Chapter 6 - Helen’s First Daughter
Nobody spoke.
Evelyn continued through the cellar door.
“Tell them who my father is.”
Helen stared at the metal.
“Don’t.”
Richard looked between them.
“What is she talking about?”
Helen whispered:
“Her biological father was not Edward.”
That much the DNA proved.
But Evelyn was Helen’s child.
Born two years before Helen married Edward.
Edward adopted her privately after the marriage.
The paperwork was sealed.
Richard never knew.
“Why hide that?” I asked.
Helen’s jaw tightened.
“Because Edward’s father would have disinherited him if he knew.”
Old money.
Old cruelty.
Old lies.
Then Evelyn said:
“Tell Richard the rest.”
Helen did not.
So Evelyn did.
Her biological father was Thomas Mercer.
Edward Vance’s business partner.
The man who disappeared from the company months before Helen married Edward.
Why did that matter?
Because Thomas Mercer had founded half the business that became Vance Holdings.
The trust Helen controlled contained assets originally owned by Mercer too.
If Evelyn was Thomas Mercer’s daughter, she could potentially claim not only a share through Helen’s marriage—
but direct ownership through Mercer.
“Is that why you made everyone think she was dead?”
Helen shouted:
“She was destroying the family!”
Evelyn laughed from below.
“I was sixteen.”
Richard stared at his mother.
“You erased a sixteen-year-old girl because of a trust?”
“No!”
Helen’s voice cracked.
“She found documents she didn’t understand.”
“What documents?”
Silence.
Then Evelyn said:
“The original partnership agreement.”
According to her, Thomas Mercer never sold his half of Vance-Mercer Development.
His signature on the transfer had been forged.
By whom?
Edward?
Helen?
Someone else?
Evelyn discovered the discrepancy as a teenager while searching old boxes.
She showed Helen.
Days later, she disappeared.
“What happened to you?” I asked.
For the first time, Evelyn’s voice changed.
Not defiant.
Broken.
“Mom sent me away.”
Where?
A private behavioral school in another state.
Under another name.
She was told Richard and Edward believed she had run away.
Letters were intercepted.
Phone calls blocked.
Years passed.
Eventually, she escaped.
But by then, Helen had legally declared her dead.
Evelyn survived under false identities.
Why return now?
Because someone had contacted her.
Someone who had copies of the Mercer documents.
“Who?”
Evelyn went quiet.
Then:
“Your father, Maya.”
My body went cold.
“My father?”
Dad had died four years ago.
A stroke.
At least that was what I was told.
Helen smiled faintly.
“She’s lying.”
I looked at Richard.
He looked uncertain.
Then Evelyn said:
“Ask Maya where her father worked before she was born.”
I knew.
Mercer & Reed Accounting.
Mercer.
My father had once worked for a firm with that name.
I never connected it.
Then Evelyn said:
“Your father wasn’t just an accountant.”
“He was Thomas Mercer’s son.”
My knees almost gave out.
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If true, that meant I was related to the man whose missing shares could destroy the Vance empire.
And suddenly my marriage to Richard looked far less accidental.
