Chapter 2 - THE SECRET BENEATH MY FATHER'S NAME
The words echoed through the ballroom.
The man who murdered him.
I stared at Charles Whitcomb.
"My father wasn't murdered," I said. "He died after saving Daniel Ashford."
Charles looked at me with an expression I couldn't understand.
"Your father was stabbed, Sophia. But whether Daniel was the intended victim is another question."
Alexander's eyes hardened.
"Charles, explain yourself."
"Not here."
Victoria stepped forward.
"Alexander, this entire evening is being destroyed because of a housekeeper."
He removed the engagement ring box from his jacket and placed it on a nearby table.
"Then the evening is over."
Victoria went pale.
"You're not serious."
"Very."
She grabbed his wrist.
"My father will hear about this."
Alexander looked at her coldly.
"Tell him exactly what happened."
For the first time, Victoria seemed genuinely frightened.
Alexander asked a female hotel executive to accompany me to a private sitting room. Charles followed us while security preserved the ballroom footage.
I sat on a leather sofa, still wearing my wrinkled housekeeping uniform.
Alexander remained standing.
"Tell me about your father's training."
I hesitated.
"Why?"
"Because the movement you used tonight belonged to an organization my father once trusted."
Charles opened an old leather wallet.
Inside was a faded photograph showing four young men standing outside a martial arts school in Queens.
I recognized my father immediately.
He looked barely twenty.
Beside him stood Anthony Ashford, Alexander's father.
"That's Dad," I whispered.
Alexander nodded.
"And that's mine."
The third man was Charles.
But the fourth face had been scratched out.
"What happened to him?" I asked.
Charles took a slow breath.
"His name was Victor Kane. He trained with us before he betrayed Anthony."
Alexander turned sharply.
"Kane died eighteen years ago."
"No," Charles replied. "That's what we were told."
He removed a folded newspaper clipping.
The headline described a mysterious warehouse fire that supposedly killed Victor Kane.
But Charles had written something across the bottom.
No body recovered.
I looked between them.
"How does this connect to my father?"
Charles met my eyes.
"After Anthony was murdered, Miguel disappeared from our lives. He believed someone was hunting everyone who knew what happened."
Alexander's phone vibrated.
His security chief had sent the archived police photograph of my father's attacker.
Alexander opened it.
Then slowly turned the screen toward Charles.
The old man's hands began trembling.
The photograph showed a man with a scar across his left eyebrow.
Charles whispered, "That's Victor Kane."
I felt the room tilt.
"But the police arrested him."
Alexander looked at me.
"No, Sophia. According to the official report, the attacker escaped."
I stared at the photograph.
Then I noticed something that made my blood freeze.
The man wore a silver ring engraved with a black compass.
My father had drawn that exact symbol inside his training notebook.
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And beneath it, he'd written one warning.
If this symbol returns, never trust the Ashford family.
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