Chapter 7 - The Heir Who Was Supposed to Be Forgotten
The name stayed with Emily long after they left the abandoned house.
Evelyn Hale.
The woman Vanessa had tried to erase.
The woman who was supposed to inherit everything.
The woman whose existence could destroy Vanessa’s entire world.
Daniel drove in silence.
For the first time since Emily had known him, he looked uncertain.
Not angry.
Not confident.
Afraid.
Emily watched him carefully.
“You knew her.”
Daniel tightened his grip on the steering wheel.
“Not personally.”
“But you recognize her.”
He didn’t answer immediately.
Finally, he spoke.
“My father had a photograph of her.”
Emily turned.
“Why?”
Daniel looked out the window.
“Because he spent years trying to find her.”
The answer surprised her.
“Your father knew she was alive?”
Daniel nodded.
“He believed someone had hidden her.”
“Vanessa?”
“I don’t know.”
But Emily knew.
Deep down.
Everyone knew.
When they arrived back at the mansion, Daniel immediately went to his father’s old office.
He opened a locked drawer.
Inside were dozens of documents.
Letters.
Photographs.
And a journal.
Emily watched as Daniel carefully opened it.
The handwriting belonged to his father.
The first page contained only one sentence.
If Vanessa finds this journal, she will destroy it.
Daniel looked at Emily.
“She was afraid of her.”
They read page after page.
The journal revealed a hidden history.
Twenty years ago, Daniel’s father had discovered that Vanessa had been altering company records.
But he never confronted her.
Because he was afraid of what she would do.
“She threatened him?”
Emily asked.
Daniel nodded.
“She knew secrets about him too.”
The family was not built on trust.
It was built on everyone holding something against everyone else.
Then Daniel reached the final pages.
His expression changed.
“What?”
He turned the journal around.
There was a photograph attached.
A young Vanessa.
Standing beside a newborn baby.
Emily frowned.
“Who is that child?”
Daniel looked at the writing underneath.
His voice became quiet.
“The child who was supposed to inherit the Blackwood fortune.”
Emily stared.
A child.
A forgotten heir.
But there was another note.
Vanessa took the child away to protect her own future.
Emily felt a chill.
“She stole a child?”
Daniel shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
Then they heard something downstairs.
Glass breaking.
They rushed toward the sound.
The study door was open.
Someone had broken inside.
The journal was gone.
But the attacker had left something behind.
A black envelope.
Inside was a single photograph.
Emily picked it up.
Her blood ran cold.
It was Vanessa.
Holding the same necklace.
But standing beside her was another person.
Someone Emily recognized.
Someone who had been in the mansion that night.
Someone who had watched her get accused.
May you like
Margaret Blackwood.
Daniel’s mother.
