Chapter 4 - The Name Hidden in the Bracelet
Sophia pointed toward the ballroom entrance.
Her tiny hand was shaking.
“That’s the lady.”
Nobody moved.
Not even the music.
The entire ballroom seemed frozen around those five words.
“That’s the lady who told me not to talk.”
I looked toward the entrance.
But nobody was there.
Only the closed doors.
Only security guards standing nearby.
Only hundreds of confused guests watching a little girl accuse someone they couldn’t see.
Cassian slowly turned toward Sophia.
“Sweetheart.”
He lowered himself beside her.
“Look at me.”
Sophia looked at him.
“Are you sure?”
She nodded.
“She had the same smell.”
My heart tightened.
“What smell?”
Sophia touched her nose.
“The flower smell.”
Everyone looked toward Victoria.
Because she was wearing perfume.
A very expensive perfume.
A perfume strong enough that I had noticed it when she walked near us earlier.
Victoria immediately shook her head.
“This is absurd.”
Cassian stood.
“No one asked you.”
Her expression changed.
For the first time, she looked powerless.
Cassian turned to security.
“Find Isabella Voss.”
The guards looked confused.
One of them hesitated.
“Mr. Voss…”
Cassian’s eyes hardened.
“You heard me.”
The guard nodded quickly.
“Yes, sir.”
I watched everything happening around me.
But one question kept repeating in my mind.
Who was Isabella Voss?
And why did my daughter know her?
I had worked for Voss International for two years.
I knew the company history.
I knew Cassian’s parents had passed away.
I knew his younger brother Adrian lived privately.
But nobody ever mentioned a sister.
Nobody ever mentioned Isabella.
It was like her name had been erased.
Cassian noticed my confusion.
“Elena.”
I looked at him.
“Who is Isabella?”
For a moment, he said nothing.
That silence frightened me.
Because powerful people always had secrets.
And Cassian Voss looked like a man who had just discovered one of his own.
“She was my sister.”
The words hit me.
“Was?”
Cassian looked down.
“She disappeared twelve years ago.”
The room became quieter.
“She was declared missing.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“I thought she was gone.”
Cassian looked at him.
“You knew about this?”
“No.”
Adrian’s voice was serious.
“I knew the official story.”
“And the unofficial one?”
Adrian looked away.
“There were questions.”
“What questions?”
Adrian didn’t answer.
Cassian’s jaw tightened.
“Tell me.”
Adrian took a breath.
“Before Isabella disappeared, she discovered financial problems inside the foundation.”
Victoria suddenly interrupted.
“That has nothing to do with tonight.”
Cassian looked at her.
“Everything has to do with tonight.”
Victoria became silent.
Adrian continued.
“She believed someone was stealing from employee programs.”
My blood ran cold.
Because we had just discovered someone stole millions.
“She tried to investigate,” Adrian said.
“And then she disappeared.”
I looked at Sophia.
My daughter had been holding a bracelet connected to a woman who vanished twelve years ago.
A woman connected to the same crimes we had just uncovered.
None of it made sense.
Unless it did.
Unless someone had been hiding the truth for a very long time.
Cassian took the bracelet from Sophia carefully.
“I need to know where this came from.”
Sophia looked at him.
“The lady gave it to me.”
“When?”
“Before Mommy came back.”
My stomach dropped.
Before I came back.
That meant someone had been near her while I was working.
Someone had walked into that ballroom.
Someone had touched my daughter.
Cassian looked at me.
“Why didn’t you tell anyone she was approached?”
I felt anger rise.
“I didn’t know.”
My voice cracked.
“I was told she would be safe.”
Nobody spoke.
Because everyone knew.
She wasn’t.
Cassian closed his eyes for a moment.
Then opened them.
“I’m sorry.”
Those two words surprised me.
Not because they fixed anything.
They didn’t.
But because nobody important had ever apologized to someone like me.
I had spent years hearing excuses.
Rules.
Policies.
Reasons why people like me had to accept less.
But Cassian looked genuinely sorry.
Then his assistant returned.
“Mr. Voss.”
Everyone turned.
“We checked the security footage.”
“And?”
The assistant looked nervous.
“There is a problem.”
“What problem?”
“The camera footage from the west hallway is missing.”
Cassian frowned.
“Missing?”
“Yes.”
“Who deleted it?”
The assistant swallowed.
“We traced the access.”
A pause.
“It came from inside your private office.”
Cassian’s expression changed.
His private office.
Only a few people had access.
His assistant.
His brother.
Victoria.
And family members.
The assistant continued.
“There’s more.”
Cassian looked at him.
“The deletion happened twenty minutes after someone accessed Elena Marlow’s employee file.”
My name.
Again.
My life.
Again.
Someone had been searching through my information.
Someone had been planning this.
Cassian looked toward Adrian.
“Did you access her file?”
“No.”
“Victoria?”
She immediately shook her head.
“Absolutely not.”
Nobody believed her.
Cassian turned to security.
“Check my office.”
The guards moved.
I wanted to leave.
I wanted to take Sophia and run.
Because every answer we found created three more questions.
But before I could move, Sophia grabbed my hand.
“Mommy.”
I looked down.
“What?”
She pointed toward the bracelet.
“There was something else.”
I froze.
“What do you mean?”
She touched the bracelet.
“The lady told me not to open it.”
Everyone looked at her.
Cassian slowly knelt.
“Did she say why?”
Sophia nodded.
“She said only Mommy would understand.”
My breath caught.
Only Mommy.
Not Cassian.
Not security.
Not anyone from the Voss family.
Me.
I stared at the bracelet.
A bracelet I had never seen.
A bracelet someone wanted me to find.
Cassian carefully examined it.
“There may be another compartment.”
Adrian took a small tool from his pocket.
He opened the bracelet.
Inside was another piece of paper.
But this time, there was no name.
No warning.
Only a date.
A date from twelve years ago.
The day Isabella Voss disappeared.
Under the date was a sentence.
My hands started shaking.
Because I recognized the handwriting.
I had seen it before.
Not on documents.
Not at work.
Somewhere much closer.
Cassian looked at me.
“Elena?”
I couldn’t speak.
Because I finally understood why someone had chosen my daughter.
Why someone had placed the bracelet on her.
Why someone had hidden this message inside.
The handwriting belonged to my mother.
A woman who had died before Sophia was born.
Cassian saw my face.
“What does it say?”
I slowly lifted my eyes.
And before I could answer, the lights in the ballroom suddenly went out.
Complete darkness.
People screamed.
Security rushed toward the doors.
Then every screen in the ballroom turned on at once.
A video appeared.
A woman’s face filled every screen.
Older.
Tired.
But alive.
Cassian stopped breathing.
Because the missing woman was looking directly at him.
“Cassian,” she said.
“I know you’re watching.”
The screen flickered.
Then she spoke one final sentence.
May you like
“The woman standing beside your brother knows exactly what happened to me.”
And every person in the ballroom turned toward Victoria.
