Chapter 12 - The Name Missing From the Certificate
Alex confronted Teresa.
She refused to speak.
Not because she didn't know.
Because she was afraid.
Finally, she whispered:
“Lily's father is not who you think.”
Alex felt anger rise.
“Then who is he?”
Teresa shook her head.
“That's not the question.”
“It's exactly the question.”
“The question is why Clara hid it.”
Alex stared.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“For six years?”
Teresa nodded.
“Clara asked me to keep it secret.”
“Why?”
“Because she believed Lily was being watched.”
Alex looked toward his daughter.
“By whom?”
Teresa closed her eyes.
“Your father.”
Alex froze.
“My father?”
“He believed Lily was connected to something he had lost.”
“What?”
Teresa hesitated.
“An inheritance.”
Alex almost laughed.
“This is about money?”
“No.”
Teresa's voice cracked.
“It was about control.”
She explained that Arthur's family had created a private trust decades earlier.
The trust was designed to protect assets from people outside the family.
But Clara discovered that the trust was being used for something else.
People were being paid.
Records were disappearing.
Properties were being transferred.
And Lily's name appeared in documents she should never have been connected to.
Alex asked the question that had haunted him.
“Was Clara trying to expose Arthur?”
Teresa nodded.
“She was.”
“Did Arthur know?”
“Yes.”
“Did he order her disappearance?”
Teresa looked at him.
“I don't know.”
Alex slammed his hand against the table.
“Everyone keeps saying they don't know!”
Teresa flinched.
Then she whispered:
“I know one thing.”
“What?”
“Arthur wasn't the person Clara feared most.”
Alex went still.
“Who was?”
Teresa looked toward the hallway.
“The person who came to our house the night Clara vanished.”
“Who?”
Teresa whispered a name.
“Victor.”
Alex's stomach dropped.
But then Teresa shook her head.
“No.”
“What?”
“He wasn't alone.”
“Who was with him?”
Teresa looked toward Lily.
“The person who opened the door.”
Alex turned.
Lily was standing behind him.
She whispered:
“I remember.”
Everyone froze.
Alex knelt.
“Who opened it?”
Lily's eyes filled with tears.
“Daddy…”
May you like
Alex's heart stopped.
“I thought it was you.”
