Chapter 7 - THE FATHER IN MONACO
Edmund Ashbourne was alive.
Financial investigators found him in Monaco within hours.
Private apartment.
Private nurse.
Different name.
Edward Ashton.
He had staged his death after learning federal regulators were reviewing offshore family accounts.
Victoria told Adrian and Catherine he died peacefully at a Swiss clinic.
There had been a memorial.
No open casket.
No questions.
The Ashbournes did not merely hide people.
They rewrote whether people existed.
Adrian looked destroyed.
“My father watched us grieve.”
I had no answer.
Police could not instantly bring Edmund back from Monaco.
International procedures mattered.
But bank records connected him directly to Dr. Rowe.
Payments.
Consulting fees.
Property purchases.
He had remained active inside the family operation while publicly dead.
Then Edmund called Adrian.
Not police.
Not lawyers.
His son.
Adrian put the call on speaker.
“Dad.”
Silence.
Then Edmund.
“You have created a catastrophe.”
Adrian laughed once.
“I created it?”
“Elena did.”
I almost admired the consistency.
Edmund continued.
“She had no right to destroy that portrait.”
“There was a child behind it.”
“A family matter.”
Adrian’s face changed.
“A child is not a family matter when you lock her in a wall.”
Edmund lowered his voice.
“You don’t understand what Catherine was going to do.”
“Tell me.”
“She planned to destroy the trust.”
“No.”
“She planned to expose you.”
Silence.
That was enough.
Edmund changed direction.
“Adrian, listen carefully.”
“If the conduct clause is triggered, you lose everything too.”
Adrian looked at me.
Then answered.
“Then I lose it.”
Edmund stopped.
“You don’t mean that.”
“Yes.”
“You have no idea what poverty looks like.”
Adrian laughed bitterly.
“Neither do you.”
Then he ended the call.
It was the first time I had ever seen my husband choose truth over inheritance without hesitation.
I remembered Catherine’s warning.
Rowe had said.
Use Adrian.
Victoria believed eventually blood would win.
She was wrong.
But someone else inside the mansion still believed inheritance was worth anything.
Adrian’s cousin Sebastian Ashbourne disappeared before police finished the search.
Sebastian managed the family investment office.
He had access to trusts.
Offshore accounts.
Medical payments.
And the chapel safe.
Detective Vale discovered his laptop had been wiped remotely.
Then a mansion employee approached me.
A young server named Mia.
She looked terrified.
“Mrs. Ashbourne.”
“Elena.”
“I saw Mr. Sebastian downstairs.”
“When?”
“Before the gala.”
“Doing what?”
“Carrying a child.”
My stomach dropped.
“Lily?”
Mia shook her head.
“A boy.”
May you like
No boy had been found.
Lily was not the only child hidden inside Ashbourne property.
