Chapter 11 — Passionate About A Twisted Love

After many delays due to strict control schedules, Nha Dan was finally approved by Phan Dinh Long for a date to meet friends, with the condition that a private driver would take her and not be gone for more than four hours. She met Dang Quynh Chi at a quiet cafe hidden in a small alley in District 3, where few people passed by, away from the media's gaze.

Quynh Chi is Nha Dan's close friend since college, currently working as an economic reporter for a large newspaper, famous in her profession for her acumen and perseverance in pursuing the truth to the end. When Nha Dan told the whole story, from her father's diary to her suspicions about Cao Ba Vinh, Quynh Chi's face gradually became unusually serious.

"If what you say is true, this is no small matter." Quynh Chi said, her voice filled with caution. "The collapse of Cao Nguyen Thinh was one of the biggest economic scandals in the city twelve years ago. My editorial office still stores all the press documents from that time. Let me help you look it up."

The two spent the afternoon sitting in a coffee shop. Quynh Chi used her laptop to access the editorial office's internal archive, one by one pulling out old articles reporting on the incident. Nha Dan reread each line, the familiar feeling of pain rising again when she saw the photos of her father being escorted, the sensational headlines accusing him mercilessly.

"Here it is." Quynh Chi suddenly spoke up, pointing to an article published immediately after the incident broke out, with a copy of the denunciation file published publicly at the request of the investigation agency. "This is a copy of the original complaint, signed by the accuser. Please take a look."

Nha Dan looked closely at the signature at the end of the document, a familiar name: Cao Dinh Nghi, Thien Lam's father, the person who denounced his closest partner.

"But my dad's diary wrote that it was my dad who discovered the abnormality and intended to report it to Uncle Nghi." Nha Dan frowned, trying to put the details together. "So why did the complaint turn against my father?"

"Let me enlarge this signature and see." Quynh Chi operates on the computer, enlarging the image of Cao Dinh Nghi's signature in the document. "Do you keep any other signatures of Mr. Nghi, to compare and contrast?"

Nha Dan shook his head, but then suddenly remembered something. "Wait, in my father's trunk there are several business letters between my father and Mr. Nghi, with his signature below."

She quickly grabbed her phone and reopened the photos she had taken of all the documents in the trunk before storing the originals. She found a letter signed by Cao Dinh Nghi and sent it to Quynh Chi via email for comparison.

Quynh Chi placed the two signatures side by side on the screen, zoomed in as much as possible, carefully comparing each stroke. "Look carefully, Nha Dan. The signature in the letter has a rather characteristic curve at the end of the letter N, but the signature in the denunciation lacks that curve, instead it has a more rigid straight line."

Nha Dan leaned closer to the screen, her heart beating fast when she realized the clear difference that Quynh Chi had just pointed out. "Does that mean... the signature on the complaint was forged?"

"I can't say for sure if I just look at it with the naked eye. I need to ask a handwriting expert to come to an accurate conclusion." Quynh Chi spoke, her voice cautious but her eyes sparkling with the excitement of a journalist sniffing out a big story. "But if that's true, it means Uncle Nghi never actually came forward to denounce your father. Someone forged his signature to set up the whole incident."

"So who is behind this?" Nha Dan asked, even though in her heart she already had a hunch about the answer.

"It is necessary to find out more about who has the motivation and ability to access both companies and the power to orchestrate such a large-scale investigation." Quynh Chi pondered, tapping lightly on the keyboard. "That person must hold a significant position within the company, have access to financial records, and have enough influence to influence the investigation process."

Nha Dan told Quynh Chi about Cao Ba Vinh, about the position of Finance Director he once held at Cao Nguyen Thinh, and about the name that appeared suspiciously in her father's last diary pages.

"Sounds reasonable." Quynh Chi nodded and took notes in her notebook. "Let me try to find out more about his background and see if I can find any clues. But Nha Dan, you have to be very careful. If this person is really the mastermind and is still holding power in the corporation, your investigation could put you in danger."

Nha Dan nodded, her heart was both more worried and determined than ever. "I understand. But I can't let everything sink into oblivion forever. My father suffered unjustly for twelve years, and until his death he still wasn't vindicated. I have to clarify this truth, no matter what the cost."

Before breaking up, Quynh Chi also found an old interview published in an obscure local newspaper, conducted just a few months before the scandal broke out. In the interview, an anonymous accountant from Cao Nguyen Thinh briefly mentioned "unusual pressure from superiors to adjust the books of some large projects", but the article was quickly taken down just a few days after posting, for unknown reasons.

"It's strange, why was an article that not many people noticed was taken down so quickly?" Nha Dan wondered, her eyes glued to the excerpt saved by Quynh Chi in the internal data warehouse.

"There are usually only two reasons, either the editorial office voluntarily removes it because the information has not been fully verified, or someone puts pressure on it to be removed." Quynh Chi pondered, quickly typing a few notes. "I will try to contact the reporter who wrote this article. If he is still in active duty, maybe he still has information about that unnamed accountant. If we find that person, maybe this will be an important witness."

"Be careful, don't let it show that I'm investigating this." Nha Dan advised, both hopeful and worried.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of this, I have experience." Quynh Chi reassured her friend, closed her laptop, her eyes were determined. "As long as you keep your spirits up, don't show any signs in front of people in the Cao family."

The two parted ways just before dusk, Nha Dan got in the car to return to the villa with a heart full of new thoughts, both a faint glimmer of hope for exonerating her father, and also fear of the dangers that might be lurking ahead that she could not yet foresee.

On the way back to the villa, Nha Dan sat in the car, her mind reeling with new discoveries. She looked out the window, the city passing by in the golden sunset, but her mind was busy thinking about whether she should reveal what she knew to Thien Lam or not.

If she told the truth now, when there wasn't enough evidence, would Thien Lam believe her, or would he think that this was just a trick to get her out of the contract, to protect her family's honor? And if Cao Ba Vinh is truly the mastermind, revealing it too soon could make him wary, seeking to destroy any remaining evidence before they can fully collect it.

She decided to keep everything a secret for a while longer, silently coordinating with Quynh Chi to collect more evidence, before finding the right time to face the truth with Thien Lam. But in her heart, a vague anxiety continued to grow, a premonition that the road ahead would be more thorny and dangerous than she could imagine.

When the car arrived at the villa gate, Nha Dan looked up at the towering building in front of her, which was storing not only her present life, but perhaps also the answers to the mysteries of the past that she was gradually following step by step, a journey that she knew would not be easy, but she had no way back.

As soon as she entered the main hall, she saw Thien Lam standing there waiting, his arms folded across his chest, his eyes following her every step. "Back so late? I told you not to exceed four hours."

"My friend and I talked for a little while." Nha Dan replied, trying to keep a calm expression, afraid that just a little confusion would be enough to make him suspicious.

"Which friend? Quynh Chi?" Thien Lam asked, his voice seemed natural but his eyes still did not leave her.

"How do you know my friend's name?" Nha Dan was a little startled.

"Phan Dinh Long reported back the information before approving the appointment." He replied, as if it were obvious. "What took you so long to talk with her?"

"It's just gossip, we haven't seen each other in a while." Nha Dan tried to respond as naturally as possible, secretly praying that he would not continue to ask further.

Thien Lam looked at her for a long time, his eyes seemed to be trying to detect something hidden behind her expression, but in the end he just nodded and did not ask further. "Next time, remember to let me know in advance if I'm late."

"Yes." Nha Dan replied, breathing a sigh of relief when she escaped his questioning. But when she got up the stairs, she still looked back at his back again, her hand clasped tightly on the railing - hiding such a big thing from him, she didn't know whether the fragile relationship between the two would still be intact if one day he found out.