Chapter 13 — Female Lawyer and Torn Will

News of Kim Yen's confession reached Dam Quoc Hung just a few hours after the interrogation, when lawyer Cao Nguyen Bang was forced to inform him of this serious development. Quoc Hung immediately went to the police station, his face was pale, his eyes were red from extreme shock.

"I want to see my wife," he told the police officer on duty, his voice trembling completely different from his usual imposing, confident expression. When he was allowed to meet Kim Yen in the supervised visitation room, he stood silently looking at his wife through the glass partition, unable to say a word for a long time.

"I'm sorry," Kim Yen said first, her voice choked, tears rolling down her haggard face. "I'm sorry for hiding all of this from you, for acting alone without thinking about how the consequences would affect you and the children."

"Why did you do that?" Quoc Hung asked, his voice both painful and angry. "Why don't you tell me about your worries, about the debt, about the fear of losing the company? We can find a solution together, but not this way!"

"I'm afraid you'll stop me, or worse, I'm afraid you'll choose to confront father directly, which might make him even more determined to change the will," Kim Yen replied, her voice filled with regret. "I just wanted to protect my family in the way I thought was best at the time, even though I now realize it was a terrible mistake that couldn't be fixed."

That tearful meeting ended without bringing any specific solution, leaving only in Quoc Hung's heart a fierce tension between love for his wife and moral responsibility before the truth that had just been revealed. When leaving the police station, he went to Tue Minh's office, an action that he did not expect himself to do.

"I don't know what to do anymore," he said as he sat down in front of Tue Minh, his voice completely exhausted. "I have spent my whole life protecting the honor and property of this family, but now, that very act of protection has put my wife in prison, and turned me into an accomplice in everyone's eyes, even though I really knew nothing about what she did."

"I believe you did not know in advance about Ms. Kim Yen's actions regarding poisoning and tearing up the will," Tue Minh said, her voice cautious but sincere. "But Mr. Hung, I need to ask you another important question — do you know anything about the real cause behind the death of your younger brother, Quoc Viet, twenty-five years ago?"

That question stunned Quoc Hung, his face flashed with a complex expression that Tue Minh couldn't read right away — maybe panic, maybe long-buried pain, or both.

"Why are you asking about that now?" he asked, his voice wary again.

"Because we found Anh Vu's mother's diary, recording that Quoc Viet discovered evidence of the company's systematic asset embezzlement, and he made an appointment to meet with you to talk about it just one day before the accident," Tue Minh said frankly, carefully observing his every reaction. "The financial investigation team also discovered unusual signs in the group's accounting books, continuing continuously from that time until recently."

Quoc Hung closed his eyes, his hands clasped his head in a gesture of extreme pain. A heavy silence filled the room before he spoke, his voice now only a broken whisper.

“I did not kill my brother,” he said, his voice shaking but determined. "But I... I wasn't honest with him in that meeting that night. It's true that he discovered the unusual expenses, and it's true that I begged him not to tell his father, promised to repay everything, and would immediately stop that behavior. He agreed to give me more time, although very reluctantly. But after he left my house that night to drive home, I had no idea what would happen next. I swear to you, I did not tamper with his car. it, had no intention of harming it."

"So do you know who else might have intervened?" Tue Minh asked, although she still had many doubts about the truthfulness of this testimony.

"I don't know," Quoc Hung replied, his voice filled with despair. "I have tormented myself for the past twenty-five years with that very question. Was it just an unfortunate accident due to a slippery road on a rainy night, or did someone, knowing the secret I was trying to hide, take action to ensure that Quoc Viet could never denounce my embezzlement? I never dared to investigate further, because I was afraid the truth, whatever it was, would make me face my own sins."

This half-hearted confession, although it did not directly confirm Quoc Hung's involvement in his brother's death, revealed another important truth - his embezzlement of company assets was real, lasting for twenty-five years, and he lived in fear of being discovered throughout that time, a fear strong enough to become the motive for many subsequent wrongdoings, including staying silent and not searching for the truth about his own brother's death.

"Mr. Hung, I need you to understand that, with the information you just provided, the investigation team will have to reopen all files related to Quoc Viet's death, and you may face criminal charges related to property embezzlement, regardless of whether you are directly involved in your brother's death or not," Tue Minh said, her voice serious but not lacking in sympathy.

Quoc Hung nodded, his shoulders slumped in heavy acceptance. "I've lived too long in lies and fear," he said, his voice tired but strangely relieved, like someone who had finally let go of a burden that had been suppressed for so long. "Maybe it's time for me to face all the consequences, no matter how serious they are. I just hope, in the end, this family can find some peace, even at the cost of my honor and freedom."

When Quoc Hung left the office, Tue Minh sat quietly for a long moment, feeling the weight of all the tragedies that had piled up in the Dam family—a series of wrong choices, unresolved fears, that had lasted for twenty-five years and finally exploded into an inevitable storm. She immediately called Duy Bach to update all developments. They both realized that the investigation had now entered a new phase, much more complicated and heavy than what they had imagined when they started.

"We need to re-interrogate everyone who was involved in Quoc Viet's accident scene, even if only indirectly," Duy Bach said when listening to Tue Minh recount Quoc Hung's testimony. "If there is indeed a third party who took advantage of the situation to act, we need to find out that person's identity. It could be someone who also knows about the embezzlement and wants to take advantage of the opportunity, or even someone whose information was accidentally revealed by Quoc Hung himself in a time of panic."

That afternoon, Tue Minh went to meet Anh Vu and Thanh Nha to inform them of the latest developments. Both were speechless at the complexity and heartbreak of the whole incident.

"So maybe my father... didn't just have an accident," Anh Vu said, his voice choked, his hands clasped together. "Maybe someone actually took his life, just because he dared to stand up for what's right."

"We don't have solid evidence about that yet," Tue Minh said, trying to keep Anh Vu a realistic hope, neither too pessimistic nor too optimistic. "But I promise you, we won't stop until we find out the whole truth, no matter where it leads."

Thanh Nha, sitting nearby, held Anh Vu's hand in a comforting gesture full of love. "Whatever the truth, you don't have to face it alone anymore," she said, her voice sincere. "We are family, and family always stands together through all difficulties, no matter how late."

Those words made Anh Vu smile gently between the tears still lingering in the corners of his eyes, a smile mixed with pain and the new warmth of intimacy that he had never dared to dream of for most of his life.