Chapter 5 - The Woman Who Was Never Gone
Victoria didn’t move.
For the first time since I saw her walk into the ballroom, she looked like someone who had nowhere left to run.
The video continued playing on every screen.
Isabella Voss stared directly into the camera.
Her face was older than the pictures I had seen online.
Her eyes looked tired.
But they were alive.
“Cassian,” she said again.
“I know you’re watching.”
The entire ballroom held its breath.
Nobody cared about the charity gala anymore.
Nobody cared about the millions of dollars surrounding them.
Everyone was watching a woman who had been missing for twelve years.
A woman everyone believed was gone.
A woman who was connected to the same secrets that had led my daughter into danger.
The recording continued.
“If you are seeing this, it means someone finally found the truth.”
Cassian stepped closer to the screen.
His face had changed.
The cold billionaire image was gone.
He looked like a younger brother who had just found a piece of his family he thought he lost forever.
“Isabella…”
He whispered her name.
Victoria finally spoke.
“This is impossible.”
Nobody looked at her.
Cassian turned slowly.
“Impossible?”
His voice was quiet.
“That’s what you’re going with?”
Victoria’s expression hardened.
“This could be manipulated.”
Adrian stared at her.
“You know her voice.”
Victoria said nothing.
That silence was an answer.
The video continued.
“I don’t have much time.”
Isabella looked over her shoulder.
Like she was afraid someone would find her.
“I discovered something inside the foundation. Something bigger than missing money.”
Cassian’s eyes narrowed.
“What?”
The video continued.
“The employee assistance program was never created to help employees.”
A pause.
“It was created to hide payments.”
The room erupted with whispers.
I looked at Sophia.
She was holding my hand tightly.
She didn’t understand everything happening.
She only understood that the adults around her were scared.
Isabella continued.
“Someone used the foundation to move money through fake employee accounts.”
Cassian looked toward Victoria.
She looked away.
“And when I found the evidence, they tried to make me disappear.”
My heart started beating faster.
Disappear.
That word felt different now.
Because my daughter had been targeted by people willing to erase anyone who stood in their way.
The screen flickered.
Then Isabella said something that made my blood run cold.
“Cassian, if you want to know who helped them, look at the person who has been controlling your foundation since the day I vanished.”
The video stopped.
The ballroom went completely silent.
Everyone looked at Victoria.
But Victoria didn’t look angry anymore.
She looked desperate.
“You’re making a mistake,” she said.
Cassian walked toward her.
“No.”
His voice was colder than before.
“You made one.”
Security moved closer.
Victoria immediately stepped back.
“Cassian, think carefully.”
“I am.”
“You don’t know the entire story.”
“Then tell me.”
She looked at him.
Nothing.
No explanation.
No defense.
Only fear.
Cassian turned to security.
“Take her to the private conference room.”
Victoria laughed suddenly.
A strange, nervous laugh.
“You think this ends with me?”
Nobody answered.
“You really think I’m the person you should be worried about?”
Cassian stopped.
“What does that mean?”
Victoria looked toward me.
And my entire body went cold.
“She knows.”
Everyone turned.
Me.
Victoria was looking at me.
“Elena knows more than she realizes.”
I shook my head.
“I don’t know anything.”
Victoria smiled sadly.
“Yes, you do.”
I felt Sophia move closer.
Cassian noticed.
“Enough.”
Victoria was escorted away.
But her words stayed.
Elena knows more than she realizes.
I hated that sentence.
Because part of me feared it was true.
Twenty minutes later, I sat inside a private room in the mansion.
Sophia was asleep on my lap.
The excitement.
The fear.
The confusion.
It had exhausted her.
I gently brushed her hair away from her face.
I hated that she had experienced any of this.
Children were supposed to worry about toys.
Stories.
Bedtime.
Not billionaires.
Missing people.
Secrets.
Cassian stood near the window.
For the first time, I saw how tired he looked.
Not physically.
Emotionally.
“I’m sorry.”
I looked at him.
He had said that before.
But this time it sounded different.
“You didn’t do this.”
“No.”
He looked outside.
“But my family did.”
I didn’t know what to say.
Cassian turned.
“Tell me about your mother.”
I froze.
“My mother?”
“The note inside the bracelet.”
I looked down.
The bracelet was on the table.
The one connected to Isabella.
The one containing my mother’s handwriting.
“My mother died five years ago.”
Cassian nodded.
“I know.”
That surprised me.
“You know?”
“We investigated everyone connected to the bracelet.”
My stomach tightened.
“And?”
He looked at the file in his hand.
“Your mother worked for Voss International twenty years ago.”
I stared at him.
“That’s impossible.”
“She was part of the foundation’s original administration team.”
I felt dizzy.
My mother never told me.
Not once.
She never mentioned the Voss family.
Never mentioned Isabella.
Never mentioned anything.
“Why would she hide that?”
Cassian opened another document.
“Because she signed a confidentiality agreement.”
I looked at the paper.
The signature.
The date.
Everything.
My mother’s name.
But something else caught my attention.
A second signature.
One I recognized.
Victoria Ashcroft.
Cassian saw me notice.
“She was there.”
I whispered.
“Yes.”
I looked at Sophia sleeping peacefully.
My entire life suddenly felt like it had missing pages.
My mother’s secrets.
The bracelet.
Isabella’s disappearance.
The fake complaint.
The stolen money.
Everything connected back to the same people.
Cassian sat across from me.
“Elena, I need you to answer honestly.”
“About what?”
“Did your mother ever give you anything from her time at Voss International?”
I thought about it.
No.
Nothing.
At least, I thought nothing.
Then suddenly, I remembered.
A small wooden box.
My mother kept it hidden in the back of her closet.
After she died, I found it.
I never opened it.
She had written one sentence on top.
“Only open this if someone from Voss finds you.”
I had forgotten.
Because I thought it was just another memory from a complicated woman who had already passed away.
But now…
My hands started shaking.
Cassian noticed.
“What?”
I looked at him.
“There’s something I have.”
“Where?”
“At my apartment.”
He immediately stood.
“Call security.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because if someone wanted it…”
I swallowed.
“They already know where I live.”
Cassian became still.
Because we both understood.
Someone had spent years hiding secrets.
Someone had already reached my daughter.
Someone had already forged my name.
My apartment was no longer just my home.
It was a target.
We arrived at my building thirty minutes later.
Security surrounded the entrance.
Cassian insisted on coming with me.
I wanted to refuse.
I wanted to prove I could handle my own problems.
But when I saw Sophia sleeping safely in the car behind us, I knew I couldn’t risk being stubborn.
The hallway looked normal.
Too normal.
That scared me.
My door was at the end of the hall.
I walked toward it slowly.
My keys shook in my hand.
Then I stopped.
Cassian noticed.
“What?”
I pointed.
The door.
There was something different.
A small scratch near the lock.
Someone had forced it.
I stepped back.
Security moved forward.
One guard checked the handle.
Then looked at Cassian.
“Sir…”
“What?”
The guard swallowed.
“The door isn’t locked.”
My heart stopped.
Cassian moved in front of me.
His hand lifted slightly.
Protecting me.
Protecting Sophia.
The guard slowly pushed the door open.
The apartment was dark.
Silent.
But someone had been inside.
Because on my kitchen table sat the wooden box from my mother’s closet.
Open.
And beside it was a note.
May you like
Only four words.
“I found her first.”
