The Teddy Bear Held Her Mother's Secret

CHAPTER 2 - The Secret Inside the Teddy Bear

Jonathan ordered the musicians to stop playing.

He took Caroline and Luna into the library. His sixty-four-year-old mother, Evelyn Ashford, followed them.

Vanessa tried to enter.

Jonathan locked the door.

Luna explained that Caroline had been waking up frightened for several months. Whenever Jonathan traveled for business, Vanessa entered the nursery and questioned the child about the teddy bear.

"She said the bear belonged to Caroline's mother," Luna said. "She wanted to know whether anything was hidden inside it."

Caroline nodded.

"She got angry when I said no."

Jonathan looked at the marks on his daughter's wrist.

"Did Vanessa do this?"

Caroline lowered her eyes.

"She grabbed me."

Jonathan had spent years building hotels across Europe. He believed expensive schools, beautiful clothes, and a large house meant Caroline had everything she needed.

He had never asked why she stopped smiling.

Luna also found sleeping medicine in Caroline's evening milk. Vanessa claimed a doctor prescribed it, but the bottle carried another patient's name.

Luna began pouring the milk away.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Jonathan asked.

"I tried. Your assistant canceled every meeting I requested."

Evelyn examined the brass key.

She recognized the number engraved on it. It belonged to a private deposit box Emily rented shortly before her death.

The following morning, Jonathan, Evelyn, and Luna visited the bank.

Inside the box were financial records, a memory card, and a letter addressed to Jonathan.

Emily had discovered that Vanessa and Felix Ward, the Ashford Group's chief financial officer, were stealing from the employee pension fund.

They created false maintenance companies and transferred millions into private accounts.

Emily planned to expose them at a board meeting.

She died two days before that meeting.

Her letter said she gave the deposit box key to Teresa Moretti, a trusted employee who worked at the Ashford estate for twenty years.

Jonathan looked at Luna.

"Teresa was my mother," she said.

Before Teresa died from cancer, she told Luna to apply for work at the Ashford house. She believed Caroline was in danger but feared that Vanessa would destroy the evidence if confronted too early.

The memory card contained a short video recorded outside the Ashford garage.

Vanessa stood beside Emily's car, speaking to a mechanic.

The audio was unclear.

But her final words could be heard.

"Make sure it happens before the board meeting."

Jonathan replayed the sentence.

His hands began to shake.

Then Evelyn opened the last document.

It was a copy of a new will Vanessa had prepared for Jonathan.

After their marriage, Vanessa would gain control of Caroline's inheritance if Jonathan died or became incapable of managing the company.

Vanessa had not entered Jonathan's life to become Caroline's mother. She had entered it to take everything Emily left behind.