Chapter 9 — Female Lawyer and Torn Will

Dam Anh Vu's small room is located in a quiet alley in Binh Thanh district, simple but neat and tidy. When Tue Minh and Duy Bach arrived, Anh Vu had already placed an old tin box on the table, inside were the few remaining mementos from his mother - a few old photos, some yellowed papers, and a leather-bound notebook that had worn out over the years.

"I found this box in a pile of old things left behind by my adoptive relative, after she passed away last year," Anh Vu explained, his voice still shaking a little with emotion. "I never dared to open it and read it carefully, for fear of rekindling the pain of my mother. But after my conversation with you the other day, I think it's time for me to know the truth, whatever it is."

He opened the notebook and turned to a page marked with an old faded ribbon. "This is my mother's diary. There is a passage I think you should read, written on the day before my father died."

Tue Minh took the notebook and read each line of the shaky but passionate handwriting of the long-dead woman. "Mr. Viet seems very worried tonight," the diary read. "He said he had discovered something serious in the company's accounting books, related to Mr. Hung - false payments, ghost contracts used to withdraw money from the group over the years. He said he would have to talk to his father to clarify everything, even though he knew that could make Mr. Hung angry. He made an appointment to meet Mr. Hung tomorrow night to give him a chance to explain before reporting to his father. I'm very worried, but Mr. Viet always believes in justice. I believe that our family will solve the problem together."

Tue Minh looked up and exchanged surprised looks with Duy Bach. This was not just a simple inheritance conflict — Quoc Viet discovered evidence of Quoc Hung's embezzlement of company assets, and his death occurred just one day after that fateful meeting.

"This could be the real engine, much more powerful than we once thought," Duy Bach said, his voice serious. "It's not just jealousy about the succession, but the fear of exposing a serious crime that could cause Quoc Hung to lose everything — both his inheritance and his freedom."

"Mr. Vu, are there any other pages in the diary that mention this?" Tue Minh asked, turning the next pages, but unfortunately, the next pages only had short, interrupted lines of text, recording the pain and confusion of a young woman who had just lost her husband and had to raise her children alone in poverty.

"After that paragraph, my mother hardly wrote anything more about her father's death," Anh Vu replied, his voice sad. "But there's something else in this box that I think you need to see too." He gave Tue Minh an old envelope, inside was the marriage certificate between Dam Quoc Viet and Phung Ngoc Diem, along with Anh Vu's birth certificate, clearly stating his father's name was Dam Quoc Viet.

"This is the official paperwork confirming your blood relationship with the Dam family," Tue Minh said, her voice both relieved and emotional. "Combined with the upcoming DNA test results, we will have a solid legal basis to confirm your inheritance, independent of the torn pieces of the will."

Duy Bach carefully photographed all diary pages and papers as official evidence, and asked to keep the original notebook temporarily as part of the investigation file, with Anh Vu's consent. "This diary entry could be the key for us to reopen your father's entire case, from a criminal perspective, not simply a traffic accident as previously concluded," he said.

"I just hope this truth will help exonerate my father, even if it's twenty-five years too late," Anh Vu said, his voice choked. "All his life he stood up for what was right, believed in his family, and then paid the price with his life. I can't let that sink into oblivion one more day."

Tue Minh placed her hand on Anh Vu's shoulder, her eyes full of sincere sympathy. "We will do everything we can to find justice for your father, and for you as well," she said. "You no longer have to face this truth alone."

On the way back, Duy Bach pondered the new clues he had just obtained. "If it is true that Quoc Hung has embezzled company assets for many years, re-auditing the entire group's accounting books from twenty-five years ago to the present will be a huge amount of work, but may also be the most decisive evidence we need," he said.

"I think, this may also be the reason why Quoc Hung is in debt now," Tue Minh added, the financial pieces have now begun to fit together more logically. "If he had been accustomed to siphoning off company funds illegally over the years, he probably invested recklessly, believing he could always make up the shortfall with the same tricks, until a failed real estate project caused everything to fall apart."

"We need to coordinate with the specialized financial investigation team to review all of the group's accounting records," Duy Bach said, his voice assertive. "If specific evidence of prolonged embezzlement is found, it will not only strengthen the case about Quoc Viet's death, but could also be the decisive blow in this entire inheritance dispute."

The next morning, Duy Bach contacted the economic crime investigation team, presenting the entire diary content as a new clue that needed urgent verification. The specialized team quickly began to apply for a freezing order and extract the group's electronic accounting data over the past twenty-five years, a massive amount of work that required the coordination of many independent audit experts.

"This will take time, maybe several weeks to get preliminary results," an economic investigator explained to Tue Minh and Duy Bach in a short meeting at headquarters. "But if there are indeed ghost contracts created to withdraw money, their traces are often left in the double bookkeeping system, no matter how cleverly disguised. We will focus on the period before and immediately after Mr. Quoc Viet's death, because that is likely the time when the fake contracts began or were adjusted to hide the traces."

"We don't have much time before the official hearing," Tue Minh repeated, her voice somewhat worried. "But whether or not the audit results are completed by then, at least we have officially reopened the file, and that in itself puts significant pressure on the other side."

When he got home, Tue Minh received a text message from Mr. Doan, informing him that he had arranged a DNA test for Anh Vu the next morning, at a reputable and secure medical facility, to avoid any information leaking outside before the official results were available.

The next morning, Anh Vu went to the testing facility as scheduled, with the companion of Tue Minh. While waiting for the sample to be taken, he seemed more thoughtful than usual. "You know," he said, breaking the silence, "all my life, I've always wondered why I was different from other kids — not having a father, having a mother who died early, having to be independent at a very young age. I used to think it was just bad luck. But now, knowing the real story behind all that, I feel... I don't know how to describe it, both heartbroken and relieved, as if I finally understand who I am."

"It's a completely natural feeling," Tue Minh replied, her eyes gentle. "The truth, no matter how painful, is always better than living forever in the darkness of not knowing. And I believe that your parents, even though they are no longer alive, will be proud of the way you have faced all of this with such courage and integrity."

When the sampling process was completed, Tue Minh sent Anh Vu back to work, her heart filled with hope that the upcoming test results would be the final piece to firmly confirm his true identity, paving the way for justice to be fully implemented, not only for the present, but also for a heartbreaking tragedy that had been buried for a quarter of a century.