Chapter 7 - The Daughter Before Me
Genevieve Rowe had been erased so completely that even her nephew and niece had grown up without hearing her name.
No photographs on the walls.
No stories at Thanksgiving.
No place in the family genealogy displayed in Alden's study.
But Vivian's wooden box contained proof.
Photographs.
Letters.
A university identification card.
Genevieve had Alden's eyes and Maren's smile.
She had been twenty-two when she disappeared.
According to the letters, Genevieve had fallen in love with a schoolteacher named Samuel Price.
Her father had arranged another match.
Genevieve refused.
Then, suddenly, she vanished from family history.
Maren read until dawn.
One letter changed everything.
Eleanor,
If anything happens to me, Alden knows where I went.
Maren stared at the sentence.
Alden had been twenty-nine then.
Old enough to know.
Perhaps old enough to help.
Or interfere.
Maren closed the box.
Twenty-one years after being thrown out, she had returned expecting one uncomfortable wedding.
Instead, she had uncovered a pattern spanning generations.
By noon, she stood outside Alden's estate.
The same house.
The same stone pillars.
The maple trees were larger.
She walked toward the porch.
For a moment she saw herself at nineteen, standing in the rain with soaked luggage.
Then the door opened.
Alden waited inside.
“You really can't leave the dead buried.”
“Genevieve isn't dead.”
His face changed.
Maren noticed.
“You know.”
“No.”
“You know something.”
Alden stepped aside.
Maren entered the house for the first time in twenty-one years.
Nothing had changed.
That was almost disturbing.
Same staircase.
Same portraits.
Same grandfather clock.
Maren walked toward the family photographs.
There was no Genevieve.
“You removed every trace of her.”
“My father did.”
“And you kept it that way.”
Alden poured himself a drink.
“What do you want?”
“Where is she?”
“I don't know.”
“Did you help her leave?”
Silence.
Maren turned.
Alden looked suddenly tired.
“Yes.”
The answer stunned her.
“What?”
“She came to me.”
He sat.
“She wanted to marry Samuel.”
“What did you do?”
“I gave her money.”
Maren stared.
“You helped her?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did you do the same thing to me?”
Alden looked toward the window.
“Because I saw what happened afterward.”
“What happened?”
“My father collapsed.”
Maren frowned.
“The company nearly failed. My mother blamed herself. Our family became a public embarrassment.”
“So you decided obedience mattered more than freedom.”
“I decided families survive because someone accepts responsibility.”
Maren stared at him.
“No. You decided nobody would ever make you feel powerless again.”
Alden looked at her.
The truth landed.
Maren continued.
“You didn't become Grandfather.”
Alden's eyes narrowed.
“You became worse because you knew exactly what it felt like.”
He stood.
“Get out.”
“Where is Genevieve?”
“I told you.”
“You're lying.”
Alden's jaw tightened.
Then a voice came from the doorway.
“No, he isn't.”
Maren turned.
An elderly woman stood there.
Thin.
Silver-haired.
Holding a cane.
Vivian stood beside her.
Maren knew before anyone spoke.
The woman looked at Alden.
“Hello, little brother.”
Alden's glass slipped from his hand.
For the second time in twenty-four hours, crystal shattered at his feet.
“Genevieve?”
She smiled sadly.
“You always did drop things when the truth surprised you.”
Maren could barely breathe.
Genevieve turned toward her.
“And you must be Maren.”
Maren nodded.
The old woman approached.
“I've wanted to meet you for twenty-one years.”
Alden looked furious.
“How did you find her?”
Vivian answered.
“I never stopped knowing where she was.”
Maren turned sharply.
Her mother continued.
“Genevieve made me promise.”
“Why?”
Genevieve answered.
“Because I knew Alden would eventually repeat our father's mistakes.”
She looked at Maren.
“I just didn't know he'd repeat them with you.”
Genevieve opened her handbag.
Inside was another envelope.
“I have something that belongs to you.”
Maren took it.
“What?”
“Your grandfather's original trust instructions.”
Alden stepped forward.
“Those were destroyed.”
Genevieve smiled.
“No.”
She tapped her cane once against the floor.
“You destroyed copies.”
Maren opened the envelope.
The original documents contained the same protective clause.
But there was another page.
A page Calder had never seen.
A handwritten instruction from Maren's grandfather.
If Alden violated the trust, control did not merely transfer to Maren.
She received authority to restructure the entire family corporation.
Including the power to remove Alden permanently.
Alden stared at the document.
“You can't do this.”
Maren looked at him.
“I'm not doing anything yet.”
“What do you mean?”
“I want an independent audit.”
Alden laughed.
“You don't control the board.”
Genevieve smiled.
“She doesn't need to.”
Alden turned.
Genevieve removed another document.
“I never surrendered my shares either.”
Griffin, Calder, and Vivian entered behind her.
Genevieve looked at Maren.
“Together, we control enough voting interest to demand the audit.”
Alden's face emptied.
Forty-three years after one Rowe daughter escaped, and twenty-one years after another was thrown away, the two women stood together in the house that had tried to erase them.
Maren looked at Genevieve.
“Then let's find out what else they've been hiding.”
May you like
And for the first time in his life, Alden Rowe had no door left to throw his daughter through.
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