Chương 7
David immediately understood.
“Who?”
Daniel looked down.
“Your father.”
The room froze.
“My father died ten years ago.”
“I know.”
“Then how?”
Daniel pushed another document forward.
“Because the company never closed.”
David looked at the name.
A company he had not seen since childhood.
A company connected to his father’s private investments.
“How did you find this?”
Daniel answered.
“I followed the money from Lily’s trust.”
Richard looked serious.
“The same accounts used to move Lily’s money were connected to this company?”
Daniel nodded.
“Yes.”
Maya stared at the documents.
“So someone has been watching Lily since before she was born.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Yes.”
David felt anger rising.
Not the anger he had felt at Daniel.
Something deeper.
Someone had been near his daughter.
Someone had planned things around her life.
And he had been too distracted to see it.
“Who is the woman in the photograph?”
Daniel looked at the picture.
“I believe she knows.”
David stood.
“Where is she?”
Daniel hesitated.
“She disappeared.”
“When?”
“Two days after Lily’s funeral.”
David’s expression changed.
“She was there?”
“Yes.”
Maya looked shocked.
“At the funeral?”
Daniel nodded.
“She stood across the street.”
David looked at the photograph again.
A stranger beside his daughter.
A stranger who had been close enough to touch her.
A stranger who vanished after Lily died.
Richard gathered the papers.
“We need to identify her.”
Daniel nodded.
“I already started.”
“And?”
Daniel looked at David.
“I found a name.”
The room went still.
David stepped closer.
“Who?”
Daniel slowly turned the final page.
A name was written there.
A name that made Maya cover her mouth.
A name that made Richard immediately look concerned.
A name David had never expected.
“Evelyn Carter.”
David frowned.
“Who is that?”
Maya looked at him with tears in her eyes.
“She is Lily’s grandmother.”
David froze.
“That’s impossible.”
Maya whispered.
“Because I was told she died before Lily was born.”
Nobody moved.
The impossible truth sat between them.
Someone had lied.
Someone had rewritten records.
Someone had hidden a living person from Lily’s life.
And now they had to find out why.
Nobody spoke after Daniel said the name.
Evelyn Carter.
The name felt like something that should have been impossible.
David looked at Maya.
“You knew my father’s family?”
Maya shook her head slowly.
“Not like that.”
Richard collected the documents and placed them into the folder.
“We need to be careful.”
David looked at him.
“Careful?”
His voice carried disbelief.
“My daughter’s records were changed.”
Someone stole money from her trust.
Someone hid a woman connected to her birth.
And you are telling me to be careful?”
Richard remained calm.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because whoever did this has spent years controlling information.”
Richard looked at the photograph.
“They knew how to hide things.”
Maya looked at Daniel.
“Where did you get the name?”
Daniel hesitated.
“From a private archive.”
David’s eyes narrowed.
“What archive?”
Daniel looked uncomfortable.
“My father’s old records.”
The answer changed the atmosphere immediately.
David stepped closer.
“You searched my father’s files?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Daniel looked at Lily’s photograph.
“Because I knew something was wrong.”
David studied him.
“For how long?”
Daniel looked away.
“Months.”
The confession hurt more than David expected.
“You knew something was happening and you said nothing?”
Daniel accepted the accusation.
“I was trying to understand it first.”
“You were stealing from my daughter.”
“I know.”
The honesty stopped David for a moment.
Daniel continued.
“I made a mistake.”
Maya looked at him coldly.
“A mistake is forgetting an appointment.”
Her voice became sharper.
“A mistake is missing a birthday.”
She looked at the folder.
“What you did was a choice.”
Daniel lowered his head.
“Yes.”
The room became quiet again.
For the first time, David saw his brother differently.
Not as the villain.
Not as the person who ruined everything.
But as someone who had become trapped in something much larger.
“What did you find in my father’s records?”
Daniel opened another file.
“There were payments.”
Richard looked up.
“Payments to whom?”
Daniel turned the page.
“Evelyn Carter.”
Maya’s face changed.
David stared.
“My father paid her?”
Daniel nodded.
“Regularly.”
“How much?”
“Different amounts.”
Daniel paused.
“But enough to keep someone silent.”
David walked toward the window.
His father had been gone for years.
A man he had spent his entire life trying to impress.
A man who taught him that reputation mattered more than feelings.
Now David wondered how much of his father’s life had been built on secrets.
“What was Evelyn Carter to my father?”
Nobody answered immediately.
Then Maya spoke.
“I think she was someone he wanted forgotten.”
David turned.
“What does that mean?”
Maya looked down.
“When I was pregnant with Lily, your father came to see me.”
David froze.
“He came to you?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Maya’s eyes filled with old fear.
“He told me there were things about Lily’s family history that I did not understand.”
David stepped closer.
“What things?”
“He said some people would do anything to control the Vance name.”
Richard listened carefully.
“Did he mention Evelyn Carter?”
Maya shook her head.
“No.”
“Did he mention your first wife?”
Maya hesitated.
David noticed.
“Maya.”
She looked at him.
“Yes.”
The word was barely audible.
David felt the room shift.
“What about her?”
Maya sat down.
“She was not who you thought she was.”
David looked shocked.
“What are you saying?”
“I am saying your first wife knew about Evelyn.”
David’s expression hardened.
“My first wife died.”
“I know.”
“Then how could she know?”
Maya looked at the photograph.
“Because she was searching before she died.”
David stopped.
The memories returned.
His first wife had always been private.
Always careful.
He remembered the late nights.
The locked computer.
The arguments about family.
He had thought she was hiding something from him.
Maybe she was trying to protect something.
“What did she find?”
Maya looked at Daniel.
Daniel answered.
“She found Evelyn Carter.”
David turned toward him.
May you like
“And?”
“She discovered Evelyn was alive.”
