Chapter 6 - THE HIDDEN DATE

We left the hospital immediately. Julian refused to let me stay one moment longer than necessary. He drove in silence, his knuckles white against the steering wheel. Marcus sat in the backseat beside me, already reading through documents on his tablet.

When we arrived back at the stone house, Julian locked every door and window. He checked the grounds. He set the alarm system. Only then did he join us in the kitchen.

“Show me the dates,” Julian said, sitting down across from Marcus.

Marcus adjusted his glasses. “Here is everything. Elena’s will. The trust documents. The marriage license between Adrian and Elena. And… the marriage license between Adrian and Vanessa.”

He pushed the papers across the table.

I leaned forward, staring at the names, the signatures, the dates.

Elena and Adrian had been married for eight years before she died. The will had been signed three months before her death. Everything matched what I had always been told.

Then I looked at the date of Adrian and Vanessa’s marriage.

My breath caught.

It was barely six months after Elena’s death.

I looked up at Julian. He was staring at the paper, his face hard.

“That’s not what Daddy told me,” I whispered. “He said… he said he waited a long time. He said he married Vanessa years later. That they had only been together a short while.”

Julian tapped one finger against the date. “He lied. Or at least… he omitted the truth.”

Marcus pulled up another document. “And this. A real estate deed. Signed by Adrian Hale, transferring property into Vanessa’s name. Dated two months before Elena died.”

The room went silent.

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“Before Mama even passed away?” I said, my voice barely audible.

Marcus nodded gravely. “And look at this.” He pulled up another file. “Phone records. Banking transactions. Travel itineraries. Adrian and Vanessa were in contact long before Elena’s death. They were seen together. In restaurants.