BILLIONAIRE ARRIVED HOME UNANNOUNCED AND SAW THE MAID WITH HIS SON — WHAT HE SAW SHOCKED HIM
Chapter 2
Clara didn’t speak immediately.
Adrian stood in the doorway, staring at the photograph.
His late wife, Victoria, was smiling.
She looked younger.
Happier.
And standing beside her was Clara.
The two women appeared to know each other well.
Ethan looked between his father and Clara.
“Dad, don’t be angry.”
Adrian looked at his son.
“Go downstairs.”
“But—”
“Ethan.”
The boy lowered his head.
Clara immediately stepped forward.
“He doesn’t need to leave.”
Adrian looked at her.
“You’re in no position to tell me what my son needs.”
Clara swallowed.
Then she placed the photograph on the bed.
“I understand.”
Ethan walked out.
The door closed.
Adrian turned back toward Clara.
“Eight years ago.”
“Yes.”
“You knew my wife?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Clara looked toward the window.
“She hired me.”
“For what?”
“To help her.”
Adrian frowned.
“Help her with what?”
Clara didn’t answer.
Adrian’s voice hardened.
“What was she hiding from me?”
“Nothing.”
“Then why did she need you?”
Clara’s eyes filled with tears.
“Because she was afraid.”
Adrian went still.
“Of me?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Clara hesitated.
“Your business partner.”
Adrian immediately thought of Marcus Hale.
His former business partner.
Marcus had died three years earlier in what authorities had called a boating accident.
Adrian had never trusted him.
But he had never suspected him of harming Victoria.
“What did Marcus do?”
Clara shook her head.
“I can’t tell you everything.”
“Why?”
“Because your wife made me promise.”
Adrian stared at her.
“My wife has been dead for four years.”
“I know.”
“Then the promise means nothing.”
Clara looked at him.
“It means everything.”
Adrian walked toward the desk.
He opened a drawer.
Inside were old files.
Victoria’s belongings.
He had kept them untouched.
“Why are you showing Ethan these photographs?”
“Because he deserves to know his mother.”
Adrian slammed the drawer shut.
“He knows his mother.”
“No.”
Clara’s voice trembled.
“He knows the version you allowed him to know.”
Adrian stared at her.
“What does that mean?”
Clara picked up another photograph.
“This was taken three days before her death.”
Adrian looked.
Victoria was standing outside a hospital.
Beside her was a little girl.
Clara’s daughter.
Adrian’s eyes narrowed.
“Why was my wife at a hospital?”
Clara looked down.
“She wasn’t there for herself.”
“For whom?”
“My daughter.”
Adrian’s expression changed.
“What happened?”
“She was sick.”
Victoria had paid for the treatment.
Adrian knew nothing about it.
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
“Because she didn’t want you to know.”
“Why?”
Clara took a breath.
“Because she was investigating where your company money was going.”
Adrian froze.
“What?”
Clara opened the wooden box.
Inside were bank statements.
Copies of contracts.
Photographs.
And a small flash drive.
She handed it to him.
“Your wife discovered money was being moved through shell companies.”
Adrian stared at the documents.
“That was years ago.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
“She tried.”
Adrian’s face went pale.
“What do you mean?”
Clara whispered:
“She planned to tell you the night she died.”
Silence filled the room.
Adrian remembered that night.
Victoria had called him.
He had been in a meeting.
She had asked him to come home.
He had told her he couldn’t.
Three hours later, she was dead.
For four years, Adrian had believed it was an accident.
Now Clara was telling him there had been something else.
“What was she going to tell me?”
Clara looked toward the hallway.
“That’s what I was trying to show Ethan.”
Adrian’s voice became almost a whisper.
“Why Ethan?”
Clara looked at him.
“Because your wife left something for him.”
Adrian stared.
“What?”
Clara pointed toward the wooden box.
“Something she knew only he would eventually understand.”
Then a sound came from the hallway.
A floorboard creaked.
Adrian turned.
Ethan was standing outside the room.
His face was pale.
“I heard Mommy’s voice once.”
Adrian froze.
“What?”
Ethan looked at his father.
“Before she died.”
Clara closed her eyes.
Adrian stepped toward his son.
“What did she say?”
Ethan whispered:
“She told me to trust the woman who would come after her.”
Adrian looked at Clara.
For the first time, he realized something terrifying.
Clara hadn’t become his son’s caretaker by accident.
Victoria had sent her.
Years before her death.
And whatever secret she had left behind was still alive.
