Chapter 4: The Name on the Will
Mark followed Victoria into the study without speaking.
She closed the door.
For the first time since they had met, Victoria looked genuinely afraid.
“Tell me everything,” Mark said.
She sat behind the desk.
“Your father had a second will.””
Mark laughed bitterly.
“You expect me to believe that after what happened to Daisy?””
“It’s true.””
“Where is it?””
Victoria hesitated.
“Daniel has it.””
Mark’s fist tightened.
“So this was never about the pool.””
“No.””
“Then what was today?””
Victoria looked down.
“A warning.””
“From Daniel?””
“From both of us.””
Mark stared at her.
“You pushed my daughter into a pool because you wanted to warn me?””
Victoria’s voice cracked.
“I never meant for her to fall that far.””
“You grabbed her.””
“I wanted to frighten her.””
“You almost killed her.””
Victoria covered her face.
Mark stepped backward.
“I don’t recognize you.””
She lowered her hands.
“You never knew me.””
The words hung between them.
Mark opened the desk drawer and pulled out an old photograph.
It showed his father standing outside the estate with a young woman.
Mark recognized the woman immediately.
His mother.
But there was another child beside them.
A little boy.
Mark stared at the photo.
“Who is he?””
Victoria went silent.
“Who is he?”” Mark repeated.
She whispered, “Daniel.””
Mark’s eyes widened.
“That’s impossible.””
“He was raised here for three years.””
“My father never had another son.””
“That’s what everyone was told.””
Mark sat down.
He looked at the picture again.
Suddenly, dozens of strange memories returned.
His father refusing to discuss the years before Mark was born.
The locked upstairs room.
The annual payment to a private trust.
The name Ross appearing in old financial files.
“You knew,” Mark whispered.
“Yes.””
“How long?””
“Since before our wedding.””
Mark stood.
“And you married me anyway.””
Victoria’s eyes hardened.
“I married you because your father promised me protection.””
“Protection from what?””
She looked toward the study window.
“Daniel.””
Mark went still.
“What did he do?””
Victoria did not answer.
Instead, she opened a small safe beneath the desk.
Inside was an envelope.
She slid it toward him.
Mark pulled it open.
A handwritten letter fell out.
The handwriting was unmistakable.
His father’s.
*Mark,*
*If you are reading this, Daniel has returned. Do not trust anyone who tells you the estate belongs to you alone. The real inheritance belongs to my granddaughter. Protect Daisy at all costs.*
Mark read the last line twice.
*And never let Daniel learn what is hidden beneath the old greenhouse.*
He looked up.
“The greenhouse?””
Victoria nodded.
“It was the one place your father forbade everyone to enter.””
Mark remembered it.
An abandoned glass structure at the far end of the property.
His father had always kept it locked.
Mark folded the letter.
“We’re going there.””
Victoria grabbed his wrist.
“No.””
“Why?””
“Because Daniel is already waiting for you there.””
Then the study lights went out.
A voice came from the hallway.
“Actually, Mark…”
May you like
Daniel stepped into the darkness.
“…I’m waiting for both of you.””
