Chapter 7 - Five Years of Lies
My father showed me a hidden box.
Inside were documents dating back five years.
My mother had been tracking our finances.
Our property.
Our marriage.
Everything.
The earliest document was from the year Lucy and I got married.
My mother had written:
Lucy is not suitable for Daniel.
Another note:
She will eventually take control of him.
My father had tried to stop her.
She threatened him.
Then, after Ava was conceived, my mother accelerated everything.
She believed Lucy was taking me away.
The vacation.
The forged medical records.
The false DNA report.
The insurance.
The custody plan.
Everything was connected.
But there was one thing we couldn't explain.
Why had Mom wanted the fertility records?
My father finally told us.
"She wanted to prove Lucy had been pregnant before you married."
I stared.
"What?"
"She believed Ava wasn't your child."
I almost laughed.
"She had a DNA test proving otherwise."
"That test was fake."
"I know."
"But the real test?"
He hesitated.
"Your mother had another one."
I froze.
"Where?"
"At the same clinic."
We found it.
The real DNA test confirmed Ava was mine.
My mother had known.
She had known from the beginning.
She had fabricated the false result anyway.
The reason was simple.
If I doubted Lucy, our marriage would collapse.
If our marriage collapsed, Mom could control Ava.
That had been the plan.
I looked at my father.
"Why didn't you stop her?"
He cried.
"I was a coward."
I didn't argue.
Because he was right.
That evening, the police arrested my mother.
Irene was questioned.
My sister broke down.
She admitted she knew some of the money was stolen.
She claimed she never knew about the insurance or custody plan.
The evidence against her was weak.
But her relationship with my mother was over.
For the first time, my family was finally facing consequences.
But there was still one person missing.
The private investigator.
The man who had called me.
He had disappeared.
May you like
Then he sent one final message.
Meet me tomorrow. Alone.
