The drive took longer than I expected. When I stepped into the house, one of the maids whispered nervously that Claudia had been locked in the old man’s study with him for half an hour. I walked to the door and stopped for a second when I heard my aunt’s voice.
“Uncle, you’ve fallen for a very basic manipulation by that caregiver,” she was saying. “That girl is a professional grifter. She’s young, she worked her way into your trust while I was away.
It’s the oldest trick in the book—switch the test results, say all the right things. Be practical. Do you really think miracles happen twenty years later?
There’s one sensible solution. We run a second test through my clinic immediately, and you’ll see you’ve brought a snake into this house. She doesn’t have a drop of our blood.”
I walked into the study. Ilya Danilovich sat at the desk, pale and worn, while Claudia stood over him. When she saw me, she stopped mid-sentence, and for a split second I saw something cold and certain in her eyes—the look of a predator convinced the game was still hers to control.
“I’m not a grifter, Aunt Claudia,” I said. My voice shook, but I made myself look straight at her. “I went to see the farmer who was with my mother in her final hour, and this is what we found in his house.” I stepped forward and placed the stained note on the desk in front of my grandfather.
I caught Claudia’s reaction—a small backward sway, quickly checked by her hand gripping the edge of the desk. The old man unfolded the paper with shaking hands and stared at the uneven lines for a long time. The room went so quiet I could hear my own breathing.
He opened a desk drawer and took out an old letter. For a long while he compared the handwriting, looking from the note to the letter and back again. “This… this is Lisa’s handwriting,” he said at last, his voice breaking.
“The slant, the way she shortened words.” He read slowly, and with every line his face grew harder. Then he looked up at his niece, and there was unbearable pain in his eyes.
“Claudia,” Ilya Danilovich said quietly, “Lisa writes that you knew about the malfunction. After her death, you gained control of my business. If my daughter had lived, you would have had nothing.
This note is a very serious accusation.” “It’s a lie,” Claudia said through clenched teeth. “A filthy fake from a filthy impostor…”
