Her perfect makeup had streaked beneath her eyes, and one hand trembled against the edge of the table.
“I loved you,” she whispered.
“That is not an explanation.”
“I raised you.”
“And signed a document saying I was dead.”
She looked at Lorenzo as though asking permission to speak.
He gave her none.
Finally, she looked at me.
“Your birth mother was my closest friend.
Her name was Elena Vale.
Your father, Gabriel, managed legal affairs for Lorenzo’s father.
He discovered that a man named Dominic Rusk was laundering money through several waterfront companies.
Gabriel collected evidence and planned to testify.”
Lorenzo’s jaw tightened at the name.
My mother continued.
“Rusk found out.
Your parents were attacked the night you were born.
Elena survived long enough to reach the hospital, but she knew they would come for you.
Gabriel had already created the trust.
If he died, everything passed to you when you turned thirty—or earlier if certain conditions were met.”
“What conditions?”
Tobias answered.
“Proof that the people responsible for your parents’ deaths had resumed searching for you.”
I looked at the forged certificate.
“Why declare me dead?”
“To hide you,” my mother said.
“The original filing was sealed.
Lorenzo’s father arranged new records.
I took you home and raised you as Scarlet Hayes.”
“Then why file another death certificate this morning?”
She pressed both hands over her mouth.
Chloe stood abruptly.
“Mom, tell her.”
My mother flinched.
That reaction told me Chloe already knew part of the answer.
“You told me Scarlet abandoned the trust,” Chloe said.
“You said the court only needed confirmation that she was dead so the assets could pass to the surviving daughter.”
“There is no surviving-daughter clause,” Tobias said.
“There never was.”
Chloe looked at Ethan.
“You showed me the papers.”
Ethan’s arrogance cracked.
“I showed you what your mother gave me.”
“Liar,” my mother whispered.
Lorenzo pulled out the chair beside me, but I remained standing.
“How did Ethan learn about the trust?” I asked.
No one answered immediately.
Then Tobias removed a set of bank records from the folder.
“Ethan’s father represented Dominic Rusk twenty-eight years ago.
Ethan discovered references to the Vale trust while settling his father’s estate.
He approached Vivian eleven months ago.”
Eleven months.
Four months before I found him with Chloe.
I stared at the man I had nearly married.
“Our engagement was part of this?”
