Chapter 4 - The Daughter No One MentionedMy first reaction was disbelief.

Then anger.

Then fear.

“My father had another daughter?”

Evelyn nodded.

“Before you.”

I couldn't speak.

Michael asked, “Where is she?”

“I don't know.”

“You expect us to believe that?”

“She disappeared twenty-two years ago.”

I stared at Evelyn.

“Twenty-two?”

“Yes.”

“I thought my mother disappeared twenty-one years ago.”

“She did.”

“Then who was the child?”

Evelyn looked at me.

“You.”

My mouth fell open.

“That doesn't make sense.”

“You weren't raised by your mother after the disappearance.”

I felt my chest tighten.

“What are you saying?”

Evelyn opened a file.

Inside was a birth record.

The name was Abigail Hart.

Not Abigail Carter.

My birth date.

My mother's name.

My father's name.

But one detail was different.

Hospital:

St. Mary's Medical Center.

I had been told I was born in a private clinic.

Michael stared at the document.

“Someone changed her identity.”

Evelyn nodded.

“Your father believed you were in danger.”

“What about the other daughter?”

“Another girl was born six months earlier.”

My heart pounded.

“Who?”

Evelyn shook her head.

“We never knew.”

“Then why do you keep calling her my sister?”

“Because your father did.”

Michael interrupted.

“Why would Richard know about this?”

Evelyn's eyes narrowed.

“Because Richard wasn't working alone.”

She pulled out another file.

Board meeting documents.

There was Richard's signature.

Daniel Cross's.

And another name.

Vanessa Hale.

I stared.

“Vanessa?”

Evelyn nodded.

“She has known your family for years.”

My stomach turned.

Richard's bride.

The woman standing beside him at the altar.

The woman who looked shocked when she saw me.

Was that shock real?

Or performance?

I returned to the city that night.

Vanessa was nowhere to be found.

Richard had been arrested.

The media had exploded.

Every news outlet was talking about the woman who walked into her husband's wedding with the child he had declared dead.

But one story fascinated everyone.

Richard's missing financial empire.

And there was another story buried underneath.

Daniel Cross had resurfaced.

The investigators found his fingerprints on a shell company connected to Richard.

But there was more.

Someone had accessed Richard's legal defense account.

At midnight, I received another message.

YOU'RE LOOKING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION.

I typed:

WHO ARE YOU?

The reply came instantly.

LOOK AT VANESSA.

I froze.

Another message.

SHE KNOWS WHERE YOUR MOTHER IS.

I called Michael.

We went to Vanessa's hotel.

She had checked out two hours earlier.

But she had left something behind.

A wedding dress.

A passport.

And a handwritten note.

For Abigail.

My hands shook as I unfolded it.

I am sorry.

Those were the first words.

The second line was worse.

Richard is not the man you should fear.

I read further.

I married him because I had no choice.

He was holding someone hostage.

My mother.

I looked at Michael.

He whispered, “Keep reading.”

Vanessa's note continued.

Six weeks ago, when Richard told everyone you died, he wasn't supposed to kill you.

He was supposed to bring you back.

Then something changed.

Someone ordered him to make sure you never reached the police.

Your father had hidden evidence worth billions.

Richard believed you knew where it was.

I felt sick.

Billions.

The company wasn't just being robbed.

It was hiding something.

At the bottom of the page was an address.

A church.

Twenty miles outside the city.

And a final sentence:

Your mother is there.

We drove through the night.

The church stood alone among the trees.

The lights were on.

The door was unlocked.

“Hello?”

No answer.

We entered.

Rows of empty wooden pews.

A cross above the altar.

A small room behind it.

And inside that room stood a woman.

Her back was toward us.

She turned.

I forgot how to breathe.

She was older.

Her hair was gray.

But her eyes were mine.

My mother.

Elizabeth.

She stared at me.

Then at Grace.

Her lips trembled.

“My little girl.”

I began crying.

I stepped forward.

She stepped back.

“No.”

“Mom?”

“Don't come closer.”

“Why?”

Her face filled with terror.

“Because they found me.”

The church lights suddenly went out.

A gunshot exploded through the darkness.

Elizabeth screamed.

Michael pulled me down.

Another shot struck the wall.

And from outside came a man's voice.

“You should have listened, Abigail.”

May you like

I Came Home Early and Found My Sick Mother Being Treated Like a Servant...

I arrived home three hours earlier than expected and discovered my ill mother struggling to cook over a blazing stove while lookin...

My Father Ordered Me to Remove My Army Uniform in Front of 20 Relatives,...

My father demanded that I take off my Army uniform in front of twenty family members because he believed I was trying to make myse...

My Husband Brought His Mistress to Our Divorce Hearing and Claimed He Ow...

My husband arrived at our divorce hearing with his mistress beside him, wearing the smug expression of a man who believed he had a...

I recognized it.

Richard.