Chapter 4 - THE AUNT WHO NEVER WAS
Adrian stood frozen in the hallway.
Elena. Grace’s sister. She looked so much like Grace—same dark hair, same eyes—but there the resemblance ended. Grace’s eyes had been warm. Elena’s were cold, calculating, and sharp as they swept over him, then past him toward the stairs where the girls were sleeping.
“Elena,” Adrian said, his voice tight. “How did you get in?”
She smiled, stepping fully inside and closing the door behind her. “The front door was unlocked. Really, Adrian, with everything going on? You should be more careful.”
He didn’t move from the doorway to his study, blocking her path deeper into the house. “How did you know I was home?”
“Vanessa texted me. Before they arrested her.” Elena said it casually, as if admitting to conspiracy was nothing more than mentioning the weather. She walked past him, brushing his arm, and seated herself on the sofa in the hallway. “She told me about Teddy. About the files. About everything.”
Adrian’s blood turned to ice. “You and Vanessa.”
Elena tilted her head. “Vanessa was useful. Greedy. Predictable. I gave her everything she wanted—access, information, a way in—and she did all the messy work. It was a beautiful arrangement.”
“Grace knew.” Adrian didn’t ask. He stated it.
Elena’s smile faded. “Grace always knew. She was too smart for her own good. Even when she was dying, she was protecting that child.” She leaned forward, her voice sharpening. “But she made one mistake. She never suspected it would be me. Her own sister.”
“Why?” Adrian demanded. “Grace loved you. She trusted you. Why would you do this to her? To Lily?”
Elena stood up, her face twisting with a bitterness so deep it was painful to watch. “Because Grace had everything! The perfect husband, the beautiful children, the money, the love… and what did I get? Nothing! Hand-me-downs. Second place. Always Grace, Grace, Grace!”
Her voice dropped, turning cold and venomous. “And then she went and wrote that will. Leaving everything to Lily—*Lily*—a child who hasn’t even lived long enough to appreciate it! If anything happens to that little girl… it all comes to me. Every penny. Every asset. Everything.”
Adrian stared at her in horror. “You want your niece dead.”
“I want what should have been mine from the start!” Elena stepped closer, her eyes flashing. “Vanessa was supposed to break Lily. Wear her down. Make her so unstable that the courts would hand control to me. Then… accidents happen. Children get sick. Children fall down stairs. And then I would finally have what I deserve.”
Adrian reached into his pocket and pressed the panic button he kept there—alerting his security team and the police. “You won’t get near my daughters.”
Elena laughed. A sharp, ugly sound. “The police? I told you, Adrian—half of them work for me. By the time anyone gets here, I’ll be gone. And you… you’ll be the one who finds that your precious files have been altered. That the signatures were yours. That you framed Vanessa to cover your own misdeeds.”
She pulled a small USB drive from her pocket and held it up. “I have copies of everything. Altered to point right back at you. Unless… we come to an agreement.”
“An agreement?” Adrian stepped forward, his hands clenched.
“Sign the trust over to me. Today. In front of Arthur. And I’ll leave your daughters alone. Refuse… and things will start happening. Accidents. Mysterious illnesses. One by one. Starting with Lily.”
Adrian lunged for her.
Elena was ready. She stepped back, pulled a small canister from her bag, and sprayed it directly into his face.
Adrian gasped, stumbling back as stinging pain blinded him. His eyes burned. His lungs seized. He heard Elena’s footsteps rushing past him, heard her run up the stairs.
“Lily!” he tried to shout, but his voice came out a strangled whisper.
He dragged himself upright, blinking through tears, and stumbled after her.
Up the stairs. Down the hall. Lily’s bedroom door stood wide open.
Elena was standing inside. She had Lily by the wrist. The little girl was terrified, clutching Teddy to her chest, tears streaming down her face. Olivia stood in front of them, arms spread wide, blocking Elena’s path.
“Let her go!” Olivia screamed.
Elena backhanded Olivia hard across the face. Olivia cried out and fell to the floor.
“Olivia!” Adrian forced his eyes to see, charging into the room.
Elena pulled Lily in front of her, holding a small, sharp pair of scissors to the child’s throat.
“One more step,” Elena warned, her voice trembling with rage and desperation, “and I cut her. Right here, right now, I swear to you, Adrian, I will do it.”
Adrian froze. He held up his hands, his heart hammering so hard he thought it would burst through his chest.
“Elena… this is Grace’s daughter. Your niece. Put the scissors down.”
“Grace is dead!” Elena screamed. “And this little girl is all that stands between me and everything I’m owed! Tell me where the memory card is! Tell me now!”
Lily stared at Adrian, her eyes wide and terrified. She didn’t cry. She didn’t scream. She slowly, carefully, pressed the teddy bear tighter against herself—right where the hidden memory card rested inside its paw.
Adrian understood.
Grace had hidden the truth in the one place Elena would never think to look. In the one thing Vanessa had hated more than anything. In the bear.
“It’s in Teddy,” Adrian said quietly. “Everything. The documents. The proof. The hospital records. The emails. All of it.”
Elena’s eyes widened. She stared at the bear in Lily’s arms.
“That filthy toy?” Elena whispered. “Grace put everything… in that toy?”
“Grace knew you’d look in safes,” Adrian said. “In filing cabinets. In computers. She never dreamed you’d hate the one thing she left her daughter so much that you’d never even touch it.”
Elena laughed—a wild, broken sound. She stared at Teddy, then at Adrian, then back at Teddy. Her grip on Lily loosened just enough.
“Give it to me,” Elena hissed, reaching for the bear.
Lily didn’t hesitate.
She didn’t hand it over. She didn’t shrink back.
Lily swung the bear—hard—smacking Elena squarely in the face.
Elena flinched. The scissors wavered.
Adrian moved.
He crossed the room in two strides, seized Elena’s wrist, and twisted it. She screamed as the scissors clattered to the floor. Adrian shoved her away from Lily, sending her stumbling backward onto the rug.
“Lily! Olivia! Run!”
The girls bolted past him, out the door and down the hall.
Elena scrambled up, wild and desperate. She lunged for Adrian, nails raking at his face. He held her off, struggling to restrain her, knowing he couldn’t hurt her—not really, not Grace’s sister—while she fought with the strength of someone who had everything to lose.
“You can’t keep it!” Elena shrieked. “It’s mine! Grace owed me! You owe me!”
“Grace left you nothing because she knew what you were!” Adrian pinned her arms to her sides. “She knew you’d try to destroy her children! That’s why she protected them!”
Footsteps thundered up the stairs. Security. And behind them—police.
Elena went limp in his arms. She stopped fighting. She stared past Adrian, her expression hardening into something cold and final.
“This isn’t over,” she whispered, so only he could hear. “Grace may have won today. But families have secrets, Adrian. Secrets even she took to her grave. And one day… the truth will destroy everything you believe.”
Adrian didn’t understand her words then. He wouldn’t understand them for weeks to come. But as the police entered Lily’s bedroom and pulled Elena away, as she was led out in handcuffs screaming curses and threats, Adrian stood there shaking, staring at the teddy bear lying on the floor where Lily had dropped it.
He picked it up gently. Its fur was soft and worn. Its button eye gleamed.
Grace had protected them. She had warned them. She had prepared for this moment, knowing her own sister might betray her.
But Elena’s final words kept echoing in his mind.
*Secrets even she took to her grave.*
What else? What else had Grace hidden?
May you like
Adrian looked down at the bear.
What else are you carrying, old friend?
