Chapter 6 - The Perfect Bride’s Real NameThe damaged video became the center of the investigation.
She had not been physically harmed.
That was the sentence Julian repeated to himself.
Again.
And again.
Because if he allowed himself to think about what could have happened, he could barely breathe.
Anna sat two rooms away with Rosa.
The reunion was nothing like the one Anna had imagined during two years of unanswered questions.
There were no immediate explanations.
No joyful embrace that repaired everything.
There was love.
And anger.
And relief so painful it almost felt like grief.
“Why didn’t you call me?” Anna asked.
Rosa cried silently.
“I tried.”
“For two years?”
“I was scared.”
“So you let me think you were dead?”
“They found me before I could reach the police.”
“Who?”
“Miles.”
Rosa explained.
After Eleanor discovered missing foundation money, she secretly collected records proving that Miles had routed millions through fake vendors.
Several vendors traced back to companies controlled by Vivian’s father.
Eleanor confronted Vivian first.
Vivian admitted knowing some of the transfers were improper but insisted Miles had promised everything would be repaid.
Eleanor refused to stay silent.
Then strange things began happening.
Files disappeared.
Her email password changed.
A tire on her car was slashed.
Rosa helped make copies.
“Eleanor was scared Julian would confront Miles too quickly,” Rosa said. “She wanted enough proof that no one could bury it.”
“What happened to her car?”
Rosa looked toward the door.
“Someone changed the service order.”
Anna’s stomach turned.
“Who?”
“I saw Miles talking to a mechanic at the estate garage.”
“Did Miles cause the crash?”
“I don’t know.”
Rosa’s eyes filled.
“I only know Eleanor’s brake system had been serviced two days before she died, even though she never requested it.”
After Eleanor’s death, Rosa panicked.
She planned to take the records to police.
Miles found her first.
He threatened Anna.
“He showed me photographs of you leaving your apartment.”
Anna stared.
“He said if I talked, you would disappear next.”
So Rosa ran.
Miles later found her again.
For nearly two years, he kept her under control through money, threats, and forged documents that made it appear she had voluntarily entered a private care facility under another name.
Vivian had known Rosa was alive.
That revelation would later destroy the last piece of Vivian’s defense.
But first they needed Eleanor’s second copy.
Rosa insisted she had returned it to Eleanor shortly before the crash.
“Eleanor said she would hide it with Sophie.”
“In Sophie’s room?”
“No.”
Rosa shook her head.
“She said, ‘If they tear apart my house, they still won’t find it because Sophie carries me everywhere.’”
Anna thought about the phrase.
Sophie carried Eleanor everywhere.
At noon, Julian entered.
He looked exhausted.
But different.
The polished billionaire had vanished.
He wore yesterday’s shirt with the sleeves rolled up and Sophie’s pink hair tie around his wrist because she had asked him to hold it.
Rosa tried to stand.
Julian stopped her.
“Please.”
He sat.
For several seconds, he could not speak.
Then he said, “I failed both of you.”
Rosa looked surprised.
“You didn’t know.”
“I should have.”
He turned to Anna.
“And I failed my daughter.”
Anna did not comfort him with easy lies.
“Yes.”
Julian accepted it.
That mattered.
“She tried to tell me.”
“Yes.”
“I thought grief was making her reject Vivian.”
“She was trying to survive your expectations.”
He closed his eyes.
Rosa watched them.
Then she whispered, “Eleanor loved you.”
Julian’s face tightened.
“I loved her too.”
“She knew. But she also knew you trusted people for too long once you let them close.”
A painful smile touched his face.
“That sounds like her.”
Police questioned Rosa for hours.
Miles Harrow was formally arrested on kidnapping, fraud, conspiracy, and weapons charges.
Investigators reopened Eleanor’s crash.
Vivian was detained after evidence showed she had communicated with Miles repeatedly during the weeks before Eleanor’s death and helped conceal Rosa’s location afterward.
But Vivian insisted she had nothing to do with the crash.
“She may be telling the truth about that part,” Detective Lena Brooks told Julian.
He looked at her sharply.
“How?”
“Because Miles may not have acted alone.”
She showed him an old photograph recovered from Miles’s phone.
A mechanic.
West House garage.
Beside him stood someone Julian recognized instantly.
Thomas Reed.
His head of security.
Julian went cold.
“Thomas?”
“He approved Eleanor’s vehicle clearance the morning of the crash.”
Julian immediately called the estate.
No answer.
Thomas had disappeared.
That night Julian took Sophie home.
She refused her old bedroom.
“I don’t like that room anymore.”
So he carried her into his own room and placed her in the center of the enormous bed.
Anna stood near the doorway.
Sophie grabbed her hand.
“Stay.”
Anna looked at Julian.
He nodded.
So they both sat with her.
Sophie fell asleep between them.
Near midnight, Anna noticed the worn stuffed rabbit Sophie hugged against her chest.
One ear had been repaired with blue thread.
“Was that Eleanor’s?”
Julian smiled faintly.
“She gave it to Sophie when she was born.”
Anna remembered Rosa’s words.
Sophie carries me everywhere.
Her eyes moved to the rabbit.
“Julian.”
He understood instantly.
They woke Sophie gently.
“Can I look at Bunny?” Anna asked.
Sophie reluctantly handed it over.
Anna examined the stitching.
The blue thread was newer than the rabbit.
“Who fixed this?”
“Mommy.”
“When?”
“Before she went to heaven.”
Anna’s hands started shaking.
She carefully opened the old seam.
Inside the stuffing was something hard.
A waterproof memory card.
Julian stared at it.
“The second copy.”
They took it downstairs.
Using an offline computer, Julian opened the files.
Financial ledgers.
Emails.
Photographs.
Vehicle records.
Then one video.
Eleanor appeared on screen.
She looked tired.
“If you’re watching this, I may already be gone.”
Julian covered his mouth.
Eleanor continued.
“Miles is stealing from the foundation, but he is not the person I fear most.”
A shadow moved behind the camera.
Eleanor glanced toward it.
“The person helping him controls our security.”
Julian whispered, “Thomas.”
Then Eleanor said:
“Thomas Reed has been working for Vivian’s father for more than ten years.”
Anna looked at Julian.
But the video was not finished.
Eleanor leaned closer.
“And Julian, there is something about Vivian I never had the courage to tell you.”
The screen froze.
The file corrupted.
Julian stared at the final image.
May you like
Whatever Eleanor had wanted him to know was trapped inside the damaged recording.
And somewhere outside the gates, Thomas Reed was still free.
Related Stories
