“That Boy Actually Lives With Me,” She Told the Millionaire — Her Next Words Shattered Everything He Thought He Knew

Outside, the wind battered the broken window, and she whispered to herself, «I’m going to find out what’s going on, even if I have to lose everything.»

The following days dragged like an endless nightmare. Amelia no longer saw her mother the same way. Every smile seemed fake, every caress calculated. She watched her in silence, paying attention to everything.

The whispered calls, the hidden papers, the tense glances through the window. At night, when the house fell into dimness, the girl heard her mother pacing, opening and closing drawers, as if trying to hide something that shouldn’t be seen. Lucas, quiet, seemed to feel the same unease.

«Why is she always scared?» he whispered one night.

Amelia replied softly, «Because she lied to someone, and when you lie, fear never sleeps.»

That morning, Claire left in a hurry, bag over her shoulder, eyes full of worry. «I’m going to the store. Stay calm and don’t touch anything,» she said before closing the door.

The sound of the lock was the signal Amelia had been waiting for. Her heart raced, her hands sweated. «She’s hiding something, Lucas. I have to know what.»

The boy, scared, tried to stop her. «If she finds out, she’ll get mad at you.»

Amelia took a deep breath. «I can handle it, but I can’t handle living with lies anymore.» Then she started searching, opening cabinets, lifting rugs, checking corners she had never noticed.

Her mother’s room smelled of perfume mixed with must and guilt. The curtains blocked almost all the light, leaving the atmosphere gloomy. In a corner, a floorboard was loose.

A small detail, but enough to spark a watchful girl’s curiosity. Amelia knelt, slipped her fingers into the crack, and lifted the wood carefully, revealing a dark, dusty space. Inside was an old notebook with a torn cover, wrapped in a faded handkerchief.

She took it out cautiously, as if holding something sacred and forbidden at the same time. «What is this?» she murmured. Lucas approached hesitantly, his gaze fixed on those yellowish pages.

When she opened the notebook, a chill ran through her body. Pages full of notes, names, dates, figures scribbled alongside. «What a weird thing,» she murmured, frowning.

It didn’t look like a diary or a shopping list. The letters were quick, nervous, as if written in haste. She ran her finger over a blurry name and kept flipping, trying to understand.

«Why would she hide this?» she asked more to herself than to Lucas. The boy, confused, just watched. There was something dark in that notebook, something that made the room’s air heavier, as if the words had a life of their own.

Until, amid so many senseless lines, something caught her attention. A name: Lucas H.

The girl’s heart stopped for an instant. She looked at the boy beside her, and then at the paper. «Look, your name is here.» Her voice came out trembling, between surprise and fear.

Lucas approached with wide eyes. «My name? What?»

Amelia shook her head, not knowing what to say. «I don’t know, but this isn’t normal. Why would Mom write that?»

The silence that followed was suffocating. The letters of the name seemed to glow under the dim light, like a sign impossible to ignore. The girl’s heart seemed about to burst. Everything spun around her. Fear mixed with confusion.

«There’s something wrong, Lucas. I feel it,» she whispered.

He looked at her uneasy, not understanding. «What are we going to do?» he asked.

Amelia closed the notebook forcefully, as if wanting to silence the secrets kept there. «We have to find that man. He will know what this means.»

There was uncertainty in her voice, but also a new kind of bravery born from the need to uncover the truth. Though she didn’t fully understand what the notebook represented, she knew it was the key to something much bigger.

With trembling hands, she tore a page from the notebook and copied everything she could: Lucas’s name, the nearby dates, and the details she remembered. The sound of the pencil scratching the paper was like thunder in the house’s silence. Lucas watched her quietly, his eyes full of tears.

«If she comes back and finds you, she won’t find me,» Amelia interrupted. «We have to try.»

When she finished, she put the page in her dress pocket and returned the notebook to its hiding place, covering it with the board. Her breathing was short, her heart pounding in her chest.

«Come on. Lucas, I have to find him now.»

As she opened the door, the afternoon sun blinded her for a moment. The hot wind hit her face, drying the tears still falling. She looked at the sky, and for the first time, felt something like destiny.

«I’m going to find him,» she said to Lucas, squeezing his hand, «even if I get lost forever.»

The sun was starting to hide behind the rooftops when Amelia ran without looking back. The hot air cut her throat, and her heart beat to the rhythm of each step. The folded page in her pocket scratched her skin, as if the paper had life, pulsing with her fear.

Lucas had stayed behind, watching her from the window with a lost gaze and trembling hands. «Be careful,» he murmured, not knowing if she could hear him. But the girl didn’t stop.

There was an urgency inside her, an impulse she didn’t even understand. All she knew was she had to find that man with sad eyes, the man who cried for the boy on the poster. The neighborhood seemed bigger than before, the streets endless.

Amelia tripped, got up, and kept going. At every corner, she asked strangers if they knew where the man with the black car lived. Many just shook their heads, others looked at her with pity.

Time seemed to mock her, dragging the minutes as if testing her. When night finally began to fall, an old man sweeping the sidewalk pointed the way. «The mansion at the end of the avenue. That’s where the guy who puts up posters lives.»

Amelia thanked him and ran off, her heart so strong it seemed to fill the silent streets. Henry’s mansion appeared ahead, imposing and sad at the same time. The yellowish lights on the facade reflected on the iron gate, and the air smelled of loneliness.

Amelia stopped, doubting for an instant. What if he doesn’t believe me? The fear almost made her turn back, but the thought of Lucas and that name in the notebook gave her strength.

She rang the bell once, twice, three times. A man in a dark suit appeared and looked her up and down. «What’s a girl like you doing here alone at this hour?»

The little one took a deep breath. «I need to see the owner of the house. It’s important, it’s about his son.»

The butler hesitated, but there was something so sincere in her gaze that he finally opened the gate. When Henry entered the living room, his face bore the exhaustion of someone who’d lived a year between despair and hope. Seeing the girl, it took him a second to recognize her.

«You’re the girl from the poster.»

Amelia nodded, her eyes full of tears. «Sir, I found something.» With trembling hands, she pulled the crumpled paper from her pocket. «This was hidden in my mom’s room. I don’t understand what it means, but his name is here.»

Henry took the page, and upon seeing Lucas’s name written there, he felt the world spin. The letters seemed to move under his blurred vision. «Where did you find this?» he asked with a broken voice.

«In an old notebook under the floor,» she replied, crying. «I swear I’m not lying. I just felt I had to show it to you.»

Henry sat down, pressing the paper to his chest. Those notes, names, dates, figures—they formed a sinister pattern. «This… this is too serious.»

His hands trembled. He recognized two names from the missing children posters he had put up months ago. The pain turned to rage, and the rage to fear.

«She’s involved in this,» he murmured, almost voicelessly.

Amelia looked at him confused. «What do you mean?»

He hesitated before answering. «It means your mother might be mixed up in something terrible.»

Tears ran down the girl’s face. «No, she can’t be bad.» Her voice came out between sobs, like a plea denying reality. Henry approached and took her small hands in his.

«Listen, dear, sometimes evil doesn’t wear a monster’s mask. Sometimes it disguises itself as love.» His gaze was sweet but loaded with deep sadness. «The important thing is you had courage. You saved my son, and you could save many other kids too.»