Chapter 5 – The Grave That Should Never Have Been Opened
Emily couldn't breathe.
She read the document again.
Then again.
The death certificate listed her mother's cause of death as suicide.
But clipped behind it was a confidential forensic report that had never been made public.
Cause of death: Homicide.
The report stated that someone had injected her mother with a powerful sedative before she fell from the balcony of the Ashford estate.
The case had been closed within forty-eight hours.
Richard stared at the report in disbelief.
"No..."
His wife had spent years telling him she believed their daughter was still alive.
Everyone called her unstable.
Everyone insisted grief had broken her mind.
Even Richard had begun to doubt her.
Now he realized she had never been losing her mind.
She had been getting too close to the truth.
Emily looked up with tears in her eyes.
"My mother died because she refused to stop looking for me..."
Richard covered his face.
For the first time in decades, the billionaire broke down in front of everyone.
But before anyone could comfort him, the police officer answered a phone call.
His expression changed instantly.
He turned toward Richard.
"Sir... someone has broken into your private family vault."
Richard froze.
"The vault?"
"Yes."
"The surveillance system shows the intruder took only one thing."
"What?"
"The original hospital records from the night your daughter disappeared."
Everyone looked toward the restaurant entrance.
Victoria was gone.
May you like
She had escaped.
And she had taken the only evidence that could reveal who had helped her steal Emily twenty-two years earlier.
