Chapter 6 — The Empty Rescuer and the Female President Hide a Will

Pier 4 is no longer on the new map.

It is located under a seafood warehouse, the iron door is rusty. I used my rescue experience to trace the old ink marks on the pole. Under the floor there is a hatch cover, inside is an aluminum boat and three file boxes.

Before we could open it, the light came on. Quoc Thanh stood on the stairs, behind were four people.

“Tuong Vy, you disappoint me.”

Vy stepped in front of me.

“Are you afraid of the file or afraid of her?”

Thanh looked at me.

“She is not Tran Duc Minh's child.”

I felt my ears ringing.

“What did you say?”

"Your father only raised you. The one who gave birth to you is my brother."

Vy turned around.

“Please stop talking.”

Thanh laughed. He wanted the two of us to doubt each other.

I opened the file box. Inside were medicine receipts, birth certificates and a photo of two men standing next to the foundation's first rescue boat. One is my father, the other is Vy's father.

Below the photo is a note: "The two children will never be told the truth."

Footsteps echoed from the back door. Nam called the police, but Thanh's group rushed down first. I pulled Vy through the drainage channel and used an aluminum boat to slide down the canal.

The cold wind whipped my face. Vy didn't know how to control the boat, so I had to use the oar to push through the pile of water hyacinths.

“Do you believe him?” I asked.

“No. But I don't know who to trust.”

“Then trust me for ten minutes.”

We reached the opposite shore. Nam picked him up by motorbike and gave the file box to Hoang Nam, a young lawyer he knew.

When morning came, Vy looked at the birth certificate.

“Her mother's name is Tran Ngoc Lan.”

“My mother's name is Hanh.”

"The name in the old file is Ngoc Lan. She used to work as a nurse for the foundation."

I called back. Mom answered the phone, her voice was hoarse.

“You already know, right?”

“Tuong Vy is your sister?”

She cried. No denial.

"You two have the same father. But he chose to keep the family intact by dividing the truth in half."

I looked at Vy. She is holding the fake will that Thanh left behind.

One person lost his father, one person lost his answers.