Vanessa tore Mia’s performance dress because everyone said she looked like her dead mother.

I stood frozen in the kitchen, staring at the words on the screen. Vanessa had not destroyed the dress in a fit of jealousy. She had cut it open deliberately. She had known there was something inside.

And now she had the truth.

I looked at the note in my hand. The name. The date. Claire's warning. Someone changed the records. Someone who had access. Someone who stood to gain.

Vanessa was not the only one who knew. Claire had known. And whoever had altered those records might still be close enough to watch.

I looked at Mia. She was sitting quietly at the table, watching me with worried eyes.

"Daddy?"

I forced myself to breathe. I walked over and knelt beside her chair.

"Mia, I need you to stay with Mrs. Henderson next door for a little while. You like her, don't you?"

She nodded slowly. "Are you going to see Vanessa?"

I hesitated.

"I need to speak with her. Just once. To get something back."

Mia reached out and touched my cheek.

"Be careful, Daddy."

My heart swelled. I kissed her forehead.

"I will. I promise."

I walked Mia next door and explained to Mrs. Henderson that I had an urgent matter to attend to. She agreed to watch her, and I thanked her, then returned to my car.

I drove to Vanessa's apartment. My hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly my knuckles turned white. Every question tangled together in my mind. How had she known about the note? Who had told her? And what exactly did she intend to do with what she had learned?

I parked down the street and walked to her building. When I knocked on her door, it opened almost immediately. Vanessa stood there, dressed, composed, holding a folded piece of paper in her hand. A cruel, knowing smile played at the corners of her mouth.

"You came," she said. "I knew you would."

I stepped inside.

"Give it to me," I said.

Vanessa closed the door and leaned back against it. She tapped the paper against her fingers.

"Claire hid it well," she said. "I almost missed it. But when I tore the dress... something fell out. Just a scrap. Part of a letter. Enough to piece the rest together."

"Where is the rest?" I demanded.

"Safe," Vanessa said. "Where you will never find it until we come to an agreement."

I took a step toward her.

"What agreement?"

Vanessa walked past me and sat on the arm of her sofa. She looked at me with eyes that were cold and calculating—no tears, no apologies, only leverage.

"Walk away," she said. "Drop all charges. Tell Principal Harris it was a misunderstanding. Say Mia tripped. Say the dress tore by accident. Say whatever you must. And in return... I will give you what I found. And I will never speak a word of what Claire wrote to anyone."

I stared at her.

"You are blackmailing me."

"I am protecting myself," Vanessa said evenly. "And think about it, Adrian. If this story gets out... what happens to Mia? Everyone will whisper. Everyone will wonder. The girl whose mother hid secrets. The girl whose father is not really her father. How do you think she will survive that?"

My blood ran cold. She was right. If this became public, Mia would suffer most of all.

"What do you want?" I asked quietly.

Vanessa leaned forward.

"I want the engagement ring back. I want half the money we saved together. And I want you to sign a paper saying I did nothing wrong. That I was never fired. That I am fit to work with children. All of it. Signed. Sealed. Delivered. And then... I will give you what I found."

"And if I refuse?"

Vanessa smiled.

"Then I go to the hospital. I go to the records department. I find the proof Claire was looking for. And I tell the world exactly what she discovered. Imagine the scandal, Adrian. Imagine what it will do to your precious daughter."

I took a slow breath. I looked at the paper in her hand. She had part of it. But she did not have everything. She did not have the name on the back. She did not have the warning about someone watching.

"Let me see what you have," I said.

Vanessa hesitated, then tossed the paper toward me.

I unfolded it. It was a fragment—part of Claire's letter, torn from the page. It spoke of doubts, of questions about the records, of something being wrong. But the name. The date. The final warning. Those were still safe in my pocket.

I looked up.

"You only have half," I said.

Vanessa's smile faltered.

"What?"

"You only found a piece," I said. "There was more. And I have it."

For a second, panic flashed across her face. She recovered quickly, but I had seen it.

"It does not matter," she said. "I know enough. Claire suspected something. And I can find out the rest on my own."

"Perhaps," I said. "But then so can I. And if you go to the hospital... so will I. And we will both find out the truth. Together. And everyone will learn exactly what you did to get it."

Vanessa stood up, her voice rising.

"You are willing to risk Mia's reputation just to be stubborn?"

"I am not risking anything," I said. "You are. You are the one threatening a child to get what you want. And I am telling you this: do not mistake my silence for weakness. I will protect my daughter. No matter what."

We stood staring at each other. The air between us was thick with unspoken threats. Vanessa realized she had lost the upper hand. She had leverage, but not enough. And she had just revealed how far she was willing to go.

"Get out," she said quietly.

"I will take this with me," I said, folding the fragment.

Vanessa reached out as if to snatch it back, then stopped. Her eyes narrowed.

"This is not over, Adrian," she said. "Claire started something when she wrote that note. And whether you help me or not... I am going to finish it. I will find out the truth. And when I do... everyone will know."

I walked to the door.

"Stay away from my daughter," I said. "Or the police will know about the note. And the threats. And everything you did."

I walked out.

As I drove away, my hands were shaking. Vanessa was not bluffing. She intended to dig into Claire's past. Into the hospital records. Into the day Mia was born.

And if Claire was right... if someone had changed those records... then digging into the truth was dangerous.