Chapter 6 — The House They Tried to Erase
The old Carter family house stood at the edge of the city.
The place looked forgotten.
Broken windows.
Overgrown garden.
A layer of dust covering everything.
But Vivienne remembered it differently.
She remembered running through those halls as a child.
Her father carrying her on his shoulders.
Her mother laughing in the kitchen.
Before everything changed.
Natalie followed behind her.
“Are you sure you want to do this?”
Vivienne nodded.
“I spent eight years believing a lie.”
She unlocked the door.
“I’m done being afraid of the truth.”
Inside, nothing had changed.
The old furniture remained.
The family photographs still hung on the walls.
Vivienne walked into her father’s office.
Her heart tightened.
This was where he spent every night working.
This was where he told her:
“Never trust people who only love what you can give them.”
At the time, she thought he was talking about business.
Now she understood.
He was warning her.
Vivienne searched through the desk.
Nothing.
The drawers were empty.
The shelves were cleared.
Someone had already searched this place.
Natalie noticed something.
“Vivienne.”
She pointed toward the wall.
A painting hung slightly crooked.
Vivienne removed it.
Behind it was a small hidden compartment.
Inside was an old envelope.
Her name was written on it.
For my daughter, Vivienne.
Her hands shook.
She opened it.
The letter was written by her father.
“My dear Vivienne,
If you are reading this, something happened to me.
I need you to know one thing.
The people closest to you may not be the people who love you.”
Vivienne covered her mouth.
She continued reading.
“I discovered that someone inside my company was stealing money.
I also discovered they planned to use you to gain control of everything I built.”
Natalie looked at her.
“They knew.”
Vivienne kept reading.
Then she reached the final paragraph.
“The person I feared most was not the person who hated me.
It was the person who smiled while standing beside my daughter.”
Vivienne slowly lowered the letter.
Because she already knew who it was.
Ethan.
But beneath the letter was another photograph.
A photograph she had never seen before.
Her father.
Eleanor.
And a much younger Ethan.
Standing together.
Planning something.
On the back of the photo was one sentence.
THE FIRST BETRAYAL STARTED BEFORE YOUR WEDDING.
Vivienne stared at it.
And realized something terrifying.
May you like
The ring trap was not the beginning.
It was the final step of a plan that had started years ago.
