Chương 6
"This was left at my apartment the night before I found the records."
Daniel took it carefully.
The note contained only one sentence.
His eyes moved across the words.
"Stop searching, or you will lose everything."
A chill moved through the room.
Because the threat was not from thirty-five years ago.
It was recent.
Someone was still trying to keep the truth buried.
And whoever that person was had been watching them all along.
And whoever that person was had been watching them all along.
Daniel stared at the note in his hand.
The simple sentence seemed more frightening than any confession they had heard that night.
Someone knew Michael was searching.
Someone knew the truth was close to being uncovered.
And someone believed they had enough power to make him stop.
"Who would do this?" Daniel asked.
Nobody answered immediately.
The rain outside had nearly stopped, but the silence inside the mansion felt heavier than the storm.
Richard took the note from Daniel and studied it carefully.
"This handwriting..."
He stopped.
Evelyn looked at him.
"What?"
Richard looked uncertain.
"I have seen something similar before."
Daniel turned toward him.
"Where?"
Richard walked slowly toward the fireplace.
He seemed to be searching through memories he had buried years ago.
"When I first joined the Whitmore family business, there were documents my father-in-law refused to show me."
Evelyn looked surprised.
"You never told me that."
"Because I thought they were business matters."
Richard looked back at them.
"But the signatures on those documents..."
He pointed at the note.
"They looked like this."
Michael stepped closer.
"Your father?"
Richard nodded slowly.
"No."
"Someone who worked for him."
The room became tense again.
Daniel felt exhausted, but he knew they could not stop.
Every answer created another mystery.
"Who worked for him?"
Richard hesitated.
"A man named Victor Hale."
Evelyn's face changed.
The reaction was immediate.
"You know that name."
She looked away.
"Yes."
Daniel noticed.
"Mom."
Evelyn sighed.
"Victor was my father's assistant."
"He handled everything my father did not want to handle himself."
Michael's expression hardened.
"So he helped take me away."
Evelyn looked at him.
"I believe so."
Richard walked back toward the table.
"Victor disappeared years ago."
"When your father died, he left the company."
"But I never understood why."
Daniel looked at the note.
"Maybe because he was hiding something."
Michael picked up the envelope.
"Then we need to find him."
Evelyn immediately shook her head.
"No."
Everyone looked at her.
"Why?"
Her eyes showed fear.
A fear Daniel had never seen before.
"Because if Victor is involved, this is bigger than a family secret."
Michael looked confused.
"What does that mean?"
Evelyn sat down slowly.
"It means my father was not just protecting his reputation."
"He was protecting something else."
Daniel frowned.
"What?"
Evelyn looked at the old photograph.
"I don't know."
"But I remember the night Michael was taken."
"The people who came to my house were not just family members."
"There were others."
Richard stared at her.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I was afraid."
"Afraid of what?"
Evelyn's voice became softer.
"That if I kept searching, I would lose everyone I still had."
Daniel felt the weight of those words.
His mother had lived with fear for decades.
But now he wondered if that fear had allowed someone else to control their lives.
Michael looked at Evelyn.
"I need to know everything."
Evelyn nodded.
"You deserve that."
She took a deep breath.
"The night they took you away, my father told me they were sending you somewhere safe."
"I believed him because I was young and broken."
"But months later, when I tried to find you, every record had disappeared."
"Your name."
"Your location."
"Everything."
Michael looked down.
"Like I never existed."
Evelyn nodded.
"Yes."
Daniel looked at Michael.
He could see the pain returning.
"But you found him now."
Michael looked at him.
"Because someone made a mistake."
"What mistake?"
"They left evidence behind."
He opened the envelope again.
"There was a storage location written on the back of the adoption papers."
Richard leaned closer.
"A storage location?"
Michael nodded.
"I went there last week."
"And that is where I found the letters."
Daniel looked surprised.
"Then why did someone threaten you after?"
Michael's expression became serious.
"Because I found something else."
The room froze.
"What?" Claire asked.
Michael looked at her.
"A second photograph."
Evelyn's face changed.
"What photograph?"
Michael reached into his jacket.
He pulled out a small photograph and placed it beside the old one.
Everyone gathered around.
It showed three people standing outside a house.
A young Evelyn.
A young Thomas.
And a man standing behind them.
Daniel looked closely.
The man looked familiar.
Richard noticed it too.
"That's impossible."
"What?" Daniel asked.
Richard pointed at the picture.
"That man."
"Who is he?"
Richard looked at Evelyn.
"He was supposed to be dead."
Evelyn's hands began trembling.
"Who?"
Richard swallowed.
"Your father's older brother."
Daniel stared.
"Your great-uncle?"
Evelyn nodded slowly.
"He was the person who controlled the family fortune before my father."
Michael looked at the photograph.
"Why would he be there?"
Evelyn took the picture.
Her eyes moved across the image.
Then she noticed something written on the back.
She turned it over.
Only four words were written.
The truth belongs to the living.
Daniel felt a chill.
"Someone left this for you."
Michael nodded.
"Yes."
"Someone wants us to find something."
Richard shook his head.
"Or someone wants us to open a door that should have stayed closed."
Daniel looked at him.
"Dad, after everything tonight, you still think we should stop?"
Richard looked at his son.
"No."
"I think we need to be careful."
Claire finally spoke.
"There is something else."
Everyone turned toward her.
Daniel's expression changed.
"What?"
Claire looked nervous.
"I did not tell you everything about the records."
Michael looked at her.
"You found something else?"
Claire nodded.
May you like
"When I discovered the adoption papers, there was a missing page."
"What was on it?"
