Chapter 3: The Secret Hidden Beneath the Velvet Carpet
The little boy swallowed hard.
Hot tears rolled down his dirty cheeks.
"Mommy is very sick."
"She can't walk anymore."
He desperately clung to the sleeve of my expensive dress.
"She said... if something happened to her..."
"...you would know who did this to her."
The air vanished from the ballroom.
This was no longer a charity gala.
It was the return of a ghost.
The resurrection of a secret my family had buried alive.
Slowly, I lifted my head.
My eyes moved past the whispering guests.
Finally, they settled on my father and my older brother, still standing near the stage.
My father's face had turned deathly pale.
His lips trembled.
My brother instinctively stepped backward.
Panic flooded his eyes.
They had lied.
Elena had never run away.
Eight years earlier, she discovered the family's massive money-laundering operation hidden behind their so-called charitable foundation.
She was going to expose them.
So the people who shared her blood silenced her.
They imprisoned her.
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They erased her existence.
All to protect the empire they had built on lies.
