Mara stared at the folder.
Her name was written across the cover in her mother's handwriting.
Thomas reached for it.
Mara stopped him.
“No.”
He looked at her.
“She wrote that for me.”
“You don't know what it contains.”
“Neither do you.”
Mara picked it up.
The folder was heavier than it looked.
Inside was the ownership register.
The original.
Pages of names and properties were bound together with a red thread.
At the center was one name.
Evelyn Vale.
Mara's mother.
She stared at the page.
“What?”
Thomas stepped closer.
Mara looked at him.
“My mother owned the company.”
Thomas shook his head.
“No.”
“It says she did.”
“Then there is another explanation.”
Mara read the entry again.
Evelyn Vale had been listed as the beneficial owner of a company called Northstar Holdings.
Northstar had purchased distressed properties.
Northstar had transferred them to shell companies.
Northstar had received payments.
Northstar had controlled the trust.
Mara felt sick.
“She was part of it.”
Thomas took the register.
“No.”
“How can you say that?”
“Because I knew your mother.”
“You knew her. You didn't know everything.”
Thomas turned the page.
A second signature appeared.
Evelyn Vale had resigned from Northstar years before the property transfers began.
Beneath her resignation was another signature.
Arthur Bell.
Then another.
Victor Mercer.
And finally, a name neither Mara nor Thomas recognized.
Helen Voss.
Thomas stared.
“That name.”
“You know it?”
“I heard it once.”
“From whom?”
“Your mother.”
Mara's eyes narrowed.
“What did she say?”
“She said Helen Voss was the only person Arthur answered to.”
Rachel looked toward the archive door.
“Then where is she?”
Harold answered from the corridor.
“She lives in the city.”
Everyone turned.
Harold was conscious.
Collins helped him sit against the wall.
“You said Helen Voss.”
Harold nodded.
“She was the real owner.”
Mara crouched beside him.
“Why was my mother listed?”
“Because Helen needed a respectable name.”
“My mother was used as a front.”
“Yes.”
“Why did she agree?”
“She didn't.”
Harold coughed.
“She discovered it after the first transfer.”
Mara looked at the register.
“Then why couldn't she expose them?”
“Because Helen had people everywhere.”
Harold looked at Thomas.
“And because Arthur threatened Mara.”
Thomas's face hardened.
Harold continued.
“Your mother chose silence because she believed they would kill you.”
Mara swallowed.
“She could have told me.”
“She wanted you to have a normal life.”
Mara shook her head.
“She gave me twenty-four years of believing my father was dead.”
Thomas looked down.
“She thought that was safer.”
Mara's anger softened into something more complicated.
Not forgiveness.
Not yet.
But understanding.
She turned the register page.
There was a final notation.
PROPERTY 17 — VALE RESIDENCE.
STATUS: PROTECTED.
Below it was another line.
DO NOT TRANSFER UNTIL ORIGINAL OWNER RETURNS.
Mara looked at Thomas.
“Original owner?”
Thomas nodded.
“Your mother never considered herself the owner.”
“Who did she mean?”
Thomas touched the page.
“You.”
Mara understood.
The house had never truly been hers in the ordinary sense.
Her mother had protected it for her.
The forged transfer was an attempt to break that protection.
Arthur wasn't simply stealing a house.
He was trying to erase the last property that could expose the entire scheme.
The archive door suddenly slammed.
Collins stood.
“Someone's here.”
The lights went out.
A gunshot cracked.
Everyone dropped.
Thomas pulled Mara behind a cabinet.
Collins returned fire.
Rachel grabbed Harold and dragged him behind the wall.
Then came footsteps.
One.
Two.
Three.
A man's voice echoed through the darkness.
“Thomas.”
Arthur Bell.
Thomas answered.
“You should have stayed dead.”
Arthur laughed.
“You first.”
Mara recognized the voice from the photograph.
Older now.
But unmistakable.
Arthur stepped into the emergency light.
He held a pistol.
His face was calm.
“You have the register.”
Thomas said nothing.
Arthur looked at Mara.
“So you're the daughter.”
Mara stared at him.
“You killed my father.”
Arthur smiled slightly.
“No.”
Thomas stepped forward.
“You tried.”
“I gave him a choice.”
“You shot him.”
“And he survived.”
Mara's voice shook.
“You let me believe he was dead.”
Arthur looked at her.
“Your mother made that decision.”
Mara felt anger rise.
“You threatened her.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because she wouldn't cooperate.”
Arthur glanced at the register.
“She was stubborn.”
“She was protecting me.”
“Yes.”
Arthur looked almost regretful.
“That was her mistake.”
Collins aimed his weapon.
“Drop yours.”
Arthur smiled.
“You're surrounded.”
Arthur looked toward the corridor.
“No.”
A second man appeared behind Collins.
The deputy froze.
Mara realized they had another problem.
The second man wore a sheriff's uniform.
He raised his weapon.
“Put it down.”
Collins slowly lowered his gun.
Thomas whispered, “Compromised.”
Arthur walked forward.
“Give me the register.”
Mara held it.
“No.”
Arthur looked at her.
“You have no idea what you're holding.”
“I know enough.”
“You know what happens if those names become public?”
“They go to prison.”
Arthur smiled.
“Some will.”
He looked toward Thomas.
“Others will bury the evidence again.”
Mara noticed something.
Arthur kept glancing at one page.
The page containing Helen Voss.
Mara folded the register.
Arthur's expression changed.
“You're not taking that.”
He stepped toward her.
Thomas moved between them.
Arthur raised his gun.
Then Harold shouted.
“Helen is already gone.”
Arthur froze.
Harold smiled weakly.
“She left you.”
Arthur's face hardened.
“What did you say?”
“She transferred everything months ago.”
Mara looked at Harold.
“To whom?”
Harold's eyes moved toward Mara.
“Your mother.”
Mara's heart stopped.
“What?”
“Evelyn had copies.”
Thomas whispered, “Of course.”
Mara looked at him.
“She was still fighting.”
“She never stopped.”
Harold continued.
“She sent the copies to three places.”
“Where?”
“One to the archive.”
“One to the bank?”
“Yes.”
“And the third?”
Harold looked at Mara.
“You.”
Mara stared.
“I don't have anything.”
“You do.”
She thought of the wooden box.
The document.
The photographs.
Then she remembered something she had ignored.
The false eviction order had been placed in the same wooden box.
The box her mother had given her years ago.
She opened it.
Beneath the lining was a hidden compartment.
Mara stared.
Thomas whispered, “Your mother.”
She pulled the lining loose.
Inside was a small memory card.
Arthur saw it.
His face changed.
“No.”
Mara closed her hand around it.
Arthur lunged.
Collins tackled the compromised deputy.
Thomas knocked Arthur's weapon aside.
Rachel pulled Mara toward the exit.
The archive erupted into shouting.
Then sirens flooded the building.
Real police.
Multiple voices.
Arthur tried to escape.
Thomas caught him.
The two men struggled.
Mara watched her father hold the man who had haunted their family for decades.
Arthur looked at Mara.
“You think this ends with me?”
Mara said nothing.
Arthur smiled.
“You don't know Helen.”
“I know enough.”
“No.”
His smile disappeared.
“You've never met the person your mother was truly afraid of.”
Then he was handcuffed.
The compromised deputy was arrested as well.
Mara stood in the corridor with the memory card in her palm.
Thomas approached.
“It's over.”
Mara looked at him.
“No.”
He waited.
She looked at the register.
“At least now we know where to start.”
Thomas smiled sadly.
“That sounds like your mother.”
Mara looked toward the archive.
“For the first time, I think I understand her.”
Then her phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered.
No one spoke.
A woman's voice finally whispered.
“Mara Vale?”
“Yes.”
“This is Helen Voss.”
Mara's blood went cold.
“I think you have something that belongs to me.”
The call ended.
Mara looked at Thomas.
He understood immediately.
The man they had arrested was not the end.
He had only been the shield.
Click Here to continue read next: PART8: The Woman Behind the Scheme Finally Stepped Into the Light, and Mara Had to Decide What Her Mother’s Last Secret Was Worth
She Returned With One Wooden Box, Only to Find the House She Had Saved Already Being Taken Apart
Part 7 of 16
