“He gave it away.”
That was Richard.
He had found a way to prove both sides wrong.
I wouldn’t become the wealthy widow everyone expected.
His children wouldn’t inherit the empire they assumed belonged to them.
Instead, thousands of strangers Richard would never meet might survive the kind of desperate years that had nearly destroyed me.
I began crying again.
Michael crossed the room.
For the first time since Richard died, one of his children touched me.
He hugged me.
Rebecca stared at us.
Then something strange happened.
Her face collapsed.
She sat down and covered her mouth.
“I didn’t know.”
I looked at her.
“About what?”
She glanced at Arthur.
“Dad called me two days before he died.”
Arthur frowned.
“What did he say?”
Rebecca shook her head.
“He asked me whether I remembered Thomas.”
My stomach tightened.
Richard’s brother.
My biological father.
Rebecca continued.
“I thought he was confused from the medication. He kept saying, ‘Thomas ruined more lives than we knew.’”
Arthur stared at her.
“What else?”
“He said there was another child.”
Silence.
I felt every hair on my arms rise.
“What?”
Rebecca looked directly at me.
“He said Thomas had another child.”
Arthur stood.
“Did he give you a name?”
“No.”
“A location?”
“No.”
“But he said something else.”
Rebecca swallowed.
“He said, ‘If Elena ever finds out who it is, she’ll understand why I kept the truth buried.’”
My heart began hammering.
Arthur grabbed Richard’s letter from the desk.
He reread it.
Then he looked toward the wooden box.
The photograph.
The key.
Everything had seemed finished.
But now Arthur walked back to the box and ran his fingers along the velvet interior.
“What are you doing?”
“This box is heavier than it should be.”
He lifted the lining.
Underneath was a hidden compartment.
Rebecca stood.
Daniel and Michael moved closer.
Arthur removed one final envelope.
It wasn’t addressed to me.
It wasn’t addressed to Arthur.
Across the front, Richard had written:
**TO MY CHILDREN — READ ONLY AFTER ELENA LEARNS ABOUT THOMAS.**
Arthur opened it.
Inside was a single photograph.
Four children stood beside a lake.
Rebecca.
Daniel.
Michael.
And a fourth child.
A girl.
Maybe twelve years old.
I didn’t recognize her.
Rebecca did.
Her face turned white.
“No.”
Daniel whispered something I couldn’t hear.
Michael backed away.
I looked between them.
“Who is she?”
No one answered.
“Who is the girl?”
Rebecca stared at me as if she had just seen a ghost.
Then she whispered:
“Her name was Claire.”
“Was?”
Rebecca’s eyes filled with tears.
“She was our cousin.”
My stomach twisted.
“Thomas’s daughter?”
Rebecca shook her head.
“No.”
Arthur turned the photograph over.
Richard had written a message on the back.
**Claire was not Thomas’s daughter.**
Then beneath it:
**She was mine.**
Nobody moved.
Richard had another daughter.
One his children apparently knew.
One I had never heard about.
And apparently, whatever happened to Claire was somehow connected to my biological father.
Arthur pulled another sheet from the hidden compartment.
His eyes scanned the page.
Then all the color disappeared from his face.
“What does it say?” I demanded.
He didn’t answer.
“Arthur.”
He slowly lowered himself into the chair.
“The estate isn’t finished.”
Rebecca frowned.
“What are you talking about?”
Arthur looked at me.
“Richard placed one property outside the foundation.”
“Which property?”
“The Hawthorne house.”
The abandoned mansion beside the cottage.
My skin prickled.
“Why?”
Arthur swallowed.
“Because it doesn’t belong to Richard.”
“Then who does it belong to?”
He stared at the letter.
“To Claire.”
Rebecca grabbed the desk.
“Claire died twenty-four years ago.”
Arthur shook his head.
“No.”
The room went silent.
“No?” Rebecca whispered.
Arthur handed me Richard’s final note.
There were only three lines.
**Claire did not die.**
**I paid someone to make the world believe she did because Thomas was looking for her.**
**Elena, if you want to understand why I married you—and why I truly believed you were in danger—you must find your sister before she finds you.**
My hands went numb.
“Sister?”
Arthur looked stunned.
Rebecca looked terrified.
And then someone’s phone rang.
Not mine.
Not Arthur’s.
The sound came from inside the wooden box.
We all stared at it.
Arthur lifted the hidden compartment again.
Beneath it sat a tiny prepaid phone.
It was ringing.
I reached for it.
Rebecca grabbed my wrist.
“Don’t.”
I looked at her.
“Why?”
Her voice dropped to a whisper.
“Because if Claire is alive, there is something Dad never told you.”
The phone kept ringing.
“What?”
Rebecca’s eyes filled with terror.
“Claire tried to kill him once.”
The phone rang again.
I pulled free and answered.
For three seconds, there was only silence.
Then a woman’s voice spoke.
Older.
Calm.
Almost familiar.
“Hello, Elena.”
My heart stopped.
“Claire?”
The woman laughed softly.
“No.”
I looked at Arthur.
“Then who is this?”
There was another pause.
And then she said the six words that shattered everything I thought I knew.
“My name is Margaret. Your mother.”
…If you want to know what happened next, please type “YES” and like for more.
See more on the next page
