Chapter 4 - The Daughter They Called a Thief
Federal agents found Isabella alive inside the private facility under a false surname.
Her records described her as delusional because she insisted Evelyn had stolen worker ownership.
Maria entered the room slowly.
For five years, she had believed her daughter abandoned the family in shame.
Isabella looked at her and whispered, “She told me you stopped searching.”
Maria collapsed beside the bed.
“I searched until they threatened to deport your husband and take your children.”
Evelyn defended the confinement.
“Isabella was unstable. She became obsessed with accounts she did not understand.”
Isabella faced her through the video feed.
“I balanced your books while you spent worker pensions on diamonds. I understood them better than you ever did.”
She revealed that Laura’s father had planned to restore the employee shares.
Evelyn drugged him before the board meeting and later reported his death as natural.
Daniel shouted, “Are you saying Mother killed him?”
Isabella shook her head.
“No. She needed him alive long enough to sign one final transfer.”
The death certificate had been issued while he was still receiving private treatment.
Laura remembered Evelyn refusing an open-casket funeral.
Agents searched a medical wing beneath the estate.
They found an empty room with recent food trays and a hospital bed.
On the wall, Laura’s father had scratched:
DANIEL SIGNED BECAUSE HE KNEW I WAS ALIVE.
Laura turned toward her brother.
May you like
Daniel did not deny recognizing the handwriting.
He whispered, “Mother promised she would release him if I transferred the shares.”
