Chapter 4 - The Mother They Called a Servant
Emily had grown up believing her mother, Anna Reed, was a scholarship student who briefly entered Charles Hartwell’s world before dying in a car accident.
Price’s records told a different story.
Anna had worked inside Hartwell Manufacturing as a payroll clerk, where she discovered that the family deducted retirement contributions from factory workers but transferred the money into private investment accounts.
When Anna threatened to report the theft, Charles married her in secret and promised protection.
The Hartwells called her a manipulative employee who had trapped their heir.
They erased her marriage from society announcements, excluded her from family photographs and referred to Emily as “Charles’s responsibility” instead of his daughter.
Victoria laughed coldly.
“Your mother sorted paychecks in a windowless office. Do you truly believe she deserved half of an American industrial empire?”
Emily answered through tears.
“She deserved the wages your family stole and the respect you were too small to give her.”
Daniel found Anna’s original marriage certificate inside the folder.
It made Emily Charles’s only legal heir.
Victoria’s marriage had occurred while Charles was still legally married to Anna, making Victoria’s claim to the estate vulnerable.
Then Daniel uncovered a sealed affidavit.
Anna had not died in the car accident.
She survived and entered federal witness protection after agreeing to testify against the Hartwells.
The affidavit included her current location.
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Before Emily could read it, every light in the mansion went dark.
When emergency power returned, the affidavit was gone—and Daniel was holding the empty envelope.
