Chapter 6 - Victoria's SecretOliver immediately stepped away from Victoria.
Robert stood between them.
“Why does the note mention you?”
Victoria looked at the paper.
“I don’t know.”
Oliver’s eyes narrowed.
“Your family tried to destroy my mother.”
“I never did.”
“But your father did.”
“I was a child.”
“You knew about Clara.”
“Not the truth.”
Robert looked at his wife.
“Victoria.”
She began crying.
“There is something I never told you.”
Robert went still.
“What?”
Victoria took a breath.
“My father had a locked room in his office.”
Oliver crossed his arms.
“What was inside?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then why mention it?”
“Because I saw a picture there.”
“What picture?”
“Clara.”
Oliver’s expression hardened.
“When?”
“About twenty years ago.”
Robert frowned.
“That would have been after Clara left the city.”
Victoria nodded.
“My father kept files on people.”
Robert stared at her.
“Why?”
“Insurance.”
Oliver laughed.
“Blackmail.”
Victoria nodded.
“Yes.”
Robert looked disgusted.
“What else?”
“There was a file about you.”
“Me?”
Victoria looked at Robert.
“And another about Clara’s son.”
Silence.
Oliver stepped forward.
“What did it say?”
“I only saw one page.”
“What page?”
Victoria swallowed.
“It said the boy was alive.”
Robert stared.
“You knew?”
“No.”
“You saw the file.”
“I was eighteen.”
“You could have told me!”
“My father told me if I ever spoke about it, he would ruin me.”
Oliver’s eyes burned.
“You knew there was a child.”
“I knew there was a file.”
“But you knew my mother.”
Victoria shook her head.
“I never met her.”
Robert looked toward the window.
Too many pieces were fitting together.
Elias Vance.
Victoria’s father.
The surveillance.
The threats.
Oliver.
Then Oliver saw something on the wall.
A small framed photograph.
He walked toward it.
It showed Robert and Victoria at their wedding.
Behind them stood a group of family members.
One man stood slightly apart.
Oliver pointed.
“Who is that?”
Victoria turned.
Her face went white.
“Daniel.”
“Who is Daniel?”
“My father’s security chief.”
Robert stared at the photograph.
Daniel had served Victoria’s father for decades.
Then Robert remembered something.
Daniel had disappeared the same year Clara vanished.
“Where is he now?”
Victoria shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
Oliver took out his phone.
He searched the name.
Nothing.
Then a message appeared.
Unknown sender.
You are asking the right questions.
Oliver stared.
Another message came.
But you are asking them twenty-nine years too late.
Then a photograph arrived.
Oliver opened it.
His blood ran cold.
The image showed Clara holding baby Oliver.
And standing beside them in the hospital room was Daniel.
Alive.
A second message appeared.
She knew who your father was. She knew who wanted you dead.
Oliver stared at the screen.
Then the final message arrived.
She also knew who your real enemy was.
Robert leaned toward the phone.
“Who?”
The sender replied:
Not Victoria.
A pause.
Then another message.
Robert.
Oliver looked at his father.
Robert stepped back.
The phone rang.
This time, the caller ID displayed a name.
Daniel Vance.
Robert answered.
A low voice said:
“Mr. Hale.”
Robert’s face went pale.
“Daniel.”
“You finally found the boy.”
“Where are you?”
Daniel laughed quietly.
“Exactly where I was thirty years ago.”
“Where?”
May you like
Daniel whispered:
“In the house where Clara died.”
