My knees nearly gave out.
“Whose murder?”
Richard looked directly at me.
“Your mother’s.”
I couldn’t breathe.
My mother had supposedly died in an accident when I was twelve.
For forty years, I had believed that story.
Then Richard said the words that shattered everything.
“It wasn’t an accident.”
Julian suddenly stepped between Richard and us.
“You’re finished, Dad.”
Richard laughed.
“You think you have proof?”
Emma held up her phone.
“We recorded everything.”
Richard’s smile disappeared.
Julian reached for the phone.
Then suddenly—
A siren screamed outside.
Police lights flashed through the windows.
Richard turned toward the staircase.
He had nowhere to run.
As officers stormed into the mansion, I stood completely frozen.
Everything I believed about my family had been a lie.
My mother’s death.
My father’s silence.
The Thorne fortune.
Even the reason Emma had married Julian.
It had all been connected.
But just before Richard was taken away, he looked at me and said something I’ll never forget.
“Ask your father what happened the night your mother died.”
I stared at him.
“My father is dead.”
Richard smiled.
“No, Daniel.”
He leaned closer.
“Your father has been alive this whole time.”
My blood turned cold.
Because at that exact moment, my phone began ringing.
The caller ID showed a number I hadn’t seen in forty years.
And beneath the number was a name I never expected to see again:
DAD.
