The Lie Robert Wynn Told His Daughter
Chapter 08 - The Lie Robert Wynn Told His Daughter
Charlotte found her father in the hotel’s private boardroom.
Robert Wynn was seventy-four, silver-haired, controlled, and still capable of making an entire room wait while he finished one sentence. He listened as Charlotte told him about Elena’s claim.
Then he laughed.
Not warmly.
“Elena Cruz is a liar.”
“She said Mother left me something.”
“Your mother left you everything that mattered.”
“That is not an answer.”
Robert stood and poured himself water.
“Elena became too close to your mother. She filled her head with nonsense near the end. Money for employees. Scholarships. Changes to the foundation. Your mother was vulnerable.”
Charlotte felt a coldness she could not name.
“Did Elena steal from her?”
Robert’s hand paused over the glass.
“I protected this family.”
Again, not an answer.
Charlotte remembered herself at thirty-one, standing beside her mother’s grave, furious at a caregiver who had not even been allowed through the gate. Her father had told her Margaret’s sapphire brooch was missing. He had said Elena probably took other things too.
The brooch was found six months later in a safe-deposit box.
Charlotte had forgotten that part.
Or perhaps she had chosen to.
“Did Elena steal anything?” she asked.
Robert’s eyes hardened. “Why are you suddenly defending her?”
Charlotte looked down at her hands.
Because inside her silver clutch, there was one more truth her father did not know.
She had entered the staff corridor.
May you like
She had opened Elena’s locker.
And she knew exactly how her mother’s bracelet had ended up there.
