Chapter 1 — Female Lawyer and Torn Will

Mr. Dam Vinh Thanh passed away on a Friday afternoon, in the same office where he sat forty years running Thanh Dat Textile and Garment Group. The person who discovered him was Mrs. Sau Cam, the housekeeper who had been with the Dam family for more than forty years, when she brought up the afternoon tea tray as usual and saw him slumped over the desk, still clutching an old fountain pen that he used to sign every important document in his life.

The medical examiner initially concluded it was a myocardial infarction, nothing unusual for a seventy-five-year-old man with a history of heart disease for many years. The funeral was solemnly held at the family's ancient French-style villa in District 3, where many generations of the Dam family were born and raised. But behind the solemnity of the white wreaths and the requiem prayers, an underground storm began to form in the hearts of those who remained.

Lam Tue Minh received a call from the Dam family's private lawyer's office on the third day after the funeral. As a lawyer specializing in inheritance with nearly eight years of experience, she is no stranger to family property disputes, but there was something in the urgent voice of lawyer Doan - the long-time representative of the Dam family - that made her feel that this case was not as simple as what she had previously handled.

"Miss Minh, I need you to come to the office today?" Mr. Doan's voice on the phone sounded somewhat panicked, completely different from the usual calmness of a veteran lawyer who has practiced for more than thirty years. "There is a very serious problem related to Mr. Dam Vinh Thanh's will."

Tue Minh arrived at Mr. Doan's law office at four o'clock in the afternoon, when the last sunlight of the day was still shining through the large window overlooking the busy Nguyen Dinh Chieu street. Mr. Doan, a man in his sixties with white hair and hands shaking with age, sat behind the desk, in front of him was a small wooden box filled with scraps of paper.

"This is what's left of Mr. Dam Vinh Thanh's latest will," Mr. Doan said, his voice low, pushing the box toward Tue Minh. "He made this will just three weeks before he passed away, and I was a witness, along with the notary. But this morning, when we opened the safe in his office to announce the will in front of the entire family according to proper procedure, we discovered it had been torn into small pieces like this."

Tue Minh picked up a piece of paper and looked closely at the familiar handwriting of an official will - the formal font, the notary stamp left in one corner, and a few lines of handwriting scribbled in the margin that she guessed were additional autographs of Mr. Vinh Thanh himself. "Who has access to this safe, sir?"

"Only Mr. Vinh Thanh and I know the code," Mr. Doan replied, his eyes filled with worry. "But recently, I suspect he changed the code without telling me, because when I tried to open it with the old code, it didn't work. We finally had to ask a locksmith to open the safe this morning."

"So that means, someone knew the new code, opened the safe, tore up the will, and then closed it again?" Tue Minh asked, placing the piece of paper on the table, her mind began to operate in the familiar analytical thinking style of an experienced lawyer.

"That's exactly what worries me the most," Mr. Doan replied. "And that's why I need you, Ms. Minh. I know you have successfully handled many complex inheritance disputes, and more importantly, you have the ability to analyze and piece together damaged documents that I witnessed in the Truong family's case last year. I need you to help the Dam family — or more accurately, help justice — find the truth behind this will."

Tue Minh was silent for a moment, her fingers lightly brushing through the scraps of paper in the box, feeling the weight of responsibility gradually placed on her shoulders. She was used to dealing with families torn apart over money, but something about this incident made her feel a deeper curiosity than usual — perhaps because she herself, a child who grew up in an orphanage without knowing her biological parents, always harbored a silent desire to understand the true meaning of a family, no matter how broken it was.

“I'll take the case,” she said, her voice firm. "But I need full access to all relevant records — old wills, legal documents about the group's assets, and most importantly, I need to meet all family members."

"I'm afraid it won't be easy," Mr. Doan sighed, his eyes looking a little tired. "Mr. Quoc Hung, Mr. Vinh Thanh's eldest son, is very angry about this. He believes that this is just an unexpected incident, and wants everything to be resolved according to the old will that he made five years ago - a will in which he inherited most of the assets and had full control of the group."

"What about the new will?" Tue Minh asked. "Do you know the main content of it, before it was torn?"

Mr. Doan hesitated for a moment, as if he was considering whether to reveal something important or not. "I was only able to witness the signing, not read the entire content, because Mr. Vinh Thanh asked to keep it private until the official announcement. But I can tell you one thing - he asked me a lot about the legal process to recognize an heir who has never been officially known in the family tree. I don't know exactly who he is talking about, but I believe that is the key to this whole case."

That sentence made Tue Minh pause. An unknown heir — that could open up countless possibilities, and also mean that the Dam family is not simply fighting over property, but is also hiding a secret much deeper than what appears on the surface.

That evening, Tue Minh was invited to the Dam family's villa to meet family members for the first time as an independent lawyer hired to verify the legality of the will. The ancient villa appears majestic in the soft yellow light, its marble columns and ironwood spiral staircase exude a wealth that has existed for many generations.

Dam Quoc Hung, a man in his fifties with an imposing appearance in a black suit, welcomed Tue Minh in the living room with an undisguised cold attitude. “I don't understand why my father needs another lawyer,” he said, his voice filled with irritation. "Mr. Doan has handled everything in our family for decades."

"It is because of the serious nature of the case that Mr. Doan needs an independent party, sir," Tue Minh replied, her voice calm but determined. "The fact that the latest will was torn up is no small matter, and I believe you also want the truth to be clarified, right?"

Ngo Thi Kim Yen, Quoc Hung's wife, stood next to her husband with a sharp expression, interjecting into the conversation with a sweet but meaningful tone. "This young lawyer probably still doesn't understand all the internal complexities of a large family like ours," she said, her eyes glancing over Tue Minh with an unsympathetic appraisal. "Perhaps it is best to let everything proceed according to what has been established before, to avoid causing unnecessary turmoil for the whole family during this confusing time of mourning."

Tue Minh just smiled slightly, not letting those insinuations shake his determination. She's met too many people like Kim Yen throughout her career — people who want to keep things under control, especially when there's money and power involved.

At that moment, a younger woman entered the living room, her appearance somewhat tired but her eyes clearly showing alertness. That is Dam Thanh Nha, the youngest daughter of Mr. Vinh Thanh, who, according to Mr. Doan's previous account, left the family many years after a fierce argument with her father, and only returned when she heard the news of his death.

"I heard that you are the one who will investigate the torn will," Thanh Nha said, her voice a bit shaky but still trying to stay calm. "I want to make it clear from the start — I'm not the one who tore it up, even though I know what everyone in this house is thinking about me."

That unexpected statement made the whole room suddenly silent. Tue Minh looked at Thanh Nha, recognizing in the young woman's eyes a real fear, not the fake defense of a guilty person trying to hide. "Why does everyone think I'm the one who did it?" she asked, her voice gentle but attentive.

"Because I was the last person to see my father before he passed away," Thanh Nha replied, her voice choked. "We had a long conversation in his study, just a few hours before he died. Then I left the house, and no one in this family believes that the conversation went well."

"So was it smooth?" Tue Minh asked directly, her eyes never leaving Thanh Nha's face, trying to read the true emotions behind that fragile defense.

Thanh Nha was silent for a long time, her eyes were watery but she tried to hold back and not let the tears fall in front of the stranger. "That was the best conversation I've had with Dad in ten years," she replied finally, her voice quiet but firm. "And I would never do anything to ruin what he decided in his final days."

Tue Minh looked around the room, observing the reactions of each family member to that assertion - the obvious discomfort on Quoc Hung's face, Kim Yen's calculating eyes, and a heavy silence covering the luxurious living room. She understands that, behind the Dam family's noble appearance, is a complex web of secrets and contradictions that she will have to patiently untangle layer by layer.

When the meeting ended and Tue Minh was about to leave the villa, she happened to pass by the warehouse area behind, where a young man was standing quietly smoking under the faint streetlight. He wore a simple worker's outfit, different from the elegance of the people she had just met in the living room, but his eyes carried a deep, indescribable sadness, as if he was also suffering a part of this tragedy in his own way.

"Excuse me, are you someone who works for Dam's family?" Tue Minh asked, stopping because some vague intuition urged her.

The young man looked up, his eyes a bit surprised at the appearance of a stranger. "Yes, I'm the corporation's warehouse manager," he replied, his voice low and somewhat reserved. "I'm Dam Anh Vu."

That name made Tue Minh frown slightly - he had the same surname Dam as the family, but was just an ordinary warehouse manager. She was about to ask more, but at that moment, Mrs. Sau Cam stepped out from the darkness, her eyes flashed a bit of panic when she saw Tue Minh talking to Anh Vu.

"Miss Minh, your car is waiting outside the gate," Ms. Sau Cam said, her voice was unusually hurried, as if wanting to interrupt the conversation as quickly as possible. "Mr. Vu still has to check the inventory, so don't bother him anymore."

Tue Minh nodded, but as she turned to walk away, she still felt Mrs. Sau Cam's worried eyes following her, and a vague premonition that the name Dam Anh Vu, and his true connection to this family, would return throughout the investigation journey ahead - a journey that she knew would not simply be about piecing together scraps of paper in a small wooden box, but also piecing together a truth that had been buried for generations. of a wealthy but fractured family.

On the way home that night, Tue Minh sat in the car, looking out the window at the city lights passing by, she couldn't help but think about everything she had witnessed that evening. A torn will. A girl is unjustly suspected. A warehouse manager named Dam but does not seem to belong to that family's luxurious world. And above all, Mr. Doan's words about "an unknown heir" kept echoing in her mind, like an invitation to enter a complex puzzle that she knew she would not be able to stop until she found the final answer.

She opened the small wooden box placed on the seat next to her, looked down at the scraps of paper glistening under the streetlight shining through the car window, and told herself that, no matter how complicated and painful the truth was, she would find it — not only out of professional responsibility, but also because of something deeper than that, a silent sympathy for the people who are struggling to find the true meaning of the two words "family" amid the ruins of greed and secrets.