Victoria couldn’t move.
For seven years, she had trusted Conrad.
She had cried in his arms after Elena disappeared. She had believed every word he told her.
But now Lucas was standing in front of her, trembling.
“Tell me everything,” Victoria whispered.
Lucas wiped his tears.
“My mother told me never to trust anyone wearing an expensive watch.”
Victoria looked down.
Conrad’s watch.
The same watch in the photograph.
Her stomach twisted.
“Where is your mother?”
Lucas pointed toward the road.
“She was taken again.”
“By whom?”
“The men from the black car.”
Victoria immediately called Conrad.
He answered on the second ring.
“Victoria? Where are you?”
She stared at the photograph in her hand.
“At the café.”
Silence.
Then Conrad asked nervously:
“Did someone approach you?”
Victoria’s heart sank.
He already knew.
“Why?” she whispered.
Another silence.
Then Conrad said something that made her blood run cold.
“Victoria… listen to me. Whatever that boy told you, don’t believe him.”
She ended the call.
Lucas suddenly pulled another object from his pocket.
A small, old key.
“My mother said you would know what this opens.”
Victoria stared at it.
She recognized it instantly.
It was the key to Elena’s old apartment—the apartment Conrad had told her was sold after the accident.
That night, Victoria and Lucas went there.
Behind a loose wall panel, they discovered a hidden metal box.
Inside were photographs, medical records, bank transfers…
And one document that changed everything.
Victoria read the final page.
Her hands began trembling.
Elena had survived the crash.
Conrad had found her alive.
And instead of helping her, he had paid people to make her disappear.
Why?
Because Elena had discovered that Conrad had been secretly stealing millions from Victoria’s family company.
She had threatened to expose him.
But there was one more secret.
A hospital record showed that Elena had given birth to her baby seven years earlier.
Victoria looked at Lucas.
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Lucas…”
He nodded slowly.
“My mother always said you were the only family we had left.”
Victoria pulled him into her arms.
For the first time in seven years, she was holding a piece of her sister’s life.
Then the apartment door suddenly slammed open.
Conrad stood there.
His face was cold.
“You should have stayed buried with the past, Victoria.”
Lucas stepped behind her.
Victoria stood between him and the boy.
“You tried to destroy my sister.”
Conrad smiled.
“No.”
He slowly raised his phone.
“I tried to protect you from what Elena was going to tell you.”
Victoria froze.
“What?”
Conrad looked directly into her eyes.
“Ask Elena who Lucas’s father really is.”
Then, from the hallway behind him, a weak female voice whispered:
“Victoria…”
Victoria turned.
Elena was standing there.
Alive.
Crying.
And beside her was a man Victoria had believed had died seven years ago.
Her own father.
