Chapter 2: Secrets in the Blood
Two hours later, the grand foyer was empty, but the tension in the mansion had only migrated to the private study. Clara sat on a plush leather sofa, a warm blanket wrapped over a clean sweater. A private doctor had already tended to her cuts. Arthur sat on the edge of his desk, staring out the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the New York skyline.
"Why didn't you just come to my office, Clara?" Arthur asked, turning around. The fierce billionaire looked aged, carrying the weight of a decade of guilt.
"Because Victoria intercepts your mail, Papa. She controls your schedule," Clara said, her voice stronger now. "When the hospital finally unlocked my memories last year after the coma, I remembered everything. The car crash ten years ago wasn't an accident."
Arthur froze. "What are you saying?"
"The night Mom died and I went missing... I remember seeing Victoria's car. She forced our vehicle off the road near the upstate cabin," Clara revealed, her eyes fiercely holding his. "She thought we both died. When she found out I survived with amnesia, she paid the foster home to keep me hidden. But when I showed up here under my birth name to get a job, she recognized me. That’s why she locked me in the maid’s quarters. She was trying to break me before she figured out how to get rid of me permanently."
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The realization hit Arthur like a physical blow. The woman he had shared a bed with for the last seven years was the monster who had torn his life apart.
The study door clicked open. It was Marcus, Arthur’s head of security, holding a tablet. "Sir, we have a problem. Victoria just left the property. And she took the encrypted hard drives from the safe."
