Chapter 6 - The Secret My Mother Took to Her Grave
The note was sitting on my kitchen table.
Four words.
“I found her first.”
I stared at it until the letters stopped looking real.
Because I knew what it meant.
Someone had been here.
Someone had searched through my home.
Someone had opened my mother’s hidden box before I ever had the chance.
Cassian picked up the note carefully.
“Don’t touch anything else.”
His voice was calm.
But I could hear the anger underneath.
The kind of anger that came from someone trying very hard not to lose control.
Security moved through my apartment.
Checking rooms.
Checking windows.
Checking every corner.
But I wasn’t watching them.
I was looking at the wooden box.
The box my mother had hidden.
The box I ignored for years.
The box that apparently contained answers people were willing to hurt others for.
I stepped closer.
Cassian noticed.
“Elena.”
I looked at him.
“That box belonged to my mother.”
“I know.”
“She died five years ago.”
“I know.”
“Then how did someone else open it?”
Cassian didn’t answer.
Because neither of us knew.
A security officer approached.
“Mr. Voss.”
Cassian turned.
“We found something.”
The officer handed him a small plastic bag.
Inside was a piece of paper.
Not from the box.
From somewhere else.
Cassian opened it.
His face changed.
“What is it?”
He looked at me.
“It’s a copy of your employee record.”
My stomach dropped.
Again.
My name.
Again.
“How many times has someone accessed my information?”
Cassian didn’t answer.
That was answer enough.
I felt my anger rising.
Not fear.
Not anymore.
Anger.
“They watched me.”
Cassian looked at me.
“They watched Sophia.”
I swallowed.
“Yes.”
I looked toward my daughter sleeping in the car outside.
“They knew exactly where to hurt me.”
Cassian’s expression hardened.
“No.”
I looked at him.
“They thought they knew.”
His words were quiet.
“But they made one mistake.”
“What mistake?”
“They underestimated you.”
I almost laughed.
Because nobody had ever said that about me.
People like Victoria didn’t underestimate billionaires.
They underestimated women like me.
Women who cleaned their houses.
Served their drinks.
Stayed silent.
But silence was not weakness.
Sometimes silence was survival.
Cassian opened the wooden box.
Inside were several old documents.
Photographs.
Letters.
And one small envelope.
My mother’s handwriting was on the front.
“Elena.”
My heart stopped.
She wrote my name.
Not someone else’s.
Mine.
I reached for it.
My fingers shook.
I opened the envelope.
Inside was a letter.
The paper was old.
The ink was faded.
But her words were clear.
My dearest Elena,
If you are reading this, it means someone from Voss International has finally found you.
I stopped breathing.
Cassian looked at me.
I continued.
I never wanted you involved in this.
I wanted you to have a normal life.
A life away from the people who destroyed mine.
But if they found you, then they already know the truth.
My eyes moved faster.
Your father was not the only person who disappeared because of them.
I froze.
My father.
A man I barely remembered.
A man my mother always said left when I was young.
I looked at Cassian.
“My father?”
He said nothing.
I continued reading.
Your father discovered the same thing Isabella discovered.
The foundation was being used to steal from people who trusted it.
He tried to expose them.
They made sure nobody believed him.
Then came the sentence that changed everything.
The man who helped destroy your father was someone you have known your entire life.
I lowered the letter.
My hands were shaking.
“Who?”
Cassian looked at the paper.
“There should be more.”
I turned it over.
Nothing.
Only a small mark.
A symbol.
Cassian recognized it.
His face changed.
“What?”
He pointed.
“This symbol belonged to my father.”
I looked at him.
“Your father?”
He nodded slowly.
“Before my father died, he used this symbol for private documents.”
I felt confused.
“Why would my mother have it?”
Cassian didn’t answer.
Because another possibility was forming.
A possibility neither of us wanted to say.
My mother wasn’t just connected to the foundation.
She was connected to the Voss family.
Closer than anyone knew.
Adrian arrived at the apartment twenty minutes later.
When he saw the documents, his expression changed.
“What did you find?”
Cassian handed him the letter.
Adrian read silently.
Then looked up.
“No.”
“What?” Cassian asked.
Adrian shook his head.
“This can’t be true.”
“What can’t be true?”
Adrian looked at me.
“Your father.”
I felt my chest tighten.
“What about him?”
Adrian hesitated.
“He wasn’t just an employee.”
The room became silent.
“He was my father’s closest advisor.”
I stared at him.
“That’s impossible.”
“My father trusted him with everything.”
“Then why did my mother tell me he abandoned us?”
Adrian looked down.
“Because someone wanted you to believe that.”
My entire life suddenly felt like a story someone else had written.
My memories.
My family.
My past.
All of it had been shaped by people hiding the truth.
Cassian walked toward the documents.
“Where is Elena’s father now?”
Nobody answered.
Because everyone already knew.
He was gone.
Or at least we thought he was.
Then Adrian spoke.
“There is something else.”
Cassian looked at him.
“What?”
Adrian reached into his coat.
He pulled out an old photograph.
He placed it on the table.
My breath disappeared.
It was my mother.
Young.
Standing inside the Voss Foundation office.
Beside her was Isabella.
And beside them…
Was my father.
But that wasn’t the shocking part.
The shocking part was the fourth person in the photo.
A person standing behind them.
Someone smiling.
Someone who had spent years pretending she knew nothing.
Victoria Ashcroft.
I stepped back.
“No.”
Cassian stared at the photograph.
“She was there from the beginning.”
Adrian nodded.
“She knew everything.”
My phone suddenly vibrated.
Everyone looked.
Unknown number.
One message.
I opened it.
And immediately wished I hadn’t.
It was a photo.
A photo taken just minutes earlier.
Sophia sleeping in the security vehicle outside.
My blood went cold.
Because someone had been close enough to take it.
The message underneath said:
“You’re looking in the wrong place.”
Then another message arrived.
This one had only three words.
“Ask your father.”
I stared at the screen.
Cassian grabbed my phone.
“Who sent this?”
I shook my head.
“I don’t know.”
Adrian looked at the photo again.
Then his face turned pale.
“Wait.”
“What?”
He pointed at the background.
At the reflection in the car window.
A person standing behind the photographer.
Someone watching Sophia.
Someone we thought was gone.
Adrian whispered the name.
“Isabella.”
Cassian immediately turned toward the apartment door.
May you like
Because at that exact moment…
Someone knocked.
