Chapter 6 - Caroline’s Confession
The next file was labeled CAROLINE.
My mother sat alone.
No makeup.
Red eyes.
Hands trembling.
“I didn’t kill Charles Vale.”
Diane closed her eyes.
Mom continued.
“But I was there when he died.”
Michael moved closer to the laptop.
Charles had called Caroline after discovering she was Eleanor Bellmont’s biological daughter.
He wanted her involved in the trust.
Diane opposed it.
Not because she hated Caroline personally.
Because Caroline’s existence could strip Diane of control.
Charles arranged a private meeting at the hotel.
Caroline arrived.
So did Edward.
Then Charles collapsed.
Mom called for help.
But before medical staff entered, another person removed a small vial from Charles’s pocket.
Who?
Mom would not say.
Instead:
“I promised Edward I would keep one name out of this until we could prove what happened.”
Diane stared at the floor.
Michael asked:
“Was it you?”
“No.”
He moved toward her.
“Then who?”
She whispered:
“Your grandfather.”
Michael stopped.
Diane’s father.
Harold Bellmont.
The polished patriarch Michael remembered from childhood.
Harold had opposed Charles’s attempt to recognize Caroline.
Because Caroline’s claim would divide the hotel empire.
According to Diane, Harold had been giving Charles medication to “calm his heart.”
Charles died after taking it.
Did Harold intentionally poison him?
Diane insisted she never knew.
“Then why cover it up?”
“Because he was my father.”
Michael laughed bitterly.
“And Charles was your husband.”
“I had a six-year-old son!”
“So you erased me too?”
“I did what I had to do.”
There it was again.
The family motto.
Then I realized something.
“My mother protected Harold’s name too.”
Diane nodded.
“Because Harold threatened Edward.”
With what?
My father had been involved in financial irregularities at Bellmont.
At least according to Harold.
But the records later showed the “irregularities” were transfers Edward made to preserve trust assets Diane’s father was draining.
Harold could make Edward look guilty.
So everyone compromised.
Caroline stayed silent.
Edward disappeared.
Diane kept control.
Michael became Michael.
And Harold died peacefully years later.
No justice.
Only inheritance.
I looked down at Lily.
“This ends with us.”
Diane laughed.
“You think a USB changes anything?”
“No.”
I reached for the black key envelope.
“This might.”
The key card had one unexplained marking.
D.M.V.
Michael said his birth initials were DMV.
But perhaps the envelope wasn’t addressed to him.
I held it against the light.
There was smaller writing under the crest.
DEPOSIT MASTER VAULT.
Not initials.
Instructions.
The hotel had an old private vault.
And the envelope contained a master access key.
Diane’s expression changed immediately.
Michael saw it.
“What’s inside the vault?”
She whispered:
“Nothing.”
Then Lily reached toward the gold crest on the envelope.
Diane lunged instinctively.
Michael stepped between us.
Too late.
May you like
She had exposed the truth again.
Something inside that vault terrified her more than the videos.
