Chapter 10 - The SUV disappeared before Ruiz could reach it.Elena stood frozen.
“My mother.”
Ruiz didn't answer.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“You lied to me for years.”
“I was trying to keep you alive.”
“You let me think she was dead.”
“She wanted you to think she was dead.”
“Why?”
Ruiz looked toward the road.
“Because if the network discovered she was alive, they'd kill you.”
Elena shook her head.
“And now she's with Daniel.”
Ruiz nodded.
“Which means she may have been captured.”
“Or she was never your ally.”
Ruiz stared at her.
“That possibility exists.”
Back at the mansion, Vanessa was waiting.
“I know where Margaret keeps the original trust documents.”
Elena looked at her.
“How?”
Vanessa held up a key.
“She gave it to me.”
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
Elena narrowed her eyes.
“Maybe she wanted you to find it.”
They entered the basement.
Behind an old wine rack was a steel door.
Vanessa inserted the key.
The door opened.
Inside was a room filled with files.
Photographs.
Bank statements.
Contracts.
Newspapers.
And dozens of passports.
Elena walked slowly through them.
Then she saw one.
CLAIRE REED.
Her mother's photograph.
But the passport was issued three months ago.
Country:
Switzerland.
Elena stared.
“She traveled recently.”
Ruiz picked up another folder.
“Look.”
Inside were financial records.
Millions transferred.
Names Elena didn't recognize.
Then one name caught her eye.
Daniel Howard.
The dates matched.
Payments had been made to him every month for twelve years.
Not by Margaret.
By someone else.
“Who is paying him?”
Ruiz traced the account.
“It's impossible.”
“Why?”
“The account belongs to a trust.”
“What trust?”
Ruiz looked at Elena.
“Yours.”
Silence.
Elena took the papers.
“My trust paid Daniel?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
A paragraph explained everything.
Daniel had been appointed guardian of the trust before Elena turned twenty-one.
He had secretly redirected funds for years.
Elena realized something even worse.
Her marriage hadn't been designed to steal the inheritance.
It had been designed to conceal the fact that he already controlled it.
She suddenly remembered something.
A conversation from months earlier.
Daniel had once said:
“By the time the baby is born, everything will be ours.”
She had assumed he meant the money.
Now she understood.
He meant the evidence.
A sound came from upstairs.
The basement door slammed shut.
Ruiz looked up.
“Someone's here.”
They heard footsteps.
Slow.
Heavy.
A key turned.
The door opened.
Margaret stood there.
Alone.
She smiled.
“You've finally discovered the truth.”
Elena stepped forward.
“Where is my mother?”
Margaret smiled.
“Safe.”
“You're lying.”
“Perhaps.”
Ruiz raised his gun.
Margaret laughed.
“You still don't understand, Detective.”
She looked at Elena.
“The people you're hunting aren't the Howard family.”
“Then who are they?”
Margaret's smile faded.
“The people protecting you.”
Elena stared.
“What?”
Margaret pointed at Ruiz.
“He has been manipulating you from the beginning.”
Ruiz shouted:
“Don't listen to her.”
Margaret calmly removed a small envelope from her coat.
She handed it to Elena.
“Open it.”
Elena did.
Inside was a photograph.
Ruiz stood beside Elena's father.
But on the date of the photograph, Ruiz was officially serving in another city.
At the bottom of the photograph was a handwritten sentence.
THE MAN WHO KILLED YOUR FATHER WAS STANDING BESIDE HIM.
Elena looked at Ruiz.
He slowly lowered his weapon.
May you like
Then said:
“She's right.”
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