Chapter 11 - Elena Accused The Wrong Parent
Andrew stopped at the doorway.
“Let Lily go.”
Elena tightened her grip.
“You shouldn’t have come.”
Victoria moved between them.
“Both of you stop.”
Andrew stared at Elena.
“You think I killed Evelyn?”
“I know what she discovered.”
“Then tell us.”
Elena looked surprised by the demand.
Andrew continued.
“Police are outside. If you have evidence, give it to them.”
Elena’s confidence faltered.
Victoria noticed.
“Where did your information come from?” she asked.
Elena hesitated.
“Evelyn.”
“My mother was your patient?”
“No.”
“Then how?”
“She contacted me.”
Andrew frowned.
“When?”
“March 16.”
Two days before Evelyn’s stroke.
Elena said Evelyn had called asking for advice about a child being psychologically manipulated.
“Which child?”
“She wouldn’t say.”
Victoria felt cold.
“Lily?”
“I assumed so later.”
Andrew shook his head.
“That’s not evidence against me.”
“There’s more.”
Elena claimed Evelyn believed someone close to the family was creating false narratives, altering messages, and isolating relatives from one another.
Victoria almost laughed from the cruelty of it.
That described exactly what had happened tonight.
“Why didn’t you tell police after Mom died?”
“Because I didn’t know she was dead until weeks later.”
Andrew looked skeptical.
“You expect us to believe Evelyn randomly called a psychologist she didn’t know?”
Elena shook her head.
“She knew my father.”
That changed Andrew’s expression.
“Thomas Morris?”
“Yes.”
Thomas Morris had been Evelyn’s attorney decades earlier.
Victoria remembered him vaguely from childhood.
He had died five years ago.
Elena continued.
“My father handled early versions of the family trusts. Evelyn knew I specialized in trauma and child development.”
Victoria’s thoughts raced.
“Did she name the person she feared?”
“No.”
“Then why Andrew?”
Elena looked at him.
“Because Caroline showed me the custody petition.”
Andrew exhaled in frustration.
“You built this on Caroline’s interpretation.”
“Not only that.”
Elena reached into her pocket.
Andrew tensed.
She slowly removed a flash drive.
“Evelyn sent my father’s old office an encrypted archive before she died. It was discovered during a records migration last month.”
Victoria stared.
“What’s on it?”
“Audio files. Emails. Financial records.”
“About Andrew?”
Elena hesitated.
“That’s what I thought.”
The wording mattered.
“What changed?”
Elena looked toward Lily.
“Tonight.”
Victoria’s patience snapped.
“What happened tonight?”
“I received a message telling me to meet someone in the powder room. The sender claimed to have proof Andrew had harmed Evelyn.”
“The woman in the silver dress.”
“Yes.”
“Natalie?”
“I couldn’t see her face.”
“Then why did you say she attacked you?”
“I didn’t say Natalie.”
“You let us believe it.”
Elena looked ashamed.
“I panicked.”
Andrew stepped closer.
“You also kidnapped Lily.”
“I thought whoever attacked me was coming for her next.”
“So you took her without telling her parents?”
“I made a terrible decision.”
Victoria almost screamed.
“You think?”
Lily began crying.
That ended the confrontation.
Victoria climbed the loft stairs slowly.
“Elena, let her come to me.”
The psychologist released Lily.
The child ran into Victoria’s arms.
Victoria held her so tightly Lily squeaked.
“I’m sorry, baby.”
“Can we go home?”
“Yes.”
Victoria carried her downstairs.
Police entered moments later and detained Elena.
Andrew approached carefully.
Lily watched him.
Victoria felt the painful distance between father and daughter.
Andrew crouched several feet away.
“I’m not going to take you anywhere.”
Lily looked at Victoria.
Victoria nodded.
“It’s okay.”
Andrew’s eyes filled.
Lily slowly reached one hand toward him.
He didn’t grab it.
He let her decide.
Her tiny fingers touched his.
Then Detective Kim entered holding the flash drive Elena had surrendered.
“We need to process this properly.”
Victoria nodded.
Kim continued.
“But Elena gave us the password.”
“What is it?”
The detective looked uncomfortable.
“Evelyn chose a phrase.”
Victoria waited.
Kim read it from her notes.
“Two daughters, one truth.”
Caroline.
Victoria suddenly remembered something her mother had said days before the stroke.
Not about Andrew.
Not about Lily.
About Caroline’s father.
A sentence Victoria had dismissed because Evelyn seemed tired.
“There are things your sister was never told.”
Victoria looked toward the mansion.
May you like
For the first time, she wondered whether Caroline’s motive had ever really been money.
And whether the secret driving everything had begun long before Lily was born.
