A witness who disappeared.
My knees felt weak.
My mother wasn’t just hiding a secret.
She was running from someone.
And that person had been protecting the truth for twelve years.
Adrian looked at me.
“We need to find the child.”
I nodded.
“Yes.”
Before we could continue, Daniel’s phone rang.
He answered.
Then his expression changed.
“What?”
He listened.
Then slowly lowered the phone.
“Adrian…”
“What?”
Daniel looked at me.
“We found the child.”
My heart stopped.
“Where?”
Daniel swallowed.
“The records were hidden under another name.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“Who?”
Daniel looked at the document.
Then said:
“The child is twenty-four years old.”
Silence.
I stared.
Twenty-four.
A secret older than me.
A person who had lived their entire life without knowing the truth.
Then Daniel said the name.
And the world seemed to stop.
“Her name is Beatrice Vale.”
Nobody moved.
Nobody breathed.
May you like
Because the child everyone had been searching for…
Was the woman who had tried to destroy me.
