Chapter 6 - THE SECRET HER MOTHER TOOK TO THE GRAVE
Emily replayed the sentence three times.
Her mother.
Susan Carter.
The woman who had worked two jobs.
The woman who cried at night when she thought Emily was asleep.
The woman who had spent the last years of her life warning her children never to trust rich people.
She had signed the first papers.
“No.”
Daniel watched her carefully.
“Emily.”
“No.”
She pulled the tape out.
“My mother would never help someone steal from Dad.”
Curtis spoke quietly.
“Maybe she didn’t know what she was signing.”
Emily turned on him.
“You don’t get to defend her.”
“I’m not.”
“Then don’t.”
She walked upstairs.
The restaurant had not opened yet.
Morning light poured through the windows.
Table 14 stood empty.
Emily sat there.
Daniel followed but kept his distance.
After several minutes, she asked, “Why Table 14?”
“What?”
“You sat here last night. My father’s key was marked fourteen. Why?”
Daniel looked toward the table.
“This used to be the market office.”
Emily glanced around.
“Here?”
“Your father’s desk sat roughly where you’re sitting.”
A chill moved through her.
“Did you choose this table on purpose?”
“Yes.”
“So last night wasn’t random.”
“No.”
Emily stood.
“You came looking for me.”
“Yes.”
“You knew who I was before I introduced myself.”
“Yes.”
Anger flashed through her.
“Then the hungry stranger act?”
“Wasn’t an act.”
“You’re worth billions.”
“I had spent the entire day walking the neighborhood.”
“So?”
“I hadn’t eaten.”
“You could have bought the restaurant.”
“I could have.”
“But you sat there pretending you couldn’t afford dinner.”
“I never said I couldn’t afford it.”
Emily stopped.
He was right.
She had asked whether he was short on money.
He had said it had been a complicated day.
“You let me believe it.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Daniel looked at her.
“Because I needed to know what kind of person Robert Carter’s daughter had become.”
The honesty infuriated her.
“You tested me?”
“I watched.”
“That’s worse.”
“Yes.”
Emily grabbed her coat.
“I’m done.”
“Emily.”
“No.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“I spent years looking for you because your father left instructions.”
She stopped.
“What instructions?”
Daniel removed a folded document from inside his jacket.
“Robert created a trust three weeks before he died.”
Emily stared.
“For what?”
“Not money.”
“Then what?”
“Ownership.”
Daniel placed the document on Table 14.
CARTER FAMILY BENEFICIAL INTEREST.
Emily scanned it.
Her eyes stopped at one paragraph.
Upon verification of Robert Carter’s surviving legal heir, title rights to designated Walnut Street parcels shall transfer.
Her mouth went dry.
“How much property?”
Daniel looked through the front windows.
“Most of this block.”
Emily stared.
“The Golden Spoon?”
“Yes.”
“The flower shop?”
“Yes.”
“The apartments?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“I bought them.”
“And put them in a trust?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I owed your father more than money.”
Emily sat down slowly.
“How much is it worth?”
“Current estimate?”
“Yes.”
“About nineteen million dollars.”
Emily almost laughed.
Yesterday she had twenty-two dollars.
Today someone was telling her she might own nineteen million dollars in real estate.
But Daniel wasn’t smiling.
“There’s a problem.”
“Of course there is.”
He pointed toward the trust document.
“Robert named a second beneficiary.”
Emily frowned.
“Who?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Your mother.”
“She’s dead.”
“Yes.”
“Then it passes to me and Tyler.”
“Not automatically.”
“Why?”
“Because Susan Carter never died.”
Emily stared at him.
“My mother died nine years ago.”
Daniel shook his head.
“No.”
May you like
Then he said the sentence that shattered everything Emily believed about her childhood.
“The woman buried in your mother’s grave was not Susan Carter.”
