Chapter 7: The Woman Behind the Secret

“Victoria is my sister?” I repeated, staring at Adrian. “How long have you known?”

He looked away, and that small movement told me he was still hiding something.

“Not long enough to understand the whole truth,” he replied.

I stepped away from him, struggling to control my emotions. My mother had disappeared, Victoria had been hiding secrets about a child, and now I was being told that the woman who had tried to destroy my marriage might be my sister.

“How could my mother have another daughter and never tell me?”

“Your father wanted to keep her existence hidden.”

“Why?”

Adrian hesitated before answering. “According to the documents I found, your mother gave birth to twins. One child remained with her, while the other was taken away shortly after birth.”

My knees weakened.

“Twins?”

He nodded. “Victoria’s original birth records were altered. Someone arranged for her to grow up under a different identity.”

I covered my mouth, trying to process the information. I remembered my mother telling me that I had been her only child, that she and my father had never experienced the joy of raising another baby.

Had every memory of my childhood been built on a lie?

“Why would my father allow that to happen?”

“I don’t know, Elena. But I intend to find out.”

I looked at him bitterly. “You have spent three years investigating my family, Adrian. Don’t tell me you know nothing.”

Before he could respond, my phone rang.

It was my mother.

I answered immediately.

“Mom! Where are you? Are you safe?”

“Elena, listen carefully,” she whispered. Her voice sounded weak, and I could hear what seemed like a car engine in the background. “You mustn’t trust Adrian’s family.”

I looked at my husband.

“What is happening? Who has taken you?”

“Your father left something behind. Something that could expose everyone involved in what happened twenty-six years ago.”

“Mom, what did Dad leave?”

She began crying.

“Your sister was never supposed to find you. They were supposed to believe she was dead.”

My stomach tightened.

“Who are you talking about?”

Before she could answer, a man’s voice sounded in the background.

“End the call!”

“Mom!”

The line went dead.

I tried calling again, but the phone was switched off.

Adrian immediately contacted his investigator and instructed him to trace the number. While he spoke, I noticed something on the dining table that had not been there earlier.

A small brown envelope.

My name was written across it in my father’s handwriting.

I picked it up with trembling fingers and opened it. Inside was an old photograph showing my father holding two newborn babies. My mother stood beside him, looking exhausted but happy.

I turned the photograph over.

To my beloved daughters. Whatever happens, never allow anyone to separate you again.

Tears blurred my vision.

Beneath the photograph was a folded document bearing my father’s signature. I opened it and began reading.

It was a copy of an agreement between my father and the Blackwell family, dated several weeks before his death.

My eyes stopped at one paragraph.

The document stated that a substantial amount of money had been paid to arrange the permanent separation of the twins.

I looked up at Adrian.

“Your family paid my father to give away his daughter?”

His face tightened.

“I have never seen that document before.”

“Your family name is written all over it!”

He took the paper from my hand, examining the signatures.

Then his phone rang.

His investigator had found something.

“Sir,” the man said urgently, “we traced the vehicle carrying Mrs. Hayes. There’s been an accident.”

Adrian went pale.

“Is she alive?”

A painful silence followed.

“She’s alive, sir, but she’s been taken to the hospital. And there’s something else you need to know.”

Adrian looked at me.

“The woman who was driving the car has been identified.”

“Who?” I whispered.

He closed his eyes briefly before answering.

“Victoria Sinclair.”

I gripped the edge of the table.

My sister had been with my mother when the accident happened.

But the investigator’s next words made everything worse.

“Sir, Victoria has asked to speak to Elena. She says she knows who really arranged the separation of the twins.”

I reached for the phone.

For the first time, I wanted to hear what Victoria had to say.

Because if she knew who had destroyed our family, she might also know why my husband had been sent into my life in the first place.

And I was beginning to fear that Adrian was not the only person who had married me for a reason.