Chapter 23
“What else?”
“Records.”
“Of what?”
“Children placed under false names.”
Silence settled across the foyer.
I looked down at Lily.
Sofia continued.
“Years ago, several powerful families used private adoption arrangements to hide children born outside marriages, children whose existence could damage reputations or inheritance claims. Some mothers agreed because they were frightened. Others were pressured.”
Victor stared at her.
“Our father was involved?”
“He arranged documents through Daniel’s father.”
“Daniel knew?”
“He discovered it later. That was why he wanted the records made public.”
I remembered the cassette.
Do not trust the name Vale.
“Daniel’s family name is on the records,” Sofia said. “But Daniel was not part of what his father did. He was trying to stop it.”
I took a step closer.
“What does any of this have to do with Lily?”
Sofia looked at me with an expression I could not read.
“It began before you were born.”
“Then it has nothing to do with my daughter.”
“It does if someone believes the last child named in those records has returned.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I know.”
Sofia turned to Victor.
“Is the blue room still here?”
His face hardened.
“It was sealed.”
“Not destroyed?”
“No.”
“Then we need to open it.”
Victor gave a humorless laugh.
“You arrive after twenty-four years, tell me Father was part of something worse than I knew, and expect me to tear down a wall because you ask?”
“Yes.”
May you like
“Why?”
“Because Elena hid the original records there.”
