Maya called her mother again.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Elena sat at the kitchen table, staring at the silver bracelet.
Lydia.
The name looked almost absurd beside everything Elena had ever known about herself.
“Do you believe him?” Elena asked.
Maya lowered the phone.
“I don't know what to believe anymore.”
Daniel opened the old file.
“There may be one way to find out.”
“How?”
“Thomas's disappearance.”
Maya looked at him.
“You think he's still alive?”
“I don't know.”
The county records showed that Thomas had left the state twenty-four years earlier.
There was no death certificate.
No estate.
No property settlement.
His name simply disappeared from local records.
But the trust documents contained one address.
An old post-office box.
Maya remembered her grandfather's warning.
She had seen the number before.
They drove to the post office that afternoon.
The clerk checked the records.
The box had been closed years ago.
“But mail forwarding was requested.”
“To where?”
The clerk hesitated.
“I'm not sure I'm allowed to tell you.”
Daniel showed his identification and explained the legal matter.
Eventually, the clerk produced the forwarding address.
A small town two states away.
Maya wrote it down.
Elena stared at the paper.
“If Thomas is alive…”
“Then we'll find him,” Maya said.
They returned to Maya's apartment.
Her father was waiting outside.
Maya stopped.
“You shouldn't be here.”
“I know.”
He looked at Elena.
“I need to talk to both of you.”
Elena folded her arms.
“You lied to me my entire life.”
“I did.”
The admission surprised them.
Her father looked exhausted.
“I thought keeping the truth from you would protect you.”
“It didn't.”
“No.”
He lowered his head.
“I know.”
Maya stepped closer.
“What happened to Thomas?”
Her father looked at her.
“I didn't kill him.”
Maya hadn't asked that.
The words hung between them.
“What did you do?”
“I helped him disappear.”
Elena's expression changed.
“Why?”
“Because your mother asked me to.”
Maya stared.
Her father continued.
“Thomas had evidence against people who wanted him dead.”
“Who?”
“Men connected to your grandfather's business.”
Maya remembered the financial records.
“So the money wasn't just family money.”
“No.”
Her father looked at her.
“Your grandfather had become involved with people who used his companies to hide money.”
“And Thomas found out.”
“Yes.”
“What about Elena?”
“Thomas was her father. Your mother was terrified someone would use her to get to him.”
“So you changed Elena's name.”
“Yes.”
“And pretended she was your daughter.”
He nodded.
Maya's anger became tangled with something else.
“Why?”
“Because Thomas asked me to.”
Elena stared.
“He asked you to pretend to be my father?”
“Yes.”
“Why would you agree?”
“Because I loved your mother.”
Elena looked away.
“And did you love me?”
Her father's face crumpled.
“Yes.”
She didn't respond.
Maya asked the question that had been waiting longest.
“What about my inheritance?”
Her father closed his eyes.
“I used some of it to keep Thomas hidden.”
Maya stared.
“Eighteen thousand dollars?”
“More than that.”
“How much?”
He told her.
Maya felt sick.
“But why take it without asking me?”
“Because I believed the threat was immediate.”
“You could have told me.”
“I thought once you knew, you'd be in danger.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“Then why did you try to get her to sign the power of attorney?”
Her father looked at him.
“Because I needed control of the trust before the creditors found it.”
Maya's stomach dropped.
“Creditors?”
“People connected to the old accounts.”
“You're still hiding something.”
Her father nodded.
“Yes.”
He took a folded document from his pocket.
“I should have given you this years ago.”
Maya opened it.
It was a statement showing that her grandfather had established a second trust.
This one belonged to Elena.
But the beneficiary was not Elena's current legal identity.
It was Lydia.
The account had been frozen.
Maya looked at her sister.
“Your inheritance exists too.”
Elena shook her head.
“I don't want it.”
“You don't get to decide that while you're angry.”
Her father almost smiled.
“That sounds like your grandfather.”
Maya looked at him.
“What happened to Thomas?”
He pointed toward the street.
“He's alive.”
Elena's head snapped up.
“Where?”
“I don't know exactly.”
Maya stared.
“You helped him disappear and don't know where he is?”
“He contacted me once.”
“When?”
“Six years ago.”
“What did he say?”
Her father's face became serious.
“He said the people who wanted him silent were looking again.”
Maya felt a chill.
“Why now?”
Her father looked directly at her.
“Because someone has started moving money through the old companies again.”
Daniel took the document from Maya.
“Who?”
Her father shook his head.
“I don't know.”
Then his eyes moved toward Maya.
“But whoever it is knows about the trust.”
The room fell silent.
Maya thought of the apartment being searched.
The missing documents.
The envelope in her father's handwriting.
Someone had been watching.
Her father reached into his pocket again.
This time he produced a small brass key.
“There is a storage unit in my name.”
Maya stared at it.
“What's inside?”
“Everything I couldn't destroy.”
Daniel took the key.
“Where?”
Her father gave them the address.
Elena looked at Maya.
“We're going.”
Maya nodded.
Her father stopped them before they left.
“One warning.”
“What?”
“If Thomas's records are still there, don't trust the first thing you read.”
Maya frowned.
“Why?”
“Because the last person who tried to tell the whole story left out one name.”
“Whose?”
Her father looked at Elena.
Then at Maya.
“Your grandfather's.”
He walked away.
Maya watched him disappear around the corner.
Daniel turned the key over in his hand.
“We should wait until morning.”
Maya shook her head.
“No.”
“Why?”
She looked toward the darkening street.
“Because somebody already knows we're looking.”
Elena picked up her coat.
“Then we shouldn't give them another night.”
They drove to the storage facility after sunset.
The lock on the unit was already broken.
Maya stopped beside the door.
Daniel reached for his flashlight.
Inside, boxes were scattered across the concrete floor.
One had been torn open.
Another was burning slowly in a metal bucket.
Someone had been there minutes earlier.
Maya stepped forward.
Then she saw the wall.
Written across it in black marker was a single sentence.
She recognized the handwriting immediately.
It belonged to Thomas Vale.
And beneath the sentence was the date of tomorrow.
Click here to continue reading: PART 9: The Message on the Wall Pointed Toward Tomorrow, but the First Box They Opened Revealed Someone Had Been Preparing for Maya’s Arrival
The Call Came During the Toast, and by the Time She Answered, Her Family Had Already Made Their Choice
Part 8 of 20
