Three days passed without a word from Richard.
Thomas contacted every person he knew who might have information.
Nothing.
The foundation's legal team searched public records.
Richard had left no obvious trail.
Daniel became increasingly uneasy.
Elena noticed.
“You think something happened to him.”
“I don't know.”
“You do.”
Daniel sighed.
“I think Richard knew this day might come.”
“What day?”
“The day someone realized he still had evidence.”
Elena looked toward the ledger.
“You think he hid something else?”
“I think he hid everything.”
That afternoon, Elena returned to the foundation office.
The building was quiet.
Most employees had gone home.
She sat in the archive room and opened the ledger again.
The entries were handwritten in several styles.
Some pages belonged to her mother.
Others appeared to have been written by Richard.
A few were written by someone else.
Elena recognized the handwriting.
Daniel saw it too.
“Samuel.”
They looked at each other.
“What does it say?” Daniel asked.
Elena read the entry aloud.
Payment received.
Transfer completed.
Identity substituted.
She looked up.
“Identity substituted?”
Daniel frowned.
“Maybe someone used another person's name.”
Elena turned the page.
There was a list.
Victor Hayes.
Richard Vale.
Margaret Hayes.
Daniel Hayes.
Elena Hayes.
Her own name was last.
Next to it was a date.
The date was six months before her mother died.
Elena stared at it.
“I wasn't involved.”
“I know.”
Daniel looked sick.
“What?”
“Look at the note underneath.”
Elena read it.
Future beneficiary.
Primary target.
Thomas arrived twenty minutes later.
Elena showed him the page.
He immediately photographed it.
“This is important.”
“Why?”
“Because it proves someone had identified you before the trust became accessible.”
“Who?”
“We don't know.”
Thomas turned the page.
A number was written beside the names.
“That's an account number.”
“Whose?”
“I'll find out.”
While he worked, Elena called Margaret.
Margaret answered after several rings.
“Elena?”
“I need to ask you about Victor.”
Silence.
“What about him?”
“Did he ever use the name Vale?”
Margaret's breathing changed.
“You found the box.”
Elena closed her eyes.
“You knew.”
“I suspected.”
“Did you know my mother had another box?”
“No.”
“Then how did you know what I meant?”
Margaret hesitated.
“Because your mother once showed me the photograph.”
“When?”
“Before she died.”
“What did she say?”
“That Victor had another family name.”
Elena's stomach tightened.
“What did that mean?”
“I don't know.”
“You do.”
Margaret sighed.
“Victor's father was a man named Jonathan Vale.”
Elena looked at Thomas.
He stopped writing.
Margaret continued.
“Jonathan was involved in the original investment group.”
“How involved?”
“He controlled it.”
Elena felt the room grow colder.
“Then Victor inherited it.”
“Yes.”
“And Samuel took control later.”
Margaret said nothing.
“Margaret?”
“I don't know what happened after that.”
Elena knew she was withholding something.
“What are you afraid of?”
Margaret's voice dropped.
“Not Samuel.”
“Then who?”
“The people Samuel was afraid of.”
The call ended.
Thomas stared at Elena.
“That isn't reassuring.”
“No.”
Daniel sat down.
“Maybe we should stop.”
Elena turned toward him.
“No.”
“You have Sophie.”
“I know.”
“Then why keep digging?”
“Because someone identified my daughter before she was even born.”
Daniel looked away.
Elena's voice softened.
“I need to know why.”
That night, Sophie came home from school.
She found Elena at the dining table surrounded by papers.
“Are you working?”
“Yes.”
“Again?”
Elena smiled.
“For a little while.”
Sophie sat opposite her.
“What are those?”
“Old family records.”
“About Grandma?”
“Some.”
Sophie picked up the photograph of Victor.
“That’s Grandpa.”
“Yes.”
“He looks serious.”
“He was.”
“Did he do bad things?”
Elena considered the question.
“He made bad choices.”
Sophie nodded.
“Like Daddy?”
Daniel, standing in the doorway, heard her.
Elena looked at him.
Daniel smiled sadly.
“Fair question.”
Sophie returned to her homework.
Later, after Sophie went upstairs, Daniel approached Elena.
“I found something.”
He handed her an old business card.
The name was Samuel Cross.
On the back was an address.
Elena recognized it.
“The old Arden building.”
Daniel nodded.
“I found it in my mother's files.”
“You never gave this to the investigators.”
“I didn't know it mattered.”
“When did you find it?”
“Tonight.”
Elena stared at him.
“You've been searching too?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Daniel looked directly at her.
“Because I owe you the truth.”
Elena was quiet.
Then she nodded.
“Let's go tomorrow.”
They arrived at the building just after sunrise.
The front entrance was boarded shut.
Daniel led Elena around the side.
There was a service door.
He used an old key.
Elena looked at him.
“You had this?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Samuel gave it to me years ago.”
Inside, dust covered everything.
Old desks.
Broken cabinets.
A rusted filing system.
They moved slowly.
At the back of the building, Daniel stopped.
“There.”
A metal safe was built into the wall.
Elena looked at him.
“Can you open it?”
“No.”
She tried the key from the second box.
The lock clicked.
Inside was a stack of files.
The top file contained a photograph of her mother.
The second contained a photograph of Richard.
The third contained a photograph of Samuel.
The fourth contained a photograph of a woman Elena had never seen.
Thomas's name was written beneath it.
Elena frowned.
“That can't be right.”
Daniel looked closer.
“That's not Thomas.”
The name beneath the photograph was not Thomas.
It was Evelyn Reed.
Elena froze.
“Reed?”
Daniel nodded.
“Thomas's mother?”
“Yes.”
A cold feeling spread through Elena.
Thomas had never mentioned her.
They turned the page.
Evelyn Reed had been the original legal adviser to the investment group.
She had helped establish the trust.
She had also been the person who transferred the recovered funds into Elena's mother's account.
Elena stared at the records.
“She built the protection.”
Daniel nodded.
“But why is she connected to Samuel?”
They found the answer on the next page.
Evelyn had resigned twenty years earlier.
Then disappeared.
Underneath her name was a handwritten note.
She knows where the original records are.
Elena looked at Daniel.
“Thomas's mother.”
“Yes.”
“Then Thomas may know.”
Daniel shook his head.
“Or someone may be using her name.”
Elena closed the file.
“We need Thomas.”
Her phone rang.
It was Thomas.
His voice was breathless.
“Elena, don't come back to the foundation.”
“Why?”
“There was a break-in.”
“Were the records taken?”
“No.”
“What was taken?”
There was a pause.
“Your mother's photograph.”
Elena looked at the photograph in her hand.
She suddenly understood.
The photograph wasn't valuable.
The person searching for it wanted proof.
Proof that her mother had known the truth.
Proof that someone else had been there with her.
And perhaps proof that the investigation was still alive.
Thomas said one more thing.
“There's a message on your desk.”
“What does it say?”
His voice dropped.
“Ask who Evelyn Reed really was.”
Click Here to continue read next: PART11: Thomas’s Mother Was Not the Woman Elena Remembered From the Records, and the Final Ledger Page Changed the Meaning of Her Mother’s Last Warning
The Accusation Came Before the Apology, and Her Daughter Was the Only Person Who Knew Something Was Wrong
Part 10 of 16
