Chapter 3 - The Secret Vanessa Was HidingWe left the motel through the rear entrance.
For the next several hours, we drove without speaking.
Vanessa finally pulled into a quiet parking lot.
“I need to tell you something.”
I stared through the windshield.
“What?”
“I wasn't Daniel's first mistress.”
I looked at her.
“There were others.”
“How many?”
“I don't know.”
She told me Daniel targeted women who worked for companies he controlled.
He promised promotions.
Money.
Security.
Then he used their secrets against them.
“If they threatened to expose him, he destroyed them.”
“Rachel?”
Vanessa nodded.
“Rachel discovered the financial scheme.”
“What happened?”
“She disappeared.”
“Did Daniel kill her?”
“I don't know.”
“But you know something.”
Vanessa hesitated.
“Rachel left me a message before she vanished.”
“What message?”
“She said, ‘If anything happens to me, find Evelyn Carter.’”
I stared at her.
“Why me?”
“I didn't understand either.”
Vanessa opened her laptop.
She showed me an encrypted file.
The file had been created nine years earlier.
Its title was:
PROJECT EVELYN
My name appeared inside.
The project described how Daniel had approached my father.
He wanted access to the Carter family trust.
My father refused.
Daniel then began courting me.
I remembered our first meeting.
A charity dinner.
His kindness.
His patience.
The way he seemed fascinated by my life.
I had believed it was romance.
It had been strategy.
He married me six months later.
My father died two years afterward.
Then everything changed.
Daniel became the trustee.
I became financially dependent.
And the Carter fortune slowly disappeared.
I began crying.
“He never loved me.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“I think he did.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
“At first.”
She explained that Daniel had become obsessed with control.
He stopped seeing people as people.
He saw them as assets.
My father's money.
My identity.
Vanessa's loyalty.
His investors' money.
Everything became something he could possess.
Then Vanessa revealed the worst secret.
She had been secretly working with Rachel.
“What?”
“Rachel wasn't dead.”
I stared at her.
“She survived.”
“Where is she?”
“I don't know.”
“But you said—”
“She disappeared after escaping Daniel.”
Vanessa handed me another file.
A photograph of a woman living under a different name.
Rachel had spent years collecting evidence.
She believed Daniel wasn't working alone.
“Who else?”
Vanessa looked at me.
“Your mother.”
I couldn't speak.
“My mother?”
“She helped Daniel gain control of the trust.”
“No.”
“She signed documents.”
“No.”
“She knew about the marriage.”
“No.”
“She knew about your father's disappearance.”
I stared at her.
“My father didn't die.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“He was forced to disappear.”
Suddenly my phone rang.
The number was unknown.
I answered.
A man's voice said:
“Evelyn.”
I froze.
“Dad?”
There was silence.
Then:
“Don't trust Vanessa.”
The call ended.
I looked at her.
She had heard everything.
Her face became terrified.
“That's impossible.”
“Why?”
“Because Daniel killed your father.”
I stared at her.
Then the phone rang again.
This time, a video appeared.
I opened it.
My father was sitting in a dark room.
Alive.
Older.
Terrified.
He looked into the camera.
“Evelyn, if you're seeing this, Daniel has finally realized you know the truth.”
He paused.
“Your mother lied to you.”
The video ended.
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Vanessa whispered:
“We have to find him.”
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