Chapter 6
My mother was alive.
I stared at the photograph until my vision blurred.
Gabriel took the phone gently.
“Emma.”
“No.”
I grabbed it back.
“That’s her.”
“You were six when she disappeared.”
“I know my mother.”
Hannah arrived thirty minutes later.
She immediately warned me not to respond.
Sabrina wanted control.
But I needed answers.
“Why did everyone tell me she died?”
Hannah didn’t know.
Daniel began reconstructing Julia’s history.
The truth emerged slowly.
Julia Reed had once worked as an entertainment attorney.
Before marrying my father, she had a daughter.
Sabrina.
The father was unknown.
Years later, Julia married Jonathan Reed and had me.
When I was six, Julia disappeared.
My father told me she died because he believed the truth would put me in danger.
“What truth?”
Daniel turned his laptop toward me.
“Your mother entered federal witness protection.”
I stared.
“For what?”
“She testified against an organized financial network inside the music industry.”
The same network my father later documented.
Julia had helped prosecutors years earlier.
The case collapsed after witnesses changed testimony.
Then someone leaked her location.
She disappeared again.
This time even my father didn’t know where she went.
“What about Sabrina?”
“She refused protection.”
Sabrina was seventeen.
Angry.
She believed Julia had abandoned her.
Victor Lang eventually became Sabrina’s protector.
Then husband.
Maybe that explained the beginning.
Not what Sabrina became.
Hannah traced the photograph metadata.
A rural property outside Santa Barbara.
Police surrounded it.
I stayed behind.
Again.
I hated waiting.
Hours later, Hannah called.
“We found Julia.”
I stopped breathing.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Sabrina?”
“Gone.”
Of course.
My mother was transported under protection.
When I finally saw her, I couldn’t move.
She looked older.
Fragile.
But her eyes were the same.
“Emma.”
I started crying.
“You let me think you were dead.”
She covered her mouth.
“I’m sorry.”
“Twenty-four years.”
“I know.”
“You never called.”
“I couldn’t.”
“You found Sabrina.”
Julia’s face broke.
“She found me.”
“When?”
“Eight years ago.”
Everything changed again.
Sabrina had known our mother was alive for eight years.
She kept it secret.
“Why?”
Julia whispered, “Because she wanted me to choose.”
“Choose what?”
“Her or you.”
I stared.
Julia explained Sabrina believed I had stolen the life she deserved.
A father.
A stable childhood.
A company.
Julia’s affection.
Sabrina wanted proof that Julia loved her more.
“She made me promise never to contact you.”
“And you agreed?”
Julia looked ashamed.
“She threatened you.”
My anger paused.
“What?”
“She had photographs of you.”
College.
Work.
My first apartment.
“She said if I approached you, people connected to the old network would learn who you were.”
I sat down.
“She used fear to keep us apart.”
“Yes.”
“What about Victor?”
“He tried to stop her.”
That explained his warning.
Julia took my hand.
“Victor discovered Sabrina had started using the same criminal network we once fought.”
“She became them.”
Julia nodded.
Then she looked at my bandages.
“What did she do to you?”
I told her everything.
The attack.
Christian.
My pregnancies.
Julia began sobbing.
“I should have come sooner.”
Before I could answer, Hannah entered.
“We found something on Julia’s property.”
A hidden safe.
Inside was one of my father’s original recordings.
But also a marriage certificate.
Julia Reed.
Victor Lang.
Dated six years ago.
I stared at my mother.
“You married Victor?”
She closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
“But Sabrina was his wife.”
“No.”
Julia whispered:
“Sabrina was never legally married to Victor.”
My head spun.
“Then why did everyone believe she was?”
“Because Victor wanted to protect me.”
Julia had been his real wife.
Sabrina had created the public records after Victor died.
Then Hannah asked the question none of us wanted to hear.
“If Victor was your husband, Julia, who inherited Apex Media?”
Julia looked at me.
“Legally?”
“Yes.”
She squeezed my hand.
“You did.”
I froze.
“What?”
“Victor named you.”
May you like
Sabrina hadn’t only been trying to steal my publishing company.
She had already stolen another fortune that legally belonged to me.
