Chapter 8 - The Missing Guest Was No Stranger
Nathan Cross was Victoria’s personal attorney.
He had handled the estate, company contracts, staff disputes, and nearly every legal matter in the mansion.
Emma had served him coffee dozens of times.
He always knew her name.
That suddenly felt sinister.
Richard called him.
No answer.
Claire checked the security system.
Nathan’s car had left the property eleven minutes earlier.
Emma looked at Victoria.
“You warned him?”
“No.”
Richard did not believe her.
Neither did Emma.
Then security found something in Nathan’s empty guest room.
A shredded document.
Most of it was destroyed.
One fragment remained readable.
Emma Grace Collins.
The date at the top was from six years earlier.
Emma had been eighteen.
Richard held the fragment.
“This is a legal notice.”
“For what?”
He examined the code.
“Beneficiary notification.”
Emma stared.
“You’re saying someone was supposed to tell me about the trust when I turned eighteen?”
“Yes.”
“And they didn’t.”
“No.”
Claire looked toward Victoria.
Victoria whispered, “I thought it was safer.”
Emma’s anger broke through.
“Safer for who?”
Victoria stood.
“You think walking into a fortune at eighteen would have helped you?”
“You don’t get to decide that.”
“You were grieving your foster mother.”
“You didn’t even know me.”
“I knew enough.”
Emma stepped closer.
“You knew enough to hire me as a maid.”
Victoria flinched.
Emma’s voice shook.
“You watched me serve your friends while you controlled money that belonged to me.”
Victoria’s eyes filled.
“I brought you here because Nathan started asking questions.”
Richard frowned.
“What questions?”
Victoria hesitated.
Then she admitted the truth.
Nathan believed Emma’s existence threatened something larger than the trust.
Daniel’s old accounting records.
The missing blue key.
And whatever that key opened.
Emma looked at Richard.
“What could be important enough to hide for twenty-four years?”
May you like
Richard answered quietly.
“The proof that Daniel’s crash wasn’t an accident.”
