Chapter 7 - The investigation expanded overnight.Detectives searched hospitals.
Records offices.
Financial institutions.
Private clinics.
Old properties.
Everywhere Helen had ever lived.
My identity was suddenly a legal question.
Not an emotional one.
A real one.
Birth records had to be verified.
DNA tests ordered.
Documents reviewed.
For the first time in my life, people asked me for evidence that I belonged to my own family.
Daniel stood beside me through all of it.
He held Lily while a nurse collected my sample.
The nurse smiled.
“Just a little pressure.”
I laughed.
“I've had worse today.”
Daniel squeezed my hand.
“That's an understatement.”
The results would take days.
But Elliot said he didn't need DNA to know the truth.
“There are records.”
“Then why weren't they found before?”
“Because Helen buried them.”
“How?”
“Money.”
That answer became the key to everything.
Helen had spent decades paying people.
Changing addresses.
Closing accounts.
Buying silence.
The seven million dollars had come from somewhere.
The police traced one transfer.
Then another.
Then another.
They discovered a shell company.
The shell company belonged to a man named Victor Hale.
I'd never heard of him.
Elliot had.
“Who is Victor Hale?”
He looked at Dad.
Then at me.
“He was Helen's lawyer.”
“What happened to him?”
“Dead.”
“Convenient.”
“Very.”
The detective entered.
“We found the original trust.”
He placed a document on the table.
It had been created thirty years ago.
The beneficiary was not Helen.
It wasn't Rebecca.
It wasn't my father.
It was me.
But there was a condition.
I couldn't access the money until I turned thirty-five.
“Why?”
The detective pointed to a signature.
“Helen's.”
Then another.
“My father's.”
And a third.
Maria Bennett.
My biological mother.
The trust contained seven million dollars.
Not stolen money.
Inheritance.
Money that Maria had received from her parents.
Money that had been placed into trust for her daughter.
For me.
My mother had hidden it.
For thirty years.
I felt physically sick.
“She took the baby and the money.”
Elliot nodded.
“But why would she need me to access it?”
Dad answered.
“She needed you alive.”
I looked at him.
“What?”
“She couldn't legally touch the trust unless you died.”
Silence.
Daniel's face changed.
“So the baby shower…”
My stomach dropped.
“It wasn't about Rebecca.”
Dad shook his head.
“It was about you.”
My mother had not simply wanted to hurt me.
She had wanted to scare me.
Break me.
Possibly make me appear unstable.
Because if I lost custody of Lily, I might lose control of the trust.
But the money wasn't available yet.
I was twenty-nine.
Five years remained.
The detective said:
“Your mother's attorney claims she had no knowledge of the account.”
Elliot laughed.
“She knew.”
“How?”
“She transferred money from it.”
“When?”
“For years.”
The detective looked at him.
“Do you have records?”
“I have copies.”
He opened another folder.
Every transfer was listed.
Medical bills.
House renovations.
Vacation homes.
Private school tuition.
Cars.
Everything.
Helen had spent my inheritance.
My inheritance.
And now she was being charged with trying to destroy the daughter whose money she had stolen.
Rebecca sat quietly in the corner.
She hadn't spoken for an hour.
I finally looked at her.
“Why did you help her?”
She wiped her face.
“Because she promised she'd give me some of the trust.”
I stared.
“How much?”
“Five hundred thousand.”
I felt something break inside me.
“You were going to sell my child for five hundred thousand dollars?”
“No!”
“You gave her the keys.”
“I didn't know about the fire.”
“But you knew she was planning something.”
Rebecca began crying.
“I thought she would force you to leave.”
“Why?”
“Because she said if you disappeared, the family could finally heal.”
I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
Then the detective entered with another envelope.
“This arrived at the station.”
He handed it to me.
No stamp.
No return address.
Inside was a photograph.
Three women.
One was me.
One was Rebecca.
The third woman looked strangely familiar.
On the back:
SHE'S BEEN WATCHING FOR YOU.
I turned the photograph over.
“Who is she?”
The detective didn't answer.
Elliot did.
“Your sister.”
Rebecca whispered:
“No.”
I looked at the photograph again.
The woman was standing outside a café.
She had the same eyes as me.
And around her neck was a small silver pendant.
I recognized it.
It had belonged to Maria.
“Where was this taken?”
“Virginia,” Elliot said.
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
My heart raced.
“Yesterday?”
He nodded.
“She came looking for you.”
“Where?”
Elliot's eyes moved toward Daniel.
Then to me.
“She went to the hospital.”
“For Lily?”
“No.”
“For me?”
“No.”
He leaned forward.
“She went looking for Helen.”
Then my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
A woman's voice whispered:
“Don't trust your father.”
I froze.
The caller continued.
“He knows why Maria disappeared.”
The line went dead.
Then a second message arrived.
One sentence.
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT THE TRUTH.
May you like
And beneath it was an address.
The old house where my mother had grown up.
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