Chapter 7
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## The File Marked Victoria
Dominic refused to leave the police station without a full security escort.
Evelyn's testimony was recorded, and the storage unit was placed under police protection. No one was allowed to remove anything without an official inventory.
Inside were old account statements, photographs, letters, and a sealed envelope marked with Victoria's handwriting.
Dominic opened it with trembling fingers.
To my son, if you ever discover what happened.
The letter was dated three days before her death.
Victoria explained that she had uncovered a scheme diverting money from the family business into private accounts. She had also discovered that Antonio intended to expose it.
But someone had warned her that Dominic would be used as leverage.
She had arranged for Clara's future to be protected through a trust. Margaret had agreed to raise the girl without revealing the connection until the danger passed.
The final paragraph was written in a different hand.
If Antonio cannot speak, believe what he tries to show you. He saw the face of the person who came to my room.
Dominic read it twice.
His father had witnessed something on the night Victoria died.
The stroke had not erased his memories. It had trapped them behind a body that could no longer communicate.
At the bottom of the envelope was a second note.
Find the original hospital records.
Clara frowned.
“Why hospital records?”
Dominic called Dr. Bennett.
The doctor agreed to help locate Antonio's original treatment files. They discovered that the first medical report after his stroke had been amended twice.
One amendment removed a note describing unexplained sedation.
Another replaced the name of the physician who had authorized a medication change.
That physician was no longer licensed.
His name was Daniel Mercer.
Marcus tracked Mercer to a private rehabilitation clinic outside the city.
When Dominic arrived with police, the doctor initially refused to speak.
Then he saw the photograph of Vanessa beside Antonio's wheelchair.
His face collapsed.
“She told me it was necessary,” Mercer said.
“Who?”
“Vanessa.”
Clara gripped the edge of the table.
“What did she ask you to do?”
Mercer insisted that he had never intended to cause permanent harm. He claimed Vanessa had asked him to provide medication to manage Antonio's agitation and had pressured him to alter his treatment records.
He could not establish that the medication caused Antonio's condition, and the police made no assumptions. But he admitted to falsifying records and agreed to provide evidence.
“Why?” Dominic demanded.
Mercer looked down.
“Because she said your father was dangerous. She said he was planning to have you killed.”
Dominic stared at him.
“My father?”
“She showed me documents. I believed her.”
“Were they real?”
“I don't know.”
The police escorted Mercer away for questioning.
Dominic's phone rang.
Vanessa.
He answered and placed it on speaker.
“You've made a terrible mistake,” she said.
“Then explain it.”
“You think Clara is innocent? You think your father is some helpless victim? You have no idea what that family has done.”
“Tell me.”
A pause.
Then Vanessa spoke in a voice so cold Clara barely recognized it.
“Ask your father why Victoria was driving alone that night.”
Dominic's heart pounded.
“Why?”
“Because she was going to meet someone.”
“Who?”
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“Someone who was supposed to be dead.”
The line went silent.
Dominic immediately called the police.
But before he could explain the threat, Marcus entered the room holding a newly recovered photograph.
It showed Victoria standing outside a hotel.
Beside her was a man whose face Dominic recognized from the family portraits.
His uncle Richard.
May you like
The man who had supposedly died three years earlier.
And written across the bottom was a date from the previous week.
