CHAPTER 2: THE TRUTH BURIED FOR THREE YEARS
The ballroom had descended into chaos.
Guests shouted.
Security officers rushed toward the exits.
The glamorous woman struggled against two guards as they restrained her.
"You can't believe her!" she screamed. "She's lying!"
But no one was listening anymore.
The billionaire sat frozen in his chair, the confession trembling in his hands.
Three years.
For three years he had mourned his daughter.
Three years of visiting a grave that now suddenly felt meaningless.
Slowly, he looked up at the little girl.
"What was your mother's name?"
The child wiped her eyes.
"Sarah."
The name hit him immediately.
Sarah Bennett.
His daughter's private nurse.
The woman who had vanished the same week his daughter died.
Everyone had suspected her.
Everyone except his daughter.
He remembered the last conversation they had shared.
"Sarah would never hurt me, Dad."
At the time, he hadn't understood.
Now he did.
A security officer hurried back toward the table.
"Sir."
The billionaire stood.
"Tell me."
"We searched the woman's vehicle."
The officer swallowed hard.
"We found additional poison."
The ballroom fell silent again.
The glamorous woman's face collapsed.
And for the first time, she stopped fighting.
The billionaire closed his eyes.
His daughter hadn't died from an allergic reaction.
She had been murdered.
And the woman responsible had sat beside him for three years pretending to be his friend.
But the revelation wasn't over.
Because attached to Sarah's confession was a second page.
A page he hadn't noticed before.
At the bottom was an address.
A location Sarah had marked with three words.
Find the child.
The billionaire stared at the little girl.
For the first time, he realized Sarah hadn't only protected the truth.
She had protected her daughter.
And she had spent three years hiding from someone willing to kill to keep a secret buried.
Now Sarah was gone.
The child was alone.
May you like
Or at least she had been.
Until tonight.
