Chapter 4 - The Wrong GirlThe words wouldn't leave my mind.

I had spent twelve years believing the fire had been meant to kill me.

Now Juliette was telling me I wasn't the target.

"Who was?"

She looked at me.

"Mom."

My breath caught.

Our mother had died six months before the fire.

Cancer.

At least, that's what we'd been told.

"You said Mom died before the fire."

"That's what Dad wanted everyone to believe."

Juliette's voice shook.

"Mom discovered the ledger."

I remembered her final weeks.

She had become frightened.

She locked her bedroom door.

She stopped trusting our father.

And one night, she told me:

"If anything happens to me, never trust the story they tell you."

I had forgotten that sentence.

Until now.

Juliette told me our mother had discovered that Richard had been stealing from the family trust.

But she had discovered something worse.

He had been using the Mercer Foundation to move money belonging to powerful clients.

People who couldn't go to the police.

People who could destroy the family.

Our mother threatened to expose him.

So she died.

Then I found the ledger.

And I became dangerous.

"Why didn't they kill me immediately?"

Juliette looked down.

"Because Mom had already transferred everything."

"What?"

"She changed the inheritance."

My heart stopped.

"To me?"

Juliette nodded.

"To you."

Suddenly everything made sense.

The missing inheritance.

The forged death certificate.

The sudden disappearance of my trust.

Juliette hadn't inherited my fortune.

She had been holding it.

For twelve years.

I looked at her.

"How much?"

She whispered the amount.

I almost laughed.

It was more money than I could comprehend.

"Where is it?"

"Most of it is gone."

"Where?"

"Daniel."

The name hit me like a slap.

"Your fiancé?"

She nodded.

"Daniel found out about the trust."

"Then why marry him?"

"Because he threatened me."

Before I could respond, the ballroom doors opened.

Daniel entered.

His suit was perfectly arranged.

His face was calm.

Too calm.

He looked at Juliette.

Then at me.

"Family reunion?"

I stepped toward him.

"You knew I was alive."

He smiled.

"I suspected."

"Did you know about the fire?"

He said nothing.

I slapped him.

The sound echoed.

He slowly turned his face back.

Then smiled.

"You really are Caroline."

I felt my stomach turn.

"Why?"

He leaned close.

"Because only Caroline Mercer would be stupid enough to walk into a room full of people who want her dead."

The lights suddenly went out.

Juliette screamed.

When they returned, Daniel was gone.

So was my father.

And on the altar sat a single envelope.

My name was written across it.

I opened it.

Inside was a photograph of my mother.

Alive.

Taken three days after the date of her supposed death.

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On the back was one sentence:

YOUR MOTHER DIDN'T DIE. SHE WAS TAKEN.