Chapter 6 - THE TRUTH THAT VICTORIA TRIED TO BURY
Victoria had spent eight years controlling the story.
She controlled the funeral.
She controlled the information.
She controlled what August believed.
But now everything was falling apart.
She stood inside her private bedroom, pacing back and forth.
Her perfect image was disappearing.
The little girl was supposed to be gone.
The ring was supposed to be lost.
Caroline’s evidence was supposed to disappear forever.
She grabbed her phone.
“It happened.”
A man answered.
“You found her?”
“No.”
Victoria looked out the window.
“She found him.”
A pause.
“That’s impossible.”
“I saw the ring.”
The man became silent.
Then he said:
“Then we have a problem.”
Victoria clenched her fist.
“No. We have a solution.”
Meanwhile, August sat across from Elsie.
He didn’t know how to talk to her.
He had negotiated billion-dollar deals.
He had faced angry investors.
He had survived business wars.
But sitting across from a seven-year-old girl terrified him.
“Elsie.”
The girl looked up.
“Yes?”
“Did your mother ever tell you about me?”
She nodded.
“She said you were stubborn.”
August almost smiled.
“She said that?”
“Yes.”
“What else?”
Elsie thought.
“She said you loved people deeply, but sometimes you listened to the wrong people.”
The words hurt because they were true.
“Did she hate me?”
Elsie immediately shook her head.
“No.”
“Then why didn’t she come home?”
The little girl looked down.
“Because she was scared.”
August’s heart broke.
“Scared of what?”
Elsie reached into her backpack.
She pulled out a small key.
“My mom said this opens the place where the truth is hidden.”
August stared at it.
“Where did she tell you to use it?”
Elsie looked toward the window.
“Somewhere in this house.”
August stood.
His family mansion had hundreds of rooms.
Secret offices.
Private storage areas.
Places even he rarely visited.
Then Elsie whispered:
“She said Victoria would never look there.”
August suddenly remembered something.
A room that had been locked for years.
Caroline’s old bedroom.
He walked toward the door.
But before he could reach it…
The lights in the mansion suddenly went out.
Darkness covered the entire house.
A sound came from the hallway.
A door closing.
Then Elsie grabbed his hand.
“Grandpa…”
Her voice trembled.
“Someone is here.”
May you like
And in the darkness, August heard a voice whisper:
“You should have left the past buried.”
