Chapter 6 - What Karin Had Been Promised
The intruder was Karin.
Or so the camera showed.
I refused to believe the obvious answer.
Karin was with federal investigators when the badge was used.
Someone had cloned her image into the security feed.
Adrian identified the manipulation.
Marcus had a second partner.
Someone with access to Vance systems.
Someone close enough to know all of us.
The answer arrived through Tyler.
From custody—because federal investigators had charged him with fraud—he requested to speak with me.
I went.
There was glass between us.
He looked smaller without the tuxedo.
“Who is Marcus’s partner?” I asked.
Tyler rubbed his hands together.
“My uncle.”
“Which uncle?”
“Daniel.”
Daniel Vance.
Chairman emeritus.
The beloved philanthropist who had given speeches at our wedding.
The man who had comforted Tyler after Eleanor’s “death.”
Daniel had controlled Vance Holdings before Tyler.
He had also signed my employment contract eight years ago.
“He recruited Marcus,” Tyler said.
“Why?”
“Money. Control. I don’t know anymore.”
“You knew enough to steal.”
His eyes lowered.
“Yes.”
“Why Karin?”
He looked ashamed.
“At first? Because she was beautiful and I was selfish.”
“At least that’s recognizable.”
“Later I discovered who she was. Daniel told me if I could bring her into the company, we could challenge your inheritance.”
“So you promised her my shares.”
“Yes.”
I stood.
“Giana.”
I stopped.
“I loved you.”
“That may be true.”
He looked surprised.
“But love without loyalty becomes another excuse.”
I left.
Karin was waiting outside.
She had heard enough through the investigators.
“I’m sorry.”
“I know.”
“I hated you before I knew you.”
“Because Tyler needed you to.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“What happens now?”
“We find Daniel.”
The master archive gave us what we needed.
Daniel had stolen from Vance companies for twenty-two years.
Marcus enforced his operation.
Eleanor discovered it.
My father documented it.
Tyler eventually joined it.
But one file remained encrypted.
PROJECT ORPHEUS.
My father stared at the name.
“I never opened that.”
Adrian did.
Inside were adoption records.
Mine.
I stopped breathing.
Richard looked as shocked as I felt.
“That’s impossible.”
The record said I was born Gianna Moretti.
Not Bellamy.
Adrian stood absolutely still.
I turned toward him.
“Why is your name on my birth certificate?”
He didn’t answer.
“Adrian.”
His voice came quietly.
“Because Moretti was your mother’s name before she married Richard.”
My mother had never told me.
Neither had my father.
The records showed something stranger.
Richard had legally adopted me when I was two.
My biological father’s name had been sealed.
Then we found the court order.
Requested by Daniel Vance.
Why would Tyler’s uncle have anything to do with my adoption?
Adrian read the final page.
His face hardened.
“What?”
He turned the screen toward me.
A handwritten annotation had been scanned into the file.
THE GIRL MUST NEVER KNOW WHO HER FATHER IS.
Below it was a signature.
Daniel Vance.
Then the archive door opened.
A man entered.
Gray suit.
Silver hair.
Daniel himself.
May you like
He looked at me and smiled.
“Because, Giana,” he said, “your father is the reason this company belongs to you.”
