Vivian POV
"Everything else?" I stared at my father, my voice barely a whisper. "What does that mean?"
Dad's face crumpled like paper. "The company. The properties. Your inheritance. Everything that should have been yours and Bella's."
The words hit me like physical blows. "You sold our entire future to pay your debts?"
"I sold it to keep you alive!"
"And what about now?" I turned to Evans, fury building in my chest. "What happens now that Bella's back? Do you still own us?"
Evans' jaw tightened. "It's complicated."
"Uncomplicate it."
"Vivian, this isn't the time, "
"When is the time, Evans? When is it ever going to be the right time for the truth?"
Before he could answer, I was already moving toward the door. I needed air. I needed space. I needed to think.
"Vivian, wait!" Dad called after me.
I spun around. "Don't. Just... don't. I can't look at you right now."
I fled the study, my heels clicking against the marble as I practically ran down the stairs. Daniel caught up with me in the foyer.
"Where are you going?"
"Out. Away from here. I need to think."
"I'll drive."
Twenty minutes later, we sat in Daniel's car outside a coffee shop I'd never been to, somewhere far from Evans' mansion and the suffocating weight of revelations.
"So let me get this straight," Daniel said, handing me a steaming cup. "Your father faked Bella's death to protect you both from loan sharks. Evans paid off the debts in exchange for your family's entire fortune. And now Bella's back, probably with no idea why she was taken in the first place."
"That's the simplified version, yes."
"And you still don't know who actually took her that night? Or where she's been all these years?"
I shook my head. "Evans keeps saying it's complicated. Dad won't give me straight answers. And Bella..." I trailed off.
"Bella hates you."
"Can you blame her? She probably thinks our family abandoned her. Left her to die."
Daniel was quiet for a moment, studying my face. "You know, I never believed the drowning story."
I looked at him sharply. "What do you mean?"
"Even as kids, something felt off about the whole thing. The timing, your father's reaction, the way the whole thing was hushed up so quickly."
"You were twelve, Daniel. We all were."
"Twelve-year-olds notice things adults think they don't." He leaned forward. "I spent years wondering what really happened that day. When I became a PI, I started looking into it officially."
My heart skipped. "You investigated Bella's death?"
"Disappearance. I never thought she was dead."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I could never find you. You vanished just as completely as she did." His eyes were intense now. "But I kept digging. And I found some interesting things."
"Like what?"
"Like the fact that there were inconsistencies in the official report. The EMT who pronounced her dead? He left the city three days later and never worked as a paramedic again. The lifeguard who supposedly tried to save her? His story changed three times in the interviews."
I set down my coffee with shaking hands. "You think they were paid off?"
"I think someone made sure that night went exactly the way they wanted it to go."
"But the black car, I saw it. Someone was watching us."
"Exactly. Someone was already there, waiting. This wasn't some spontaneous kidnapping, Vivian. This was planned."
The implications made my head spin. "Planned by who?"
"That's what we need to find out." Daniel pulled out his phone. "I want to go back to the pool. The house was sold years ago, but the pool area might still have some answers."
"What kind of answers?"
"The kind that have been waiting ten years for someone to look for them."
An hour later, we stood at the edge of the property that used to be our family estate. The house had been torn down and replaced with a modern monstrosity, but the pool area remained largely unchanged, probably due to zoning restrictions about water features.
"God, it looks so much smaller than I remember," I murmured, staring at the rectangular pool that had haunted my nightmares for a decade.
"Everything looks smaller when you're not nine years old," Daniel said gently. "Can you walk me through that day? Everything you remember?"
I closed my eyes, forcing myself back to that sunny afternoon. "We snuck out here after lunch. Mom and Dad were in meetings all day, something about the business. Bella was bored, wanted to swim."
"Was anyone else around? Staff, gardeners?"
"No, it was Thursday. Most of the staff had the afternoon off." I opened my eyes. "That's why we thought we could get away with it."
"And the dare?"
"I dared her to jump off the diving board. She was scared of the deep end, but I kept pushing her. Telling her she was being a baby." The guilt twisted in my stomach. "If I hadn't pushed her..."
"Hey." Daniel's voice was firm. "Whatever happened that day, it wasn't because of a dare. Remember what your father said, this was planned."
I nodded, trying to focus. "She jumped. Started flailing immediately. I dove in after her, but she was panicking, pulling me down. I couldn't hold onto her."
"And then?"
"I lost her. Went under myself. When I came up, she was floating face down." The memory was crystal clear now, sharp as broken glass. "I screamed for help. The lifeguard came running."
"The lifeguard was already here?"
"He was cleaning the pool house. At least, that's what I thought." I frowned. "But now that I think about it, why would he be cleaning on a Thursday afternoon? The pool service came Mondays."
Daniel was already moving, walking toward the old pool house. "Show me where he came from."
I followed him to the small building tucked behind a row of hedges. The door was boarded up now, but I could still picture it clearly.
"He came from around the side," I said, pointing. "Running with a pool net, then he jumped in after her."
Daniel knelt down near the foundation of the building, brushing away dead leaves and debris. "Look at this."
I crouched beside him. He was pointing at something mounted on the corner of the building, about eight feet up. A small, weathered metal bracket.
"What is it?"
"Security camera mount. Old style, probably installed in the early 2000s." He stood up, dusting off his hands. "There was surveillance here, Vivian. Someone was recording everything."
My blood ran cold. "But that would mean..."
"It means whoever planned this wanted evidence. Proof that it happened the way they said it did."
"Or proof that it didn't."
We stared at each other as the implications sank in.
"Daniel," I said slowly, "if there were cameras here that day..."
"Then somewhere, somehow, there's footage of what really happened to Bella."
"And of who took her."
He nodded grimly. "The question is, who was watching you?"