CHAPTER 2: THE SISTER’S SECRET
Eight years earlier...
Emily Hale had been everything Victoria was not.
Kind.
Honest.
Loved by everyone.
Their father had trusted Emily more than anyone.
And that created a problem.
When he died unexpectedly, his will contained a shocking condition.
Control of the Hale fortune would pass equally to both daughters.
Unless one of them died.
Then everything would belong to the survivor.
Victoria never forgot those words.
At first, she tried convincing Emily to sell her shares.
Emily refused.
Then Victoria tried threatening her.
Emily still refused.
Eventually the sisters stopped speaking entirely.
Months later, Emily disappeared.
Police concluded she had died after her car plunged into a river during a violent storm.
Her body was never found.
Victoria inherited everything.
The case was closed.
Or so everyone believed.
But the truth was far darker.
Emily had survived.
Badly injured and suffering memory loss, she had been rescued by a fisherman miles downstream.
For months she couldn't remember her own name.
When her memories finally returned, she discovered something devastating.
Victoria had taken everything.
Their father's company.
Their family home.
Their inheritance.
And worst of all...
Victoria had legally declared Emily dead.
By then Emily had a newborn daughter named Lily.
Alone and terrified, Emily tried fighting back.
But Victoria's lawyers destroyed every attempt.
Nobody believed her.
She spent years moving from shelter to shelter, trying to protect her child.
Then came the diagnosis.
Terminal cancer.
Emily knew she was running out of time.
One night, while Lily slept beside her, Emily recorded a video message.
In it she revealed everything.
The inheritance.
The forged documents.
The stolen company.
The lies.
And finally she handed Lily an envelope.
“Take this to Aunt Victoria when you're old enough,” she said through tears.
“She owes you the truth.”
Six months later Emily died.
Lily was only eight years old.
For two years she lived in foster care.
Holding onto the envelope.
Waiting.
Searching.
And now she had finally found Victoria.
Back in the hotel lobby, Lily slowly reached inside her jacket.
The envelope was still there.
The moment Victoria saw it, terror filled her eyes.
Because she recognized the handwriting immediately.
Emily's.
The handwriting of a dead woman.
May you like
Or rather...
A woman Victoria desperately wished had stayed dead.
