Chapter 18 — The Switched Heiress: The Battle for Wealth

After many days of consideration, Diem Thu decided to find the secret phone number she had been using to contact the man behind the plot for the past eighteen years, hoping to find some help while she was facing the risk of criminal prosecution and estrangement from the entire society. She sent a short message with an urgent tone: "I need to see you. The situation is very bad, I don't know how to manage anymore. Bich Van's lawyer is putting a lot of pressure."

The message was sent in the evening, and Diem Thu sat and waited in the small makeshift room, her heart pounding every time the phone rang. But for many hours, there was no response. Near midnight, a message finally appeared on the screen, coldly brief: "Don't contact this number anymore. I don't know what you're talking about."

Diem Thu read and reread that message many times, feeling like a bucket of cold water had just been poured right into her face. For eighteen years, she trusted that man's promise, believing that no matter what happened, he would stand up to protect her and her daughter, as he had promised from the first night. But now, when she needed help the most, he coldly dismissed all responsibility, leaving her alone to face the impending legal and public opinion storm.

She tried calling that phone number directly, but only received a signal that the phone was locked and could no longer be reached. Diem Thu sat down on the floor, clutching her head, crying uncontrollably. She realized, in that moment, that she had never really been a partner in this plan, but merely a tool, a pawn that could be thrown away as soon as it was no longer of any use.

At that moment, Han Nghi returned home after meeting with Khanh Thi and saw her mother crying alone in the darkness of the small living room. She quietly sat down next to her mother, didn't say anything for a moment, just put her hand around her shoulder.

"Mom, I need to talk to you about something important," Han Nghi finally spoke, her voice unusually serious. She recounted how she found the wooden box, notebook, and old phone, and her meeting with Khanh Thi.

Diem Thu looked up, her face full of tears and panic. "You... did you read everything I wrote in there?"

"Yes, I have read it all," Han Nghi replied, her voice trembling but determined. "Mom, I don't blame you for being desperate, for believing in a promise in the most desperate time. But I need you to understand that man never truly wanted to help us. He was just using you to achieve his own goals, and when everything fell apart, he was ready to abandon you immediately, leaving you alone to bear all the consequences."

Diem Thu was silent, those words were like knives cutting deep into her already broken heart, but they were also words she needed to hear, needed to face, after all these years of living in the illusion of an unrealistic protection.

"I just texted him," Diem Thu confessed, her voice choked up. "He told me not to contact her anymore, saying he didn't know what I was talking about. I trusted him for eighteen years, believing that he would keep his promise to protect us to the end. How wrong I was, Han Nghi."

Han Nghi hugged her mother tightly, letting her cry freely in her arms, both mother and daughter were immersed in the common pain of betrayal and loss. After a while, when the tears gradually subsided, Han Nghi gently spoke.

"Mom, I think it's time for you to make a final decision. You can continue to stay silent, protecting a man who has just coldly abandoned you, or you can cooperate with Ms. Bich Van, providing all the evidence you have, in exchange for the leniency of the law and a chance to atone for some of your mistakes. I don't want to force you, but I think this is the only way for our whole family to start over, no matter how difficult it is."

Diem Thu sat quietly for a long time, looking at her daughter with eyes that were both painful and grateful. She realized that, no matter how serious the mistake she had made, her daughter—whom she had used as a pawn for eighteen years—was still standing by her side, still trying to find the best path for both of them, instead of turning away like she completely deserved.

"I will do as you say," Diem Thu said, her voice finally regaining some stability. "I will contact Bich Van, tell the whole truth, give all the evidence I have. It's time for me to take responsibility for what I have done, instead of continuing to hide or protect someone who has never been honest with me."

That night, after Han Nghi fell asleep from exhaustion, Diem Thu sat alone at the small dining table in the makeshift room, re-opening each page in the notebook one last time before handing it over to someone else. She re-read the words she wrote eighteen years ago, remembering the desperate, trembling twenty-five-year-old young girl who signed a verbal agreement with a strange man just because she wanted to save her family from dire debt. She wondered if someone had stopped her in time that year, whether the lives of four people - two mothers, two children - would have turned in a different, less painful direction.

But those assumptions were now meaningless. The only thing she could did was face the consequences as dignified as possible, and try to atone for her mistakes by helping to reveal the whole truth, so that at least her two daughters did not have to continue living under the shadow of lies that had never been completely resolved.

The next morning, Diem Thu proactively contacted Trac Minh Thu, requesting an urgent, private meeting. When Bich Van received this news from Minh Thu, she sat silently in the office for a long time, with mixed emotions between relief because she was finally about to have the last piece of the truth picture, and a sadness for her old friend, who had to go through such a painful journey to find the courage to face herself.

The meeting took place in the afternoon of the same day, at Minh Thu's private office, with the full presence of Bich Van, Minh Thu, and Diem Thu. Diem Thu brought along a notebook, an old phone, and a completely different mindset from the fierce woman standing on stage at the birthday party a few weeks ago.

"I'm sorry for everything I've caused," Diem Thu said, her voice trembling but sincere, placing the notebook and phone on the table in front of Bich Van. "This is everything I have, recorded with my own hands eighteen years ago. I am willing to testify, to provide all the information I know, to help you expose the truth, even if that means I will have to bear the heaviest responsibility before the law."

Bich Van took the notebook, flipped through a few pages, feeling the weight of the words containing the pain and despair of a mother who had been pushed to the brink. She looked up at Diem Thu, her eyes were no longer resentful like before, but carried a complex sympathy, mixed with determination to complete the final journey to find justice for both families.

"Thank you for deciding to do the right thing, even if it's late," Bich Van said, her voice gentle but full of weight. "From now on, we will face the truth together, and together find a way to bring the real person behind all this to light."

Minh Thu, as a lawyer, immediately began preparing an official record of Diem Thu's testimony, with all the necessary signatures and legal confirmations, and advised her on the possibility of being considered for a reduced criminal liability if she actively cooperated, providing evidence to help clarify the entire case and prevent a plot to appropriate property on a much larger scale than her own original act.

"I also want to apologize to Han Nghi again, even though I know an apology cannot erase what she has gone through," Diem Thu added, her voice choked up. "And I also want to apologize to Khanh Thi, even though she will probably never truly forgive me."

Bich Van looked at her old friend, her heart aroused with a sympathy that she did not expect she could still have for the person who had turned her life upside down for eighteen years. "Forgiveness takes time, Diem Thu. But at least today you chose to stand on the side of the truth, instead of continuing to silently protect someone who never deserved that loyalty. That is the most important first step."

Less than an hour after the meeting ended, Minh Thu's phone vibrated with an urgent call from Ha Viet Cuong, his voice was so urgent that he swallowed all the words. He had just discovered, that very morning, that a large transfer order had been initiated from Van Tin Holdings' account to a bank in a country that did not have a mutual legal assistance agreement with Vietnam - all of the shares that Hoai Nam was indirectly holding were at risk of being converted into cash and dispersed from the reach of any judgment, in less than forty-eight hours.

After Bich Van heard, the fragile feeling of relief she had just felt from the meeting with Diem Thu immediately disappeared, replaced by a cold chill running down her spine. She understood, Hoai Nam must have smelled something - maybe from Diem Thu's unusual silence over the past few days, maybe just from the vigilant instinct of someone who had lived in calculation for eighteen years - and was racing to preserve the final result before everything collapsed completely.

"We can't wait any longer," Minh Thu said, standing up, quickly gathering the documents on the table and stuffing them into her briefcase. "I will apply for an urgent freezing order tonight, based on all the evidence we have. If the court grants timely approval, those shares will be frozen before he completes the transaction."

That night, while Hoai Nam still believed he was quietly retreating in the darkness before the storm really hit, Minh Thu was present at the private home of an acquaintance judge, urgently presenting the entire dossier that had been prepared for eighteen years. By early morning, a temporary asset freeze order was issued — just a few hours before Van Tin Holdings' transaction could be completed. Most of Hoai Nam's assets were kept within a hair's breadth, but for Bich Van, that news did not bring any sense of security. It only confirmed something she had long suspected: the man she once called her husband would never give up without fighting to the end, and the real battle, the open battle before all shareholders, could now not be delayed another day.