Chapter 2: The Secret From Twenty-Three Years Ago
That night, Richard couldn't sleep.
The photograph haunted him.
The blanket haunted him.
Most of all, the young waitress haunted him.
The next morning he hired a private investigator.
Within days, the truth began surfacing.
Twenty-three years earlier, Richard's wealthy parents had strongly opposed his relationship with Emily Carter.
She came from a poor family.
They considered her unsuitable.
When she became pregnant, Richard never received her letters.
Never saw her messages.
Never knew she was desperately trying to reach him.
Someone had intercepted everything.
Someone inside his own family.
The investigation revealed something even worse.
His father had secretly paid Emily to disappear.
Not because she accepted.
Because she refused.
After rejecting the offer, she left town anyway when complications from the pregnancy left her unable to work.
She raised her daughter alone.
Struggling.
Fighting.
Sacrificing everything.
And Richard never knew she existed.
The realization shattered him.
For twenty-three years, he had believed Emily abandoned him.
In reality, both of them had been victims of the same lie.
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And the waitress serving drinks at his banquet was not a stranger.
She was his daughter.
