Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN WHO KNEW MY MOTHER'S SECRET
“Someone inside our family?”
I looked from my father to Caspian.
My brother's face was tight.
“Dad, tell her everything.”
Augustus Devo stood beside the library windows.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Then he turned.
“Your mother discovered unauthorized transfers from the Foundation's protected accounts.”
I frowned.
“You told me Eleanor was responsible.”
“I believed she was.”
“Believed?”
He looked exhausted.
“Helena suspected someone else was helping her.”
“Who?”
“We never established that.”
Caspian placed the old photograph on the desk.
“Michael Vale disappeared from the payroll, but the transactions continued. Someone with higher authorization had to approve them.”
I stared at my father.
“Someone like you?”
His expression tightened.
“Yes.”
The admission shocked me.
Dad walked toward the fireplace.
“My signature appeared on several approvals I never remembered authorizing.”
“Were they forged?”
“We couldn't prove it.”
“And you kept it secret?”
“I was afraid our family would be destroyed.”
I thought about the years after Mom died.
The silence.
The locked offices.
The way Dad stopped discussing anything connected to the Foundation.
I had believed grief made him distant.
Now I wondered whether fear had been part of it.
That afternoon, I requested a meeting with Saraphina.
Caspian objected immediately.
“She assaulted you.”
“I know.”
“She could hurt you again.”
“Then we meet somewhere public, with security nearby.”
I needed answers.
And Saraphina had been the only person in the ballroom who mentioned my mother's death.
We met in a private sitting room at a hotel near the museum.
Saraphina arrived wearing a plain navy coat.
Without diamonds, makeup, or the confidence she'd displayed at the gala, she looked younger.
And tired.
“I didn't expect you to come,” she said.
“I didn't come to forgive you.”
She lowered her eyes.
“I know.”
I remained standing.
“Why did you mention my mother?”
Saraphina reached into her handbag.
She removed a faded photograph.
Eleanor Vale stood beside a hospital bed.
My mother lay beneath white sheets.
The date printed along the bottom was two days before she died.
I gripped the back of a chair.
“Where did you get this?”
“Eleanor gave it to Julian.”
“Why?”
“Because she wanted him to understand what was at stake.”
I looked up sharply.
“What was at stake?”
Saraphina swallowed.
“The protected fund.”
She explained that her family's charitable organization had been struggling.
Her father had borrowed heavily to support several failing businesses.
Julian had promised to help refinance the debt.
In exchange, Saraphina introduced him to private investors and helped organize events.
Their affair began later.
She had believed Julian was separating from me.
“I know that doesn't excuse what I did,” she said.
“No,” I answered. “It doesn't.”
Her eyes filled.
“I was jealous of you.”
I almost laughed.
“Of me?”
“He told me you were helpless. That you depended on him for everything.”
“Then what were you jealous of?”
She hesitated.
“Because whenever he talked about you, he sounded angry. But whenever he thought you might leave, he panicked.”
The words unsettled me.
Not because they suggested love.
Because they suggested fear.
“What was he afraid of?”
Saraphina opened her handbag again.
This time, she removed a small silver key.
“Eleanor told him your mother had hidden something in a private deposit box.”
My heart pounded.
“Where?”
“I don't know. Julian kept asking about an emerald necklace.”
I sat down slowly.
“What does this key open?”
“A storage cabinet in Eleanor's old office.”
“Why give it to me?”
Saraphina looked toward the window.
“Because Julian lied to me too.”
I watched her carefully.
“You're only helping because you've lost him.”
“Maybe that was true yesterday.”
She turned back.
“But last night, I saw you grab your stomach when I pushed you.”
Her voice broke.
“I didn't know you were pregnant.”
I said nothing.
She wiped her cheek.
“I keep thinking about what could have happened.”
For the first time, her regret seemed genuine.
It didn't erase what she'd done.
But it was something.
As I stood to leave, she caught my attention.
“Aara, there's another thing.”
She reached inside her coat.
A small piece of paper emerged.
It was a photocopy of a hospital visitor record.
My mother's name appeared at the top.
And beside the final visitor entry was a signature.
Not Eleanor's.
Not Julian's.
My brother's.
CASPIAN DEVO.
I stared at the record.
Caspian had told me he was studying overseas when Mom died.
He'd said he never made it home in time.
But the visitor log showed he had been in her hospital room.
Three hours before her death.
Saraphina looked at me.
“Julian believes your brother knows where the necklace was hidden.”
I couldn't move.
“Why?”
May you like
She whispered the answer.
“Because Eleanor said Caspian was the last person your mother trusted with it.”
