Daniel called Ella immediately.
She answered before the second ring.
"You heard it."
"Yes."
"You know who altered the trust."
Ella was silent.
Daniel pressed.
"Is it Mara?"
"No."
Mara closed her eyes.
"Then who?"
Ella hesitated.
"I don't know."
Samuel laughed bitterly.
"She's lying."
Daniel turned toward him.
"You don't get to decide that."
Ella heard the voice through the phone.
"He's there."
"Yes."
"Then leave."
"We can't."
"You can."
Daniel looked at the trust seal.
"We need answers."
"You need to survive."
Evelyn stepped closer.
"Ella."
There was a long silence.
Then Ella said:
"I remember you."
Evelyn's face crumpled.
"I remember you too."
"You left me."
"I tried to come back."
"You didn't."
"I couldn't."
"You chose Daniel."
Evelyn closed her eyes.
"I chose the child I could protect."
Ella's voice became quiet.
"And I was the child you couldn't."
Nobody spoke.
Daniel felt something shift inside him.
The story he had been hearing for two days was no longer about money or property.
It was about choices people made when there were no good choices left.
He asked, "Where are you?"
"I can't tell you."
"Why?"
"Because someone is listening."
Samuel looked around.
"She always thinks someone is listening."
Ella heard him.
"Samuel."
He stepped closer to the phone.
"Where are you?"
She hung up.
Daniel stared at the screen.
Mara said, "She'll call again."
"How do you know?"
"Because she wants you to know something."
"What?"
"She always calls before she runs."
Clara looked at Mara.
"You think she's in danger."
"I know she is."
Samuel turned toward the door.
"Then we should go."
Daniel looked at him.
"You don't command anything."
Samuel's expression tightened.
"You don't understand what you're dealing with."
"Then explain it."
"The person who controls the trust has been waiting for all four beneficiaries to appear."
Daniel looked at the ledger.
"Why?"
"Because once all four are identified, the trust becomes active."
"That's what the five thousand triggered."
"Yes."
"Then whoever sent it wanted us together."
Samuel nodded.
"Exactly."
Daniel looked at the payment record.
"Who could send it?"
"Anyone with access to the account."
"Yourself?"
Samuel's expression remained blank.
"Possibly."
Daniel stared.
"Did you?"
"No."
"Then who?"
Samuel looked toward Mara.
She shook her head.
"It wasn't me."
Clara said, "It could have been Ella."
Daniel turned.
"Why would she send it?"
"To bring you here."
Mara frowned.
"Ella wouldn't use money."
"Maybe she had no choice."
Daniel looked at the transaction.
The sender was M. Vale Holdings.
"Who owns M. Vale Holdings?"
Samuel answered.
"Marjorie."
Clara shook her head.
"Marjorie died in 2012."
Samuel looked at her.
"Her company didn't."
Daniel understood.
"The company survived."
"Yes."
"Who controls it now?"
Nobody answered.
Daniel opened the banking information on his phone.
A registration record showed a current manager.
The name was not familiar.
He searched again.
Then stopped.
"Mara."
She looked at him.
"What?"
"Your legal name."
"Yes."
"It's listed here."
Mara took the phone.
Her face drained.
"I've never owned this company."
Daniel looked at Samuel.
"Someone used her identity."
Mara shook her head.
"That can't be."
"It can."
Clara took the phone.
"Look at the date."
The registration had been filed three months earlier.
Before Daniel received the money.
Before Clara contacted them.
Someone had been preparing.
Evelyn whispered, "They knew."
"About what?" Daniel asked.
"About you."
Daniel looked at her.
"Why?"
"Because your twenty-fifth birthday activated another clause."
"What clause?"
Evelyn looked at Samuel.
He answered.
"The final beneficiary can challenge every transfer."
Daniel frowned.
"Final beneficiary?"
"Your legal identity was the last one added."
"So I'm the key."
Samuel nodded.
"You're the reason they sent the money."
Daniel looked at the seal.
"And the reason they want this."
"Yes."
Mara took the ledger.
"Then we don't give it to anyone."
Samuel said, "Without it, you cannot challenge the trust."
Daniel looked at him.
"Then we use it."
"How?"
"Together."
Samuel stared.
"That's not how the trust works."
"Then we'll change how it works."
Clara smiled faintly.
"Jonah would have liked that."
Evelyn looked at the cassette.
"What about Ruth's recording?"
Daniel rewound it.
"There has to be more."
He played the second side again.
Ruth's voice returned.
"The person who altered the trust is one of the children."*
Static.
Then another voice appeared faintly beneath hers.
A man's voice.
Jonah.
"Ruth, stop."*
Daniel froze.
The recording continued.
Ruth replied:
"They deserve to know."*
Jonah said:
"Not until we know which one."*
Daniel stared at the machine.
Mara leaned closer.
Then Jonah spoke again.
"If Ella is the one who changed the records, we can't tell her we know."*
Mara's face went white.
Daniel stopped the tape.
"Ella."
Clara shook her head.
"Wait."
Jonah's voice continued.
"If Mara is the one, we can't tell her either."*
Daniel looked at Mara.
She stared back.
Then Jonah said:
"Because neither of them did it."*
The room fell silent.
The tape continued.
"The altered signature belongs to a child who was never listed."*
Daniel's heart began pounding.
A fourth voice entered the recording.
A woman.
Not Ruth.
Not Evelyn.
Not Clara.
The voice whispered:
"He doesn't know who he is."*
Daniel stopped the tape.
Everyone stared at him.
"What does that mean?"
Samuel looked suddenly frightened.
"Turn it off."
Daniel did not.
"Who was the unlisted child?"
Samuel said nothing.
Evelyn whispered, "I don't know."
Mara stared at Daniel.
Then she said:
"There were five of us."
Daniel turned.
"What?"
Mara's face had gone pale.
"At St. Agnes."
Clara looked at her.
"You remember."
"I remember a fifth child."
Daniel felt cold.
"Who?"
Mara shook her head.
"I don't remember the name."
Samuel stepped toward the door.
"We have to leave."
Daniel blocked him.
"You knew."
Samuel looked at him.
"I suspected."
"Who was the fifth child?"
Samuel's face tightened.
"The child was erased."
"By whom?"
Samuel looked at the cassette player.
"By your mother."
Evelyn whispered, "No."
Samuel said:
"She didn't erase the child to hide a crime."
He looked at Daniel.
"She erased the child to hide you."
Click here to continue reading: PART 16: The Forgotten Fifth Child Changed Everything Daniel Believed About His Birth, and Evelyn Finally Opened the Box She Had Never Dared Touch
The Transfer That Should Have Arrived Quietly, But Instead Opened a Door Neither of Us Knew Existed
Part 15 of 25
