Chapter 3 - My Mother Confessed She Had Lied to Emma for Five Years—But She Was Terrified of the Man Who Forced Her to Do ItDaniel Cross had disappeared.
His house was empty.
His office had been abandoned.
But we found his trail.
He had been paying someone.
A private investigator.
That investigator had followed Emma for three years.
Photographs covered his office wall.
Emma leaving the mansion.
Emma at the grocery store.
Emma visiting the hospital.
Emma waiting for my calls.
Every movement.
Every day.
Someone had been watching her.
I asked my mother:
"Why?"
She broke down.
For the first time in my life, I saw Margaret Kane cry.
She admitted everything.
Daniel Cross had approached her after my father's death.
He told her the family empire was unstable.
He convinced her I would eventually lose control.
Then he offered her a deal.
Help him control the company.
In exchange, she would remain wealthy.
But when I began expanding overseas, Daniel became afraid.
I was becoming too powerful.
So they created another plan.
Make Emma dependent on them.
Isolate her.
Convince her I didn't love her anymore.
Then use her name to transfer the money.
My mother had agreed.
I stared at her.
"Why?"
She couldn't look at me.
"Because I was afraid."
"Of him?"
"Yes."
"What did he have?"
She whispered:
"Evidence."
"What evidence?"
"My involvement in your father's death."
The room became silent.
My father had died eight years earlier.
Officially, it had been a heart attack.
But I had never completely believed it.
Mother looked at me.
"Your father wasn't supposed to die."
My blood turned cold.
"What are you saying?"
Daniel had poisoned my father.
Mother had helped cover it up.
But she hadn't known he intended to kill him.
She believed the poison would make him sick enough to force him into retirement.
Instead, he died.
Then Daniel threatened her.
If she spoke, he would expose everything.
I looked at Emma.
She was crying.
I walked to her.
"I'm sorry."
She shook her head.
"You didn't know."
"I should have."
"You trusted them."
"I shouldn't have."
She touched my hand.
"You're here now."
Those four words nearly destroyed me.
I pulled her into my arms.
For five years, I had built an empire.
And I had failed to protect the one person who mattered.
That night, I made a decision.
I would find Daniel.
Not for revenge.
May you like
For the truth.
Because until I knew why my father died, none of us would ever be safe.
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