Chapter 17 - The Yellow Dress
Evelyn came to my apartment wearing the same yellow satin dress from the night Daniel slapped me.
I noticed immediately.
“So you remember it too,” she said.
“How could I forget?”
She looked down at the fabric.
“I wore this because Daniel told me that night would be the end of you.”
I stared at her.
“He thought you’d sign the family settlement after dinner.”
“What settlement?”
“You never saw it.”
That was true.
Daniel had demanded I come to the mansion for what he called a family reconciliation.
Instead, he accused me of freezing discretionary expenses and ordered me to leave.
“What was in it?”
“You would acknowledge Daniel as manager of Carter House Holdings, waive challenges to Dad’s later documents, and receive twelve million dollars from future company proceeds.”
I almost laughed.
“Twelve million dollars we may not even have.”
“Exactly.”
“Why would I sign?”
“He thought you were tired.”
Evelyn’s honesty had become uglier now that she no longer needed to protect herself from me.
“He thought everyone staring at you would make you fold.”
“So when I refused—”
“He lost control.”
“And slapped me.”
She nodded.
“You smiled.”
Her eyes dropped.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I hated you.”
That answer surprised me.
“Why?”
“Your father respected you without requiring you to perform for him. Daniel spent his life trying to beat that.”
“That doesn’t explain you.”
“No.” She looked at me. “I wanted what you had. And Daniel made resentment feel like loyalty.”
For once, I believed her because she was not making herself sympathetic.
Then she gave me something useful.
Dad’s missing brass letter opener.
She had taken it from his study the night she moved the safe.
“Why?”
“Because there was tape around the handle.”
I turned it over.
The CARTER engraving was familiar.
Beneath the handle, faint adhesive residue remained.
“What was taped there?”
“A microSD card.”
My pulse jumped.
“Where is it?”
“Daniel took it.”
“When?”
“The night the safe went to Westlake.”
“Did you know what was on it?”
“No. But your father hid it.”
Another old detail paying off.
We had noticed the missing letter opener in Dad’s study.
Now we knew why it mattered.
Daniel had not only removed the blue ledger and signed pages.
He had taken a hidden digital card.
“What did he do with it?”
“I heard him tell Victor to make sure it never resurfaced.”
Victor Lang again.
The notary.
The missing link.
Ava used Evelyn’s statement to intensify the search.
Two days later, Victor was located at a rental apartment outside Tampa.
He did not resist.
He lawyered up.
Then, after learning Jordan had already cooperated and Evelyn had turned over the original signature sources, he asked what kind of deal prosecutors might consider.
No promises were made.
He talked anyway.
Daniel paid him $40,000 to certify reconstructed documents and another $15,000 to destroy “digital material” from Dad.
Victor claimed he destroyed the microSD card.
“How?” Ava asked.
“I snapped it and threw it into the bay.”
Gone.
Maybe truly.
Maybe not.
Then Victor added one sentence.
“Daniel made a copy first.”
“Where?”
“He uploaded it to his private vault account.”
For the first time, the evidence Daniel feared most was no longer hidden in a physical safe.
May you like
It might still exist online.
📖 Dad’s missing letter opener revealed a hidden memory card, and the notary admitted Daniel copied it before destruction—meaning the truth he feared most could still exist in his own vault. 👇
