Chapter 13 - THE ANCESTORS
The next few days passed in a blur of legal proceedings and police interviews. Eleanor handled most of the paperwork while I stayed home with the children, guarding them, protecting them, trying to rebuild the sense of safety Vanessa had destroyed.
But her words kept returning to me. There is more. Rachel kept secrets too.
I began researching Rachel’s family history. I wanted to understand where Vanessa’s rage had come from. Why Rachel had given her up. Why she had hidden her existence from me for so long.
I found old records. Census data. Obituaries. Church documents. And as I dug deeper, I began to understand the terrible legacy that had been passed down through generations.
Rachel’s mother had been forced to give up her own child when she was young. Rachel’s grandmother had been disowned for falling in love with someone her family disapproved of. Generation after generation—secrets kept, children separated, families torn apart by pride and money and control.
Rachel had been trying to break the cycle. She had wanted to keep Vanessa. But her parents had forced her to give her away. They had told her it was for the best. They had hidden the truth. And in doing so… they had created the very monster that would destroy their own daughter.
Vanessa hadn’t been born evil. She had been made bitter by a system that had taken her from her mother. That had told her she wasn’t wanted. That had given her nothing while her biological family lived in comfort and security.
None of it excused what she had done. None of it justified murder or tampering with a child’s medication or lying her way into a family she intended to destroy. But it helped me understand.
The secret Vanessa had warned me about… wasn’t just about Rachel. It was about all of them. It was about the lies that had been told for generations. The pain that had been passed down like an inheritance.
And then I found something else. A will. Handwritten. Signed by Rachel’s parents shortly before they died.
It stated clearly: In the event of Rachel’s death without legitimate issue, the entire estate passes to the nearest surviving blood relative. If there are no surviving children, the inheritance reverts to the family trust.
If Rachel had died believing she was only carrying Mia… Vanessa would inherit half. But if she had lived to give birth to that second child… Vanessa’s share would be cut in half again.
That was why. That was the final piece of the puzzle.
Vanessa had killed Rachel before she could tell anyone about the baby. Before she could rewrite her will. Before Vanessa lost the fortune she had spent her whole life believing was stolen from her.
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It had never been about love. It had never been about family.
It had always been about money.
