CHAPTER 4 – The Secret That Turned the Victim Into the Villain
The room fell into absolute silence.
Victoria stared at the young woman standing in the doorway, clutching the missing red folder as if her life depended on it.
"You... who are you?" Victoria whispered.
The woman swallowed hard.
"My name is Emily Cole."
"I'm Adrian's daughter."
"And before anyone arrests my father... you deserve to hear the truth."
Every executive looked at Victoria.
No one dared to breathe.
Emily slowly placed the red folder on the table.
"I found this years ago."
"My father told me never to open it."
"But after everything that happened today... I couldn't keep the secret anymore."
She opened the folder.
Inside were photographs...
Old contracts...
Medical records...
And one faded newspaper clipping dated twenty-two years earlier.
Victoria's hands began to tremble.
The headline read:
"Young Entrepreneur Dies in Suspicious Factory Explosion."
Emily pointed at the photo beneath it.
A smiling young man.
"The company wasn't founded by you and my father."
"It belonged to him."
"His name was Daniel Brooks."
Victoria immediately closed the folder.
"That's enough."
But Emily refused to stop.
"My father didn't betray Daniel."
"He tried to save him."
"The only survivor of that explosion..."
Emily looked directly into Victoria's eyes.
"...was you."
Gasps echoed around the room.
The federal investigators exchanged confused looks.
Victoria slowly backed away from the table.
Her breathing became uneven.
"No..."
Emily's voice cracked.
"You changed your identity after the fire."
"You inherited Daniel's research."
"You convinced everyone the company was your idea."
"My father discovered the truth years later."
"He wanted to expose you."
"But before he could..."
"You framed him first."
The boardroom erupted into chaos.
Executives shouted over one another.
The chairman looked at Victoria in disbelief.
"Tell us she's lying."
Victoria remained silent.
For the first time all day...
The fearless woman who had just destroyed an empire looked completely terrified.
Then...
She laughed.
A slow...
Cold...
Unsettling laugh.
"You finally figured it out."
Everyone froze.
Victoria looked toward the investigators.
"If you're going to arrest someone today..."
"You'd better reopen a murder case that was buried twenty-two years ago."
She slowly reached into her handbag...
...and pulled out another sealed envelope.
Unlike the last one...
This envelope was stained with dried blood.
"It contains the real killer's confession."
"But when you read the name..."
"...you'll realize Adrian and I were both just pieces in someone else's game."
May you like
The room fell silent once again.
Because the name inside that envelope belonged to someone every person in the boardroom trusted.
