Chapter 7 - DANIEL’S BROKEN ENGAGEMENT
Emily laughed.
It was a single, stunned sound.
Then she looked at Rose.
“You’re saying I am an Ashbourne.”
Rose nodded.
“Biologically.”
Daniel remained completely still.
“My uncle Thomas died before I was born.”
Margaret had entered the garden behind him.
She had heard enough.
“No.”
Rose turned.
Margaret stared at her.
“No.”
Rose’s eyes filled.
“I’m sorry.”
Margaret walked closer.
“Thomas?”
“Yes.”
Margaret covered her mouth.
Daniel looked at his mother.
“You knew Uncle Thomas?”
“He was Richard’s younger brother.”
“That part I know.”
“He died in a boating accident in 1997.”
Rose shook her head.
“That is what Richard told everyone.”
Daniel stared.
“What actually happened?”
Rose sat down again.
“I met Thomas through Eleanor.”
“He was nothing like Richard.”
“He hated the company.”
“He wanted to teach.”
“He volunteered at a literacy center in Hartford.”
“I used to take Emily there when she was a baby.”
Emily’s heart raced.
“You and my father were together?”
“For almost four years.”
“Why didn’t Rachel tell me?”
“Because I asked her not to.”
Emily closed her eyes.
Of course.
Another truth sacrificed to protection.
Daniel leaned against the doorframe.
“If Thomas was Emily’s father, then legally…”
Margaret finished.
“She may inherit his estate.”
Rose nodded.
“Eleanor knew.”
Daniel looked at his mother.
“Did Dad?”
“I don’t know.”
Rose answered.
“He found out.”
Emily looked at her.
“When?”
“Three months before Thomas disappeared.”
Margaret’s face changed.
“Disappeared?”
Rose looked toward Daniel.
“Thomas did not die in the boating accident.”
Daniel stared.
“Then what happened?”
“I don’t know.”
“He called me the night before.”
“He said Richard knew about Emily.”
“He told me to take her away.”
“The next morning police said his boat had been found overturned.”
“No body was recovered.”
Margaret whispered.
“Richard told us the currents carried him away.”
Rose nodded.
“I never believed it.”
Emily felt suddenly unsteady.
Daniel pulled out a chair for her.
She sat.
Every answer created another impossible question.
She had come to Ashbourne Manor because of a stolen necklace.
Now she had a living biological mother, a dead aunt who had raised her, twelve percent of a billion-dollar corporation, and a father who might have vanished because Daniel’s father discovered she existed.
Emily looked at Rose.
“Did Thomas know about the trust?”
“Yes.”
“Did he know Eleanor left shares to me?”
“He helped her arrange it.”
Daniel ran a hand over his face.
“Vanessa must know this.”
Rose nodded.
“Probably.”
Margaret looked toward the house.
“Then she didn’t just need Emily disqualified from the Carter trust.”
“She needed Emily discredited before anyone examined Thomas’s estate.”
Daniel immediately called Mia Chen.
“Mia, I need every probate record connected to Thomas Ashbourne.”
He listened.
“Yes.”
“Everything.”
“Especially anything executed after his disappearance.”
He ended the call.
Emily stood.
“I’m done.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Done with what?”
“This.”
She gestured toward the mansion.
“The trust.”
“The shares.”
“The family.”
“All of it.”
Rose stood.
“Emily.”
“No.”
She looked at Daniel.
“I came here to clear Rachel’s name.”
“Rose’s name.”
“Whoever’s name.”
“I wanted to know why the woman who raised me lived like she was running from something.”
“I know now.”
“That is enough.”
Daniel shook his head.
“It isn’t.”
“For you.”
“For you this is your company.”
“Your family.”
“Your inheritance.”
“For me, this is a disaster I walked into because somebody sent me three sentences.”
Daniel’s expression softened.
“It became yours the moment Vanessa framed you.”
Emily laughed bitterly.
“She already lost.”
“The footage cleared me.”
“She filed another complaint.”
“Her lawyer can file whatever he wants.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“She has Ryan.”
“She has access to our records.”
“She knows your birthday matters.”
“She knows your parentage.”
“She is not finished.”
Emily hated how true that sounded.
Rose touched Emily’s arm.
Emily moved away.
Not violently.
Just enough.
Rose understood.
Margaret approached Daniel.
“You need to make the engagement termination public.”
Daniel nodded.
“It already is.”
Emily looked at him.
“When?”
“Ten minutes ago.”
He handed her his phone.
Ashbourne Holdings had released a statement.
Daniel Ashbourne and Vanessa Vale had ended their engagement effective immediately.
It also stated that Ashbourne Manor had provided security footage to authorities regarding an alleged attempted framing of an employee.
Emily looked up.
“You mentioned me?”
“Not by name.”
“Good.”
His phone buzzed.
Another headline appeared.
VALE FAMILY DENIES ALLEGATIONS, CLAIMS ASHBOURNE EMPLOYEE ATTEMPTED EXTORTION.
Emily closed her eyes.
Daniel swore.
Vanessa was turning it into a public war.
By noon, reporters gathered outside the gates.
Emily’s apartment address appeared online.
Photographs of her leaving the laundromat were published.
Old classmates received calls.
Her previous employer received calls.
Someone leaked the forged extortion letter.
Television commentators debated whether the housekeeper had targeted a billionaire heir.
Daniel wanted Emily to remain at the estate.
She refused at first.
Then Owen informed her that two strangers had already entered her apartment building pretending to deliver flowers.
She stayed.
Not because Daniel ordered her.
Because she was not reckless.
Margaret gave her a guest suite in the west wing.
Emily hated every expensive detail.
The sheets were too soft.
The bathroom was larger than her apartment kitchen.
There were fresh flowers beside the bed.
She slept for forty minutes.
When she woke, Daniel was outside the door.
“You knock now?”
“I’m learning.”
She opened it.
“What happened?”
“Mia found Thomas’s probate file.”
Emily’s stomach tightened.
“And?”
“He left everything to you.”
She stared.
“How much is everything?”
Daniel gave a humorless laugh.
“At the time, around thirty-four million dollars.”
Emily felt dizzy.
“Today?”
“His original shares were absorbed into Ashbourne Holdings.”
“Depending on whether the transfer was legal, somewhere between nine and fourteen percent.”
Emily sat on the edge of the bed.
“So potentially twenty-six percent with the Carter trust.”
“Yes.”
“Enough to matter.”
“You would be the second-largest individual shareholder.”
“After you?”
“Yes.”
Emily looked at him.
“And Vanessa was going to marry you.”
“Yes.”
“If I disappeared, she married into your voting block and inherited the contingent Carter shares.”
Daniel nodded.
“Her family could control the company.”
Emily laughed softly.
“One necklace.”
Daniel sat in the chair across from her.
“One stolen necklace would have solved everything.”
“If the camera had not caught her.”
“Yes.”
Emily thought about Vanessa’s confidence before the footage played.
She had believed the plan was perfect.
“Why didn’t she know about the camera?”
Daniel frowned.
“Good question.”
“Owen controls surveillance.”
“Ryan helped her.”
“He should have known.”
Daniel’s eyes sharpened.
“Unless that camera was not part of the normal system.”
They found Owen in the security office.
He checked the foyer camera.
Daniel was right.
The camera that captured Vanessa had been installed only two weeks earlier.
It was not on the official security map.
Owen stared at the file.
“I did not authorize this.”
Emily looked at him.
“Who did?”
The purchase record listed a maintenance contractor.
The work order had been submitted under Margaret’s name.
Margaret denied requesting it.
The contractor had been paid in cash.
Then Owen found something else.
The camera fed to a separate cloud account.
The account name was RC1998.
Rose Carter.
Everyone turned toward Rose.
She looked shocked.
“That isn’t mine.”
Emily believed her.
Daniel did not know whether to.
“Someone wanted Vanessa recorded.”
Margaret whispered.
“Someone knew she would plant the necklace.”
Emily looked at Rose.
“You knew from your video.”
“I suspected.”
“Did you install it?”
“No.”
Daniel crossed his arms.
“Samuel?”
Rose shook her head.
“He barely uses email.”
Owen looked toward the screen.
“Whoever installed it knew the exact angle needed.”
Emily remembered the anonymous letter.
Come before September 18.
Someone had brought her here.
Someone had installed a hidden camera.
Someone had delivered the blue necklace.
Someone was controlling events from the shadows.
Daniel looked at Rose.
“Who else knew everything?”
Rose hesitated.
“Thomas.”
Emily stared.
“My father?”
“Yes.”
“But he died.”
Rose looked at her.
“We never found a body.”
The room fell silent.
Daniel’s phone rang.
Mia Chen.
He answered.
She spoke rapidly.
Daniel’s expression changed.
“What hospital?”
Emily stood.
“What is it?”
Daniel raised a hand.
He listened.
Then ended the call.
“Samuel was found unconscious outside St. Vincent’s emergency entrance.”
Rose gasped.
“Is he alive?”
“Yes.”
“Barely.”
They drove to the hospital.
Samuel was in intensive care.
Doctors said he had been sedated.
No major injuries.
Police found a small envelope inside his coat.
Addressed to Emily.
Emily opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
A man stood outside Ashbourne Manor.
Tall.
Dark coat.
Gray hair.
The image had been taken three days earlier.
Rose dropped into a chair.
Emily looked at her.
“What?”
Rose stared at the man.
Tears filled her eyes.
Daniel leaned closer.
His face changed.
He had seen photographs of his uncle.
Emily whispered.
“Is that Thomas?”
Rose nodded.
“Yes.”
Emily’s heart began pounding.
Her father had not vanished twenty-nine years ago.
He had been outside the mansion three days ago.
On the back of the photograph was a message.
EMILY, DO NOT TRUST THE PERSON WHO BROUGHT ROSE BACK.
Emily turned toward Rose.
Rose looked terrified.
“Samuel brought me back.”
Daniel looked through the ICU window.
May you like
Samuel lay unconscious.
And suddenly no one knew whether the old groundskeeper was their greatest ally or the man who had been manipulating all of them.
