Chapter 6 - The Poor Photographer Discovered She Was the Heir to an Empire
The Red Room trust was worth more than three billion dollars.
Claire had no idea.
Her mother had created it through Catherine's share of the original family assets.
The money had been hidden.
Protected.
Waiting.
Only Claire could legally access it.
Victor had spent twenty years trying to find it.
Cole had spent years preventing him.
Claire stared at the documents.
“So everything you've been protecting…”
“Wasn't mine.”
“It's mine.”
“Yes.”
She laughed.
“I don't know how to be rich.”
“You don't have to.”
“What am I supposed to do?”
“Whatever you want.”
Claire looked at him.
“What do you want?”
Cole didn't hesitate.
“You safe.”
She smiled.
“That's not an answer.”
“It is for me.”
Then Victor attacked.
A convoy intercepted them.
Cole's security team fought back.
Claire was dragged into a vehicle.
She screamed.
Cole chased them.
The vehicle crashed.
Claire escaped.
Victor wasn't there.
Only a note.
THE MONEY WAS NEVER THE POINT.
She showed Cole.
He read it.
Then looked at her.
“What does it mean?”
“I don't know.”
That night, Claire discovered another secret.
Her mother's photographs.
Thousands of them.
Hidden inside Cole's storage facility.
Faces.
Meetings.
Bribes.
Murder scenes.
One photograph stood out.
Cole's father.
Victor.
Catherine.
And Claire's father.
All together.
On the back:
THE FIRST BETRAYAL.
Cole stared.
“My father knew your father.”
Claire's voice shook.
“Were they friends?”
“No.”
They were enemies.
Claire's father had tried to protect Catherine.
Cole's father had ordered him killed.
Victor had manipulated both men.
The entire family war had begun over the trust.
And Claire had been the target since childhood.
The final photograph showed Victor holding six-year-old Claire.
Claire froze.
Cole went pale.
“What?”
“He met me.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Twenty years ago.”
Then Claire remembered something.
A silver watch.
A man's voice.
A sentence.
Don't tell your mother what you saw.
She looked at Cole.
“I remember him.”
Cole took her hand.
“What did you see?”
“My mother crying.”
“And?”
“Your father.”
“And?”
“He was handing Victor the trust documents.”
Cole's expression hardened.
May you like
“The Red Room.”
---
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