Chapter 7 - A MOTHER'S LAST LETTER|
Stefan recognized the handwriting immediately.
He had kept Maria's letters in a locked cabinet for more than two decades, preserving them even after he stopped believing he would ever see her again.
Sarah placed the new photograph beside the old correspondence.
"Is this really her handwriting?"
"Yes."
He compared the words carefully, his face growing paler with every line.
"She wrote to me that night."
"Then why did you receive a letter saying she had left you?"
"Because someone replaced it."
Elena arranged for a handwriting specialist to examine the photograph and the old correspondence. The preliminary assessment supported Stefan's belief, although she warned that the evidence required independent verification.
They spent the evening reading Maria's letters.
In one, Maria described her fear that Stefan's business rivals were monitoring their relationship. In another, she wrote that someone had threatened to expose private information about his family unless she disappeared.
The final letter was incomplete.
Stefan, if I cannot reach you, remember the blue room at the old house. Your mother knows more than she admits. I wanted to believe she would protect our child, but I was wrong to trust—
The rest had been torn away.
Sarah looked up.
"What blue room?"
Stefan was silent for a long time.
"My family's old residence outside Zurich. There was a room painted blue where my mother kept correspondence and family documents."
"Does it still exist?"
"The house was sold years ago."
"Who bought it?"
Stefan called his family office. By morning, they learned that the property had passed through several owners before being acquired by a private investment company registered under an unfamiliar name.
Daniel Whitmore had once served as a legal adviser to that company.
Sarah felt the investigation tightening around a single man.
But before they could pursue him, Beatrice requested a meeting.
She arrived at Elena's office without Richard, wearing a dark suit and no jewelry except a small silver-bird brooch.
Sarah noticed it immediately.
Beatrice followed her gaze and removed the brooch.
"Your mother wore something similar," she said.
"Did you know her?"
Beatrice's lips tightened.
"I met her once."
"At the hospital?"
"Yes."
"Did you tell her to leave Stefan?"
Beatrice looked toward the window.
"I told her that people would use her against him."
"Did you threaten her?"
"No."
"Did you arrange for her identity to be changed?"
Beatrice's eyes filled, but she did not cry.
"I made a decision I believed would protect a family."
"Which family?"
Beatrice looked directly at Sarah.
"Not yours."
Sarah stood.
"Then we're finished."
As Beatrice reached the door, she turned back.
"Your mother wasn't the only person who disappeared that night."
Sarah froze.
May you like
"What does that mean?"
But Beatrice had already walked away.
