Chapter 3 - THE SECRET IN THE WALLElena killed the lights.
“Get Zoe.”
I scooped my daughter into my arms.
“What is happening?”
“Your father knows you're here.”
“How?”
“I don't know.”
The headlights outside moved.
A vehicle slowly rolled past the window.
Then disappeared.
Elena grabbed the file.
“We're leaving.”
She led us through a back door.
We crossed an alley covered in snow.
Her second car was parked behind the building.
Ten minutes later, we were driving again.
Zoe slept against me.
I stared through the windshield.
“Who is my father really?”
Elena didn't answer immediately.
“Your father is exactly who you think he is.”
“Then why is everyone lying?”
“Because your family has been lying for fifteen years.”
We finally arrived at an old farmhouse outside town.
Elena locked the door behind us.
Then she removed a painting from the wall.
Behind it was a safe.
She entered a code.
Inside was a small metal box.
She placed it on the table.
“This is the rest.”
My fingers trembled as I opened it.
Inside was a red envelope.
My name was written across it.
CLARA.
I opened it.
Inside was a letter.
The handwriting was unfamiliar.
But the first sentence made my heart stop.
Dear Clara,
If you are reading this, Elena found you.
I knew she would.
I looked up.
“Who wrote this?”
“My father.”
“Your grandfather?”
She nodded.
I kept reading.
The letter said that when I was born, my grandfather had placed my inheritance into a protected trust.
No one could access it until I turned twenty-five.
Unless certain conditions were met.
One condition involved my mother.
Another involved my father.
And one involved Elena.
Then came the sentence that changed everything.
Your parents will attempt to make you believe you are worthless. This is deliberate. They need you to believe you have nothing.
I stopped breathing.
Elena watched me.
“They knew?”
“They've known from the beginning.”
“Why?”
“Because your father was named executor.”
I looked at her.
“He controlled the trust?”
“Temporarily.”
“Then why hasn't he given it to me?”
“He wasn't supposed to.”
I turned the page.
At the bottom was a handwritten warning.
If Clara ever discovers the truth, the account should be transferred immediately.
Unless the executor has filed a fraudulent incapacity claim.
I looked up.
“What does that mean?”
Elena whispered:
“They tried to have you declared mentally unstable.”
I stared at her.
“When?”
“Three years ago.”
I thought about it.
Three years ago was when my divorce began.
My father had insisted I was too emotional to make decisions.
He had encouraged me to let him "help" with my finances.
I suddenly felt sick.
“They were trying to control me.”
“Yes.”
A sound came from upstairs.
We both froze.
Footsteps.
One.
Two.
Three.
Someone was walking across the ceiling.
Elena grabbed my wrist.
“Stay here.”
“No.”
She went toward the stairs.
Then stopped.
The front door slammed open.
A man's voice echoed through the house.
“Clara!”
My father's voice.
Zoe woke screaming.
My father stepped inside.
Snow covered his coat.
He looked at me.
Then Elena.
And for the first time in my life, I saw genuine fear in my father's eyes.
“You weren't supposed to find her.”
Elena stepped forward.
“You should have known I'd come for her.”
My father reached inside his coat.
I thought he had a weapon.
He pulled out a photograph.
He threw it onto the table.
I picked it up.
It showed me as a baby.
In my mother's arms.
Beside her stood another man.
A man I had never seen before.
On the back was written:
The real reason Clara was taken.
I looked at my father.
“Who is that?”
He didn't answer.
Elena did.
“That,” she said, “is the man your mother was married to before your father.”
I stared at her.
“What?”
May you like
She looked at my father.
“And he isn't dead.”
