Chapter 6: The Daughter of the Enemy
The broken window was still moving.
Cold night air rushed into the library, scattering papers across the floor.
For a few seconds, nobody moved.
Nobody spoke.
Because everyone was trying to understand what had just happened.
Detective Harper had been standing in front of us one moment.
Then she was gone.
And all she left behind was a bloodstained document and a question that refused to disappear.
*Who was Victoria Laurent really?*
Daniel picked up the paper from the table.
His hands were shaking.
Not from fear.
From anger.
I had seen him furious before.
At the gala.
When he learned Victoria framed me.
But this was different.
This was personal.
“Call every guard,” he ordered.
His voice echoed through the library.
“Search the entire property.””
The security team immediately moved.
I watched Daniel stare at the document.
“Daniel.””
He didn’t look up.
“She knew.””
His voice was quiet.
“Who?””
“Victoria.””
He finally looked at me.
“She knew you were Lily before tonight.””
I nodded.
“I know.””
“No.””
His expression hardened.
“You don’t understand.””
He held up the document.
“She didn’t just know who you were.””
He swallowed.
“She knew exactly why you disappeared.””
The words made my chest tighten.
I looked at the document again.
The name.
The date.
The connection.
Victoria Laurent was not just Richard Laurent’s daughter.
She was tied to the Sterling family in a way nobody knew.
A secret buried for decades.
“Open it,” I whispered.
Daniel hesitated.
Then he unfolded the paper completely.
It was a medical record.
A child’s birth certificate.
The name at the top made both of us freeze.
*Victoria Eleanor Sterling-Laurent.*
My eyes widened.
Daniel stepped back.
“No.””
The room felt like it tilted.
“Victoria…”
He stared at the paper.
“She’s a Sterling?””
The security chief looked stunned.
“Mr. Sterling, that’s impossible.””
But the proof was right there.
Victoria’s middle name.
Eleanor.
My mother’s name.
The same woman whose memory had been erased.
The same woman who had lost me.
I touched my locket.
A horrible thought entered my mind.
“Was she my sister?””
Daniel looked at me.
“No.””
His answer came too quickly.
Almost desperately.
“No.””
But then he stopped.
Because he wasn’t sure.
And that was worse.
We spent the next hour searching through every record in the mansion.
Every locked cabinet.
Every old family file.
Every piece of history the Sterling family had tried to preserve.
And every piece of history someone had tried to destroy.
Daniel sat at his father’s old desk, surrounded by documents.
He looked exhausted.
“Nothing.””
I looked over.
“What do you mean?””
“No birth record.””
“For Victoria?””
He nodded.
“Nothing official connects her to my family.””
I frowned.
“But the document says—”
“I know.””
He rubbed his face.
“That’s what makes no sense.””
The security chief entered.
“Mr. Sterling.””
Daniel looked up.
“Did you find Harper?””
The man shook his head.
“No.””
A silence followed.
Then he continued.
“But we found something else.””
He placed a small envelope on the desk.
“Where?””
“Hidden inside the wall behind the library bookshelf.””
My heart started racing.
Daniel opened it carefully.
Inside was an old letter.
The handwriting looked familiar.
Daniel recognized it immediately.
“My mother.””
He unfolded it.
I watched his face change as he read.
Then he handed it to me.
The letter was short.
But every word felt like a wound.
Daniel,
If you are reading this, then I failed to protect both of my children.
Lily was taken because someone wanted Sterling Industries.
But Victoria was hidden because someone wanted to use her.
I stopped.
My fingers tightened around the paper.
She is innocent. She does not know the truth.
My eyes moved faster.
Richard Laurent stole one child from me and raised another with lies.
I looked at Daniel.
Neither of us spoke.
I continued reading.
Please remember this: Victoria is not the enemy.
The letter ended there.
No signature.
No explanation.
Just one final sentence written at the bottom.
The person you should fear is the one who made my children hate each other.
The room became silent.
Daniel looked devastated.
“She knew.””
I looked at him.
“She knew about Victoria.””
He nodded slowly.
“My mother knew everything.””
A strange emotion filled me.
Anger.
Sadness.
Confusion.
Because the woman I had spent years missing had been carrying impossible secrets.
She had been fighting a war I never knew existed.
That evening, Daniel found Victoria.
Not at the mansion.
At an abandoned Sterling property outside the city.
A place nobody used anymore.
I followed him.
Not because he asked.
Because I needed answers.
The old building stood alone among empty fields.
The windows were broken.
The walls were covered in dust.
It looked like a place where secrets went to die.
Daniel entered first.
“Victoria!””
His voice echoed.
A few seconds later, she appeared.
She looked different.
No designer dress.
No perfect makeup.
No carefully controlled expression.
Just a woman who looked terrified.
“You found out.””
Daniel stared at her.
“You knew.””
Victoria closed her eyes.
“Yes.””
My heart sank.
She didn’t deny it.
“You knew Lily was alive.””
“Yes.””
“You knew she was my sister.””
“Yes.””
Daniel’s voice broke.
“Why?””
Victoria looked at me.
And for the first time, I saw something I never expected.
Pain.
Not cruelty.
Pain.
“Because I spent my entire life being told that you stole my life.””
I frowned.
“What?””
She laughed bitterly.
“My father told me the Sterling family destroyed us.””
She looked at Daniel.
“He told me your family took everything from him.””
Daniel shook his head.
“That was a lie.””
“I know that now.””
Her voice cracked.
“But when you grow up hearing the same lie every day, it becomes the only truth you know.””
I stepped closer.
“Then why did you frame me?””
Victoria looked down.
“Because I was afraid.””
“Afraid of what?””
She looked at the locket around my neck.
“Of what would happen when Daniel found you.””
I stared.
“You thought I would take your place?””
A tear slipped down her face.
“I didn’t have a place.””
The words surprised me.
Victoria looked away.
“My father raised me believing I was a Sterling by blood.””
Daniel went still.
“Your father lied to you too?””
She nodded.
“He told me Eleanor Sterling abandoned me.””
My breath caught.
“Why would he say that?””
“Because he wanted me to hate her.””
She looked at me.
“To hate you.””
The anger inside me weakened.
Not disappeared.
But changed.
Because suddenly, I saw something I had not wanted to see.
Victoria was also a victim.
A victim who became dangerous because someone taught her to be.
Daniel looked at her.
“Where is Richard?””
Victoria’s face changed.
“I don’t know.””
“Don’t lie.””
“I’m not.””
She stepped closer.
“He disappeared after he found out you were alive.””
Daniel frowned.
“Why?””
Victoria looked at me.
“Because he was afraid you would remember.””
The words made my blood run cold.
“Remember what?””
Victoria hesitated.
Then she whispered:
“The night you disappeared.””
The old building seemed to grow colder.
I felt my heartbeat in my ears.
“What happened that night?””
Victoria looked at me.
And her next words changed everything.
“You weren’t taken from the Sterling estate.””
I stared.
“What?””
“You left willingly.””
Daniel froze.
“No.””
Victoria’s eyes filled with tears.
“Lily…”
She whispered my name.
“You followed someone you trusted.””
The memory came suddenly.
A voice.
A hand.
A familiar scent.
Someone saying:
Come with me. Your mother needs you.
My breathing stopped.
Because for the first time in twenty-two years…
I remembered the face.
And it wasn’t Richard Laurent.
It wasn’t Victoria.
It wasn’t a stranger.
It was someone I loved.
Someone whose name I had never forgotten.
Daniel saw my expression.
“Lily?””
I looked at him.
My voice barely worked.
“I remember.””
A single tear fell.
“I remember who took me.””
The abandoned building went silent.
Because the person who destroyed my family…
was not a stranger.
It was someone who had been protecting me all along.
Someone Daniel had trusted his entire life.
Someone whose secret was buried deeper than any Sterling file.
I whispered the name.
And Daniel’s face turned white.
May you like
“Your father.””
Daniel’s father.
