Chapter 10 - THE PRICE OF A MOTHER'S LOVE
Three million dollars.
Sophie repeated the number silently as though saying it enough times might make it less horrifying.
Her mother had admitted receiving two hundred thousand dollars after Michael's death.
She had claimed Victor described it as a consulting payment.
But three million dollars transferred before Michael died suggested something else entirely.
Something planned.
Something deliberate.
Sophie looked at Daniel Valmont.
“Are you accusing my mother of helping kill my father?”
Daniel lowered his eyes.
“I'm telling you what the records show.”
“Records can be forged.”
“Yes,” Rebecca said. “And that's why we need to examine the original bank transactions before reaching conclusions.”
Sophie folded her arms.
She wanted to defend Margaret.
She wanted to believe her mother was merely frightened and easily manipulated.
But every new revelation made that explanation harder to accept.
“Where did the money go?” she asked.
Daniel opened a folder.
“The transfer was made to an account belonging to Bennett Family Holdings.”
Sophie frowned.
“I've never heard of that company.”
“Neither had I until Michael found it.”
Rebecca examined the paperwork.
“Who controlled the account?”
Daniel looked directly at Sophie.
“Your mother was the authorized signatory.”
Sophie felt nauseated.
Adrien stepped toward her.
“Sophie, we don't know whether she understood where the money came from.”
Sophie looked at him sharply.
“You defended Victor because he was family. Don't ask me to make the same mistake.”
Adrien stopped.
She regretted the harshness immediately, but she didn't apologize.
Not yet.
For years, both families had allowed loyalty to replace judgment.
That was how Victor had survived.
Rebecca closed the folder.
“I'll request the banking records through the proper channels. In the meantime, Mrs. Bennett needs to be interviewed.”
Sophie nodded.
“I'll speak to her.”
Rebecca shook her head.
“It's important that you don't coach her or influence her account.”
“She's my mother.”
“I understand.”
“No. You don't understand what it feels like to discover that every person who raised you may have been lying.”
Rebecca's expression softened.
“Perhaps not. But I do understand that the truth matters most when it's painful.”
Sophie looked away.
Later that afternoon, Margaret voluntarily came to Rebecca's office with her attorney.
Sophie waited outside the interview room.
She watched through a narrow glass panel as her mother sat at a table, hands folded in her lap.
Margaret looked ten years older than she had on the morning of the wedding.
When the interview ended, Rebecca approached Sophie.
“Your mother has agreed to provide full financial records and cooperate with the investigation.”
“Did she explain the money?”
“Yes.”
Sophie braced herself.
Rebecca continued.
“According to your mother, Victor persuaded her to establish Bennett Family Holdings while your father was still alive. She believed the company was being used to protect family assets during a difficult business period.”
“Did Dad know?”
“Apparently not.”
Sophie closed her eyes.
“She signed documents without telling him.”
“Yes.”
“Then Victor used the company to move money.”
“That's what the evidence suggests.”
Sophie looked toward the interview room.
“Was she paid to help kill him?”
Rebecca paused.
“We have not found evidence supporting that conclusion.”
Relief rushed through Sophie so suddenly that she almost cried.
Then Rebecca added:
“But your mother acknowledged that she became suspicious shortly before his death. She also admitted that she concealed documents afterward because Victor threatened you.”
Sophie leaned against the wall.
Margaret hadn't necessarily planned Michael's death.
But her secrecy had helped protect the man who might have caused it.
When Margaret emerged, she stopped in front of her daughter.
“Sophie.”
Sophie looked at her.
“Why didn't you tell Dad about the company?”
Margaret's eyes filled.
“Because Victor told me Michael was making dangerous financial decisions. He said I needed to protect our future.”
“Did you believe him?”
“Yes.”
“More than you believed your own husband?”
Margaret began crying.
“I was afraid we'd lose everything.”
Sophie stared at her.
“Everything?”
“Our home. The company. Your inheritance.”
Sophie's voice sharpened.
“Mom, Dad didn't care about being rich. He wanted to build homes for people who couldn't afford them.”
“I know.”
“Then why did you let Victor convince you that money mattered more than honesty?”
Margaret lowered her head.
“Because I was ashamed of the possibility that we might become poor.”
Sophie felt a deep, terrible sadness.
Her mother had spent years hosting charity dinners while privately fearing the kind of financial insecurity those charities were supposed to help families survive.
And Victor had used that fear against her.
Margaret reached into her purse.
“I found something in Michael's old papers.”
She held out a small sealed envelope.
It was addressed to Sophie.
The handwriting belonged to her father.
Sophie's hands shook as she opened it.
Inside was a short note.
My darling Sophie,
If one day you find yourself forced to choose between the people you love and the truth they fear, remember that love without honesty eventually becomes another kind of prison.
You are allowed to forgive someone without pretending they did nothing wrong.
And you are allowed to walk away from people who refuse to change.
Never confuse sacrifice with surrender.
Love, Dad.
Sophie pressed the note against her lips.
For five years, she had desperately missed her father's advice.
Now his words seemed written for this exact moment.
She looked at Margaret.
“I love you, Mom.”
Margaret began sobbing.
“But I can't protect you from the consequences of what you've done.”
Margaret nodded.
“I know.”
“And I won't let you protect me by lying ever again.”
“I promise.”
Sophie embraced her.
It wasn't forgiveness.
Not yet.
But it was the beginning of something more honest than the relationship they had shared before.
That evening, Sophie returned to her apartment.
She found dozens of missed calls and hundreds of messages.
News of the canceled Valmont wedding had spread across Boston society.
Several websites had already published humiliating stories about the abandoned bride.
One headline read:
Valmont Heir Abandons Fiancée After Shocking Wedding-Day Revelation.
Another described Sophie as a woman suspected of interfering in Adrien's former relationship.
Sophie switched off her phone.
For the first time, she understood how easily wealthy people could shape a public narrative.
The truth rarely traveled as quickly as scandal.
She made herself coffee and sat at her kitchen table.
Then she opened her father's files again.
She was searching for information about Bennett Family Holdings when she noticed an unusual entry.
A payment of forty thousand dollars had been made to an organization called Harbor Children Services.
The payment was dated one month after Michael's death.
She searched the files.
More payments appeared.
Fifty thousand.
Seventy-five thousand.
Twenty thousand.
All directed to Harbor Children Services.
Every payment connected to the same reference number.
Sophie frowned.
She searched the reference number.
A scanned document appeared.
It was an adoption agency intake form.
The child's name had been blacked out.
The date was twenty-one years earlier.
Exactly when Daniel Valmont disappeared.
At the bottom was a handwritten notation.
Infant transferred under confidential placement agreement.
Sophie felt a chill.
Daniel's disappearance.
A hidden child.
An adoption agency.
She called Rebecca immediately.
“There's another child,” Sophie said.
Rebecca sounded alert.
“What are you talking about?”
“Victor was paying an adoption agency for years. I think he arranged to hide a baby.”
Rebecca asked Sophie to send the records through a secure channel.
Five minutes later, her phone rang again.
Rebecca's voice was unusually tense.
“Sophie, where did you find this?”
“In Dad's files.”
“Do you know what this document is?”
“An adoption record?”
“Part of one. The identifying information has been removed, but the placement authorization is still visible.”
Sophie swallowed.
“Who signed it?”
Rebecca hesitated.
“Daniel Valmont.”
Sophie frowned.
“That doesn't make sense.”
Rebecca continued.
“The date is six months before Daniel's reported death.”
Sophie stared at the wall.
“Does that mean he had another child?”
“It means an infant was placed for adoption under an agreement bearing his signature. We don't yet know whose child it was.”
Sophie felt her heartbeat accelerate.
May you like
Then Rebecca said the one thing she hadn't expected.
“Sophie, the records indicate that the adoptive family was named Bennett.”
