Chapter 18 - THE LETTERA year later, life had become peaceful.
Julian and Clara lived in a smaller home overlooking the ocean.
Leo was now running everywhere.
Victoria had started a foundation helping children who had been separated from their families.
Evelyn visited every Sunday.
Everything seemed healed.
Then one afternoon, an old lawyer arrived.
He carried a sealed envelope.
"This was found among your father's documents," he told Julian.
Julian opened it.
Inside was a handwritten letter.
The signature belonged to Richard Sterling.
The letter contained one sentence that changed everything.
If Clara ever discovers the truth, tell her that I did not order her disappearance. I was trying to protect her from the man who did.
Julian stared at the page.
There was another name.
A name they had never heard before.
Marcus Vale.
Clara's uncle.
A man everyone believed had died twenty years earlier.
Julian looked at Clara.
"There's more."
She read the letter.
Her expression slowly changed.
"He's alive."
Julian nodded.
Somewhere in the world...
May you like
Marcus Vale was still breathing.
And he knew the truth.
