Chapter 3 - His Father Left Six Letters
Daniel found Victoria inside Jonathan’s locked study.
Aunt Caroline stood beside her.
Drawers had been emptied. Books covered the floor.
Behind a portrait was an open safe.
“What are you doing?”
Victoria said she was checking for theft.
Daniel did not believe her.
Caroline’s fingers were covered in dust.
Walter noticed a metal box hidden behind the fireplace grate.
Evelyn carried the key on a chain beneath her blouse.
Jonathan had given it to her the week before he died.
Inside were three cassette tapes, a bank document, and a letter
addressed to Daniel.
Son,
If you are reading this, I failed to repair what I broke.
You were born because I betrayed my marriage and hurt two women. Nothing
changes that.
Victoria loves you. Evelyn loves you.
The difference is that one was allowed to be your mother and the other
was ordered to pretend she wasn’t.
Daniel had to stop reading.
The letter confirmed that Evelyn’s trust was irrevocable.
If the money disappeared, Jonathan instructed Daniel to investigate
Victoria’s brother, Edward Vale.
Daniel looked toward the dining room.
Uncle Edward had been sitting at the banquet table.
Now his chair was empty.
His coat was gone.
So was his car.
The final line in Jonathan’s letter was worse.
If they tell you I died from my heart condition, ask to see the
toxicology report.
Daniel stared at Victoria.
His father’s official cause of death had been cardiac arrest.
“Was there a toxicology report?”
Victoria went silent.
Walter answered.
“Yes.”
Daniel looked at the tapes.
The first was dated March 14, 2004.
Jonathan’s voice filled the study.
“Edward confronted me about the will today.”
Edward’s recorded voice followed.
“You’re giving the maid part of the house?”
“I’m protecting Daniel’s mother.”
“You’re humiliating Victoria.”
“I humiliated Victoria when I cheated on her.”
Edward threatened to challenge the amendment.
Jonathan told him he would lose.
Edward answered, “Neither will Evelyn.”
The tape ended.
Nobody understood what he meant.
Not yet.
Daniel’s attorney, Rachel Bennett, arrived before midnight.
She traced Evelyn’s trust.
The money had not gone into Jonathan’s estate.
Six months after his death, nearly all of it had been transferred to
Vale Strategic Holdings.
Edward’s company.
The money was later invested in real estate—including part of the land
beneath the Ashford mansion.
Evelyn had unknowingly helped pay for the property where she spent
decades working as a servant.
Daniel looked at Victoria.
“Did you know?”
She appeared genuinely stunned.
“Edward told me Jonathan canceled the trust.”
Walter then revealed Jonathan had planned to grant Evelyn a life estate
in the mansion so she could never be removed from Daniel’s life.
Victoria’s face tightened.
“That would have humiliated me.”
Daniel answered quietly.
“Dad humiliated you when he cheated. You punished Evelyn for it.”
Victoria looked away.
Daniel played the second tape.
Jonathan’s voice sounded weaker.
“I found out what Edward meant.”
He had discovered Edward was giving Victoria supposed anxiety tablets.
They were not prescribed by her doctor.
A laboratory found a sedative capable of causing drowsiness and memory
problems.
Jonathan then discovered traces of the same substance in his own drinks.
Daniel stopped the tape.
His father had known someone was drugging him.
May you like
And the person controlling the medication was the same man who had
stolen Evelyn’s money.
