The Millionaire’s Bride Mocked a Poor Maid—She Never Expected What Happened Next
Chapter 3
That night, Anna sat alone in the servants’ quarters.
A single candle flickered beside her.
The letter lay unopened on her lap.
She broke the wax.
Inside was a single sheet of paper.
Her father’s handwriting covered it.
Anna knew it immediately.
Her hands began to shake.
“My dearest Anna…”
She stopped breathing for a moment.
The letter explained that her father, Samuel Reed, had worked secretly for Elias Hawthorne, the founder of the Hawthorne trading fortune.
Samuel had discovered something dangerous.
Several years before his supposed death, Elias Hawthorne had created a private inheritance agreement.
The fortune was not intended to pass automatically to the first male relative who claimed it.
A portion had been placed into a protected estate.
And the beneficiary was not the Hawthorne family.
It was Anna’s mother.
The reason was even more shocking.
Elias Hawthorne had discovered that Anna’s father had saved his life during a violent robbery years earlier.
In gratitude, he had promised Samuel that his family would never be abandoned.
But before the arrangement could be completed, Elias died.
His nephew, Richard Hawthorne, took control of the business.
The agreement disappeared.
Samuel confronted Richard.
Then Samuel disappeared.
Anna’s eyes filled with tears.
She read the final lines.
“If anything happens to me, protect Anna. The truth is hidden where the first Hawthorne ledger was kept.”
The letter ended with three words.
“Trust no heir.”
Anna folded the paper.
A floorboard creaked outside.
She looked toward the door.
Nothing.
Then came another sound.
A faint scrape.
Someone was standing in the corridor.
Anna blew out the candle.
The door opened slowly.
A man’s silhouette appeared.
Anna stepped backward.
“Who are you?”
The man said nothing.
Then he placed something on the floor.
A small iron key.
He turned and disappeared.
Anna waited.
When she finally opened the door, the corridor was empty.
She picked up the key.
Attached to it was a piece of paper.
One sentence had been written on it.
The ledger is beneath the old chapel.
Anna stared at the words.
The old chapel had been locked for years.
And according to Mrs. Whitmore, nobody had entered it since Elias Hawthorne’s funeral.
Anna slipped the key into her pocket.
She had no idea who had left it.
But she knew one thing.
Someone wanted her to discover the truth.
And someone else was already afraid she would.
