Chapter 15 — The Heiress's Selection of a Husband

For a few days after the necklace incident, Anh Thu tossed and turned, thinking a lot about Vinh Khang's sincere proposal, about his steady eyes when he said that he was always willing to listen and protect her no matter what the truth was. She realized that if she continued to hide, she would not be able to find an ally strong and trustworthy enough to help her deal with the dangerous enemy lurking within this family itself.

One evening, when he knew that Bach Dinh was having an important meeting at the city center office and would not return soon, Anh Thu decided to go to Vinh Khang's office, bringing along her father's notebook, an old photo found in the archive room, and half of the jade pendant that she always kept hidden with her.

"I have something important to tell Mr. Hai, please give me some time." She spoke, her voice trembling with nervousness, her hands clutching the cloth bag containing the most precious evidence in her life.

Vinh Khang noticed the unusually serious look on her face, immediately put aside the work he was doing, and invited her to sit in the chair opposite the desk. "You keep talking, I'm listening."

Anh Thu took a deep breath, trying to calm down the emotions swirling in her heart, then slowly took out half of the jade pendant and placed it on the table. "Do you recognize this object?"

Vinh Khang picked up the jade pendant, turned it over and observed carefully, his eyebrows furrowed in surprise. "This thing looks very familiar. I think I once saw my father have a similar one. He always kept it in a small wooden box on the ancestral altar, never letting anyone touch it."

"This is the other half of that jade pendant." Anh Thu said, her voice choked with emotion. "The person who owns the other half is your biological father."

She took the old photo and placed it on the table, pointing to the image of two young men standing next to each other in front of the mansion gate. "This is your father, Mr. Chu Vinh Toan, when he was young. And the person standing next to you is your father, Ton Dac Nghia."

Vinh Khang picked up the photo, his eyes were glued to the image of his father in his youth, his face gradually changed from surprise to shock. "So that means..."

"You are not Do Thi Thu, a poor country girl like you claim to be." Anh Thu said, tears began to flow uncontrollably. "Your real name is Ton Anh Thu, the only daughter of Ton Dac Nghia, who used to be your father's right-hand man and confidant. Twenty-five years ago, your father was falsely accused of embezzling public funds, was kicked out of the Chu Nguyen Group in disgrace, had to take your mother and flee, and changed his name. He died of illness due to resentment just a few years later, and your mother did not live long after his death."

Vinh Khang sat silently, unable to say a word for a moment, his mind reeling trying to piece together all the strange pieces he had noticed in the girl in front of him over the past few months: sharp calculating ability, elegant handwriting, knowledge of music and foreign languages unlike an ordinary country girl. All now had reasonable explanations.

He remembered the first evening he saw her standing silently in front of the bookshelf in his office, her eyes scanning the spines of foreign literature books with a familiarity that he once thought was just an illusion of his own. He recalled a business trip to the resort, when she discovered ambiguous terms in the contract faster than the company's team of experienced lawyers. Each of those little details, now put together, painted a completely different picture of the girl he had gradually fallen in love with over the past few months.

"I used to think she was just an exceptionally smart girl despite her simple background." He said, his voice still a bit dazed. "But it turns out that behind that simple appearance is a tragic story that spans a quarter of a century, directly tied to my own family."

"So that old butler you mentioned, the one who taught you the piano..." He said, his voice hoarse with emotion.

"That's Mrs. Lien, my family's loyal housekeeper, the person who raised me so that after my parents passed away, she quietly built a small company so that I could have a place in society." Anh Thu replied, her voice trembling. "Before she died, she told me the whole truth, gave me half of the jade pendant and father's notebook. I disguised myself, ran away from an arranged marriage to come here, tried to blend into this mansion, just hoping to find the truth and exonerate my parents."

Vinh Khang stood up, walked to the window, looked out at the dark yard outside, trying to calm down after the big shock he had just received. "All these years, I've always felt my father's torment every time he looked at that small wooden box, but he never told us the truth behind it. I didn't expect the story to be so tragic."

He turned back to look at her, his eyes now filled with deep sympathy instead of the suspicion like in the first days. "You've had to endure so much, carrying this secret alone for so many months in the midst of enemies without knowing who is trustworthy and who isn't."

"I'm sorry for lying to you all this time." Anh Thu bowed her head, her voice choked. "I know what I did wasn't right, but I have no other way to find out the truth."

Vinh Khang stepped forward and gently lifted her chin, forcing her to look straight into his eyes. "I don't blame you. If I were in your situation, I would probably do the same thing to find justice for my family. The important thing now is that we need to find out who harmed your father, and I will help you to the end, no matter who that person is."

Those words made Anh Thu's heart melt, an unprecedented feeling of relief filled her soul after many months of living in fear and loneliness. She looked up at Vinh Khang, and in that moment, without any further words, they both understood that the love between them had overcome all barriers of identity, lies and suspicion, to become a stronger bond than ever.

"I suspect someone in the family is behind this incident, but I don't have enough evidence to confirm for sure." Anh Thu said, deciding to keep her doubts about Chu Bach Dinh to herself for a while longer, because she understood that this was a very serious accusation that needed solid evidence to be able to say it, especially when that person was Vinh Khang's uncle.

"Then we'll find that evidence together." Vinh Khang said, his voice filled with determination. "I believe you, and I won't let anyone in this family continue to hide their crimes, no matter who they are."

Before leaving, Anh Thu also told Vinh Khang about the latest clue she had thanks to Vinh Phong's unintentional help: the old contact information of Mr. Dinh Van Tho, an accountant who worked at the same time as her father. "I plan to find a way to contact him, see if he still remembers anything about what happened in the past, but I don't know where to start because the information is too old, I'm afraid he has moved somewhere else."

"Let me help you with this." Vinh Khang said immediately, his eyes shining with the determination of a person who had just found a clear goal to act on. "I can ask the corporation's old human resources department to discreetly track down the information. No one will suspect anything when I ask about a retired former employee. We need to find him before anyone else can stop him."

Anh Thu nodded, filled with gratitude for Vinh Khang's enthusiasm and cleverness. The two discussed for a while longer about the next steps to take, from verifying Mr. Dinh Van Tho's whereabouts, to quietly collecting more evidence without alarming the person lurking in the dark.

That night, when Anh Thu left Vinh Khang's office, her steps were much lighter than the heavy days before. For the first time since starting this arduous journey, she no longer had to shoulder the entire burden of secrets and dangers alone, but had a trustworthy companion, ready to stand by her side to the end on the path to finding justice for her family. She looked up at the starlit night sky on the way back to the annex, silently thanking fate for bringing her to this right place, at this right time, to meet someone who was both worthy of her love and strong enough to accompany her to the end of the truth.