The Billionaire's Hidden Debt

Chapter 7: The Hidden Truth

The car ride back to the mansion was silent, but the air was thick with the weight of the notebook in Silas’s lap. I couldn't stop looking at it. That small piece of leather held the answers to ten years of nightmares.

"Why do you have this, Silas?" I finally asked, my voice barely a whisper. "How did you get my mother’s journal?"

Silas didn't answer immediately. He waited until the car pulled into the garage and the engine died. He turned to me, his expression unreadable. "My father and your mother were business partners, Ava. Long before the Vane Corporation became what it is today."

My jaw dropped. "Partners? My mother was a teacher. She didn't know anything about billionaires and corporations."

"That’s what she told you," Silas said, opening the notebook to a middle page. "Read the entry from August 14th."

I took the book with trembling fingers. The handwriting was definitely hers. 'The project is becoming too dangerous. Julian Thorne knows about the encryption. If anything happens to me, Silas’s father is the only one I can trust to keep the key safe.'

I looked up at Silas, my head spinning. "The project? The encryption? What does any of this mean?"

"It means your father didn't just lose money at a gambling table," Silas explained, stepping out of the car. "He was targeted. Thorne wanted that notebook, and he used your father's weakness to get to you. He thinks you have the 'key' your mother mentioned."

"But I don't have anything!" I cried, following him into the mansion.

Silas stopped at the base of the grand staircase and looked at the silver locket around my neck. "Are you sure about that, Ava? Because that locket has never been just a piece of jewelry."