Chapter 1: The Letter Hidden Inside the Medallion
The ballroom remained frozen.
No one dared to speak.
The patriarch still held Elena tightly, afraid that if he let go, she might disappear again.
Then his trembling fingers noticed something unusual.
The medallion felt thicker than he remembered.
"There is another compartment," he whispered.
Carefully, he pressed the tiny engraved star.
A faint click echoed through the silent hall.
Inside the medallion was a tightly folded letter, yellowed with age.
The patriarch unfolded it with shaking hands.
It was written in his late wife's handwriting.
If you are reading this, our daughter has returned.
And if our daughter has returned...
Then the woman who lives in this house is a liar.
Gasps spread across the ballroom.
The woman in red stepped backward.
"No... this proves nothing."
But the patriarch continued reading.
The night Elena disappeared, someone inside this family betrayed us.
I recognized the woman's perfume before I lost consciousness.
Red roses.
Only one person wore that scent every day...
My younger sister, Victoria.
Every eye slowly turned toward the woman in red.
Her real name was Victoria.
She had married the patriarch's eldest son years after Elena vanished.
Her face turned white.
"You can't prove I kidnapped anyone," she shouted.
But Elena quietly reached into her purse.
"My adoptive mother gave me something else before she died."
She placed an old photograph beside the letter.
The picture showed a frightened little girl wearing the same medallion...
Standing beside a much younger Victoria.
The room erupted.
For the first time in years...
Victoria looked afraid.