Chapter 6 - The Unveiling of the Secret
At that exact moment, a second luxury vehicle—a dark grey sedan—pulled up quickly beside Raymond's car, its tires crunching loudly against the loose gravel.
Out stepped fifty-year-old David Vance, Raymond’s longtime corporate attorney. Formally dressed in a dark charcoal suit, carrying a heavy, locked black leather briefcase, David looked pale and intensely serious as he walked past the fountain straight toward Raymond.
"Raymond," David said, his voice tense as he unlocked the briefcase with a metallic click. "I have it. Exactly as you requested."
David reached into the briefcase and pulled out a thick, closed Manila file folder with a faded red security stamp across the border.
The contents inside remained completely hidden from the camera's view, shielded by David’s hands as he handed the file directly to Raymond.
Beatrice, standing on the top steps of the manor, looked from her brother to the attorney, her face turning from pale to a ghostly, sickly white. She recognized that specific red-stamped file—the personal vault document that Liam had executed six months before his fatal accident.
Raymond took the file into his steady hands.
He opened the front cover, his eyes dropping onto the confidential text printed across the first page.
The camera, positioned tightly over Raymond's right shoulder in the vertical 9:16 frame, revealed only the back of Raymond’s silver head and the sharp, horrified movement of his eyes as he read the top three lines of the hidden document.
His hand suddenly stopped turning the page.
The silence that fell over the estate courtyard was absolute, suffocating, and terrifying.
Raymond slowly raised his head, his hazel eyes locking onto his sister Beatrice standing on the stone steps above him.
The moment Beatrice saw the look on her brother's face—a mixture of cold horror, profound betrayal, and sudden realization—her knees buckled slightly, her hands trembling against her cream-colored blazer.
Raymond looked back down at the file, then raised his eyes to stare directly at his sister, as if every memory he had of her had just been violently rewritten in a single second.
Raymond whispered, his voice barely audible yet carrying across the gravel like a crack of thunder:
May you like
“Why...?”
Beatrice stood completely frozen on the top step, unable to speak, unable to run, as the secret inside the file threatened to destroy her world forever.
