He Forced the Maid to Eat on the Floor—Then His Grandfather Saw the Blue Bird Locket Around Her Neck and Froze

Chapter 06 - The Heir Who Feared the Truth

Victor greeted Nora as if she were a long-lost niece he had spent years trying to find. He praised Evelyn’s intelligence, blamed the past on “tragic misunderstandings,” and suggested that grief had confused Arthur’s judgment. His performance might have worked if Nora had not spent years studying people who hid numbers behind friendly words.

At dinner, Victor claimed North Harbor Consulting had been created by Evelyn herself. He produced photocopies of incorporation papers bearing her signature. Daniel examined them and noted that the notary stamp belonged to a commission issued two years later. Victor dismissed the discrepancy as a clerical error.

Caleb watched his father and copied his confidence, but Nora noticed his hand tightening around his glass. Caleb had expected Victor to prove she was lying. Instead, every answer created another question.

After dinner, Arthur announced that Victor’s access to company accounts would be temporarily suspended pending an independent audit. Victor’s smile finally cracked.

“You would damage your own company for a woman you met yesterday?”

Arthur stood. “She is my granddaughter. More importantly, the evidence deserves examination even if she were a stranger.”

That night, Victor ordered Caleb to retrieve anything stored in Evelyn’s old study. Caleb reminded him that the room had been locked since his grandmother’s death. Victor gave him a brass key and warned him not to involve the security team.

Meanwhile, Rose showed Nora a stack of envelopes she had discovered years earlier behind a cabinet in the mailroom. Each was addressed to Arthur in Evelyn’s handwriting. Every envelope was marked RETURN TO SENDER, although Evelyn had written the correct address.

The postmarks covered eleven years.

Nora touched them with shaking fingers. Her mother had tried again and again. Arthur had never received a single letter.

Rose began to cry. She remembered Victor personally taking control of family mail after the scandal, saying Arthur needed protection from “emotional manipulation.” She had believed him.

One envelope had been slit open and resealed. Inside, Evelyn wrote that she had proof of North Harbor’s true owner and feared Victor would use the family trust to protect himself. She also mentioned a duplicate ledger hidden “where Mother kept the winter music.”

Arthur knew the phrase. His late wife stored seasonal sheet music inside a cabinet in the old study.

At the same moment, Caleb unlocked that room. Dust floated through the beam of his phone. Across the room stood the music cabinet, one drawer slightly open.