Chapter 8 - THE WOMAN WHO DISAPPEAREDThree days later, Victoria flew to Oregon.
The coastal town was small, gray, and cold.
Nothing like Los Angeles.
Nothing like the Vance estate.
A local librarian remembered the photograph.
“Your mother came here.”
Victoria's heart stopped.
“When?”
“Twenty-seven years ago.”
“Was she alone?”
The librarian shook her head.
“She was with a little boy.”
Victoria frowned.
“A boy?”
“Yes.”
The words changed everything.
Victoria had always believed she and Mia were their mother's only children.
The librarian opened an old ledger.
“She used another name.”
“What name?”
“Claire Morgan.”
Victoria stared at the page.
The handwriting matched the photograph.
Her mother's.
“Where did she go?”
The librarian pointed toward the harbor.
“She rented a cottage.”
Victoria drove there.
The house had been abandoned for years.
Inside, dust covered the furniture.
But beneath a loose floorboard, Victoria found a metal box.
Inside was a letter.
Dear Victoria,
If you are reading this, then Eleanor has finally lost control.
I am sorry.
I am sorry I could not protect you.
I am sorry I left.
But I did not abandon you.
I was forced to disappear because Eleanor threatened to destroy both of you.
And there was something else you were never told.
You had a brother.
His name was Daniel.
Victoria dropped the letter.
May you like
The room seemed to tilt.
Her entire childhood had been built on a lie.
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