Chapter 6 - The Truth Isabella Hid
The woman standing outside the workshop was not the woman I expected to see.
It was Isabella Moretti.
But something about her was different.
The frightened old woman from Bellamy & Rowe was gone.
The woman standing in front of us looked tired.
Powerful.
Like someone who had spent years carrying a secret too heavy for one person.
My father stared at her.
Neither of them spoke.
And somehow, that silence told me more than words could.
"You knew."
My father's voice was barely above a whisper.
Isabella looked at him.
"I knew you were alive."
The pain in my chest returned.
Not because she knew.
Because everyone knew.
Everyone except me.
I looked between them.
"How many people were protecting me from the truth?"
Neither answered.
That was the answer.
I stepped back.
"No."
My father turned toward me.
"Amelia."
"No."
I shook my head.
"I am done being the only person in the room who doesn't know what is happening."
Isabella lowered her eyes.
"You deserve the truth."
I laughed softly.
"I have been hearing that for two days."
She walked inside slowly.
The workshop suddenly felt too small.
Three people.
Three different versions of the same story.
And I was the only one who had been living in the dark.
My father closed the door behind her.
"Why are you here?"
Isabella looked at him.
"Because they found her."
My blood went cold.
"Who?"
Isabella looked at me.
"The same people who came after us eight years ago."
My father moved closer.
"How did they know?"
"Because Vanessa was never working alone."
I looked at the folder on the table.
The one with Vanessa Clark's name.
"So she was just a messenger?"
Isabella nodded.
"Vanessa was paid to create a public story."
"A story where I looked guilty."
"Yes."
I clenched my fists.
"But why?"
Isabella looked at my father.
Then back at me.
"Because they needed you to lose everything before they could reach you."
The words made my stomach tighten.
"My business."
"Yes."
"My reputation."
"Yes."
"Why?"
Nobody answered immediately.
Then my father spoke.
"Because you inherited something."
I froze.
"What?"
He walked toward the workbench.
He opened the folder he had taken from the hidden room.
Inside was a document.
A legal document.
My name was written on the first page.
Amelia Brooks.
I looked at the date.
Eight years ago.
The same week my father disappeared.
"What is this?"
My father sat down.
"Your grandfather created a trust before he died."
I frowned.
"I never had a grandfather involved in anything."
"You did."
He pointed to the document.
"And that trust contains evidence."
"Evidence of what?"
Isabella answered.
"The people who betrayed my family."
The room became silent.
I stared at them.
"So my father disappeared to protect evidence?"
"Not only evidence."
My father looked at me.
"You."
I shook my head.
"That doesn't make sense."
"It does."
"No."
I stepped away.
"Because if this was so dangerous, why leave me alone?"
My father's face changed.
"I didn't."
The words stopped me.
"What?"
"I watched you."
I felt anger immediately.
"You watched me?"
"From a distance."
"That's supposed to make me feel better?"
"No."
He looked down.
"It was the only way I could make sure you were alive."
I looked away.
Because a part of me wanted to understand.
But another part was still the little girl who waited for her father to come home.
"Do you know how many birthdays passed?"
My voice cracked.
"How many times I wanted to call you?"
My father closed his eyes.
"I know."
"No, you don't."
I wiped my face quickly.
"You don't know what it feels like to miss someone who is alive."
Nobody spoke.
Because there was nothing they could say.
A few minutes later, Isabella placed something on the table.
A small black memory card.
My eyes widened.
The same kind of card that started everything.
"The truth is here."
I looked at her.
"What is it?"
"A copy of the original files your father found."
My father looked at the card.
"Isabella, no."
She looked at him.
"We can't hide it anymore."
I picked it up.
"What's inside?"
She took a breath.
"The reason your father had to disappear."
I placed the card into the old recording device.
The screen flickered.
A video appeared.
My father's face.
But younger.
Eight years earlier.
My breath caught.
He was sitting in a dark room.
Looking directly at the camera.
"If Amelia is watching this, then everything failed."
My father's recorded voice filled the workshop.
"I need you to listen carefully."
The video continued.
"I was not killed."
I looked at my father standing beside me.
He looked away.
"I disappeared because I discovered someone close to Isabella was planning a takeover."
The screen changed.
Documents.
Names.
Payments.
Photos.
Then one image appeared.
A person sitting beside Isabella at a family event.
My eyes narrowed.
I didn't recognize the face.
But Isabella did.
Her expression changed instantly.
"No."
My father looked at her.
"You knew?"
She stepped closer to the screen.
"That can't be possible."
I looked between them.
"Who is it?"
Neither answered.
The video continued.
My father's voice became quieter.
"The person responsible is someone who knows both families."
Another image appeared.
A younger Vanessa Clark.
Standing beside a man.
A man I recognized.
Not because I knew him.
Because I had seen him before.
In my father's old photographs.
"Wait."
I stepped closer.
"That's..."
My father looked at me.
"Yes."
My voice disappeared.
The man in the photograph.
The man whose face had been scratched out.
The man who was supposedly erased from history.
Was standing beside Vanessa.
Alive.
Then the video stopped.
A new message appeared on the screen.
One sentence.
Someone had remotely accessed the recording.
My father immediately reached for the device.
Too late.
The message had already appeared.
"Thomas, you should have stayed dead."
Nobody moved.
Then Isabella's phone rang.
She looked at the screen.
Her face turned pale.
"What is it?"
She didn't answer.
She slowly handed the phone to me.
The caller ID showed a name.
A name that made my entire body freeze.
Because it was the person who had been missing for eight years.
The person everyone believed was gone.
The person my father had been trying to protect me from.
May you like
The screen displayed:
UNKNOWN CALLER — YOUR MOTHER.
