Chapter 2 - The Father’s Secret
My father didn't move.
His eyes were locked on her.
"Her name is Elena," he said.
"She isn't his wife."
The room gasped.
The woman, Elena, flinched.
"She’s his sister."
The silence was deafening.
Ethan’s face turned gray.
"Dad, what are you saying?" I whispered.
He walked forward.
"I tried to hide this."
"I tried to protect you."
He pointed at the woman.
"Ethan isn't an engineer."
"He’s a con man."
"And she is his partner."
My heart pounded.
Ethan backed away.
"It’s not true!" he shouted.
"They're lying!"
But my father stood tall.
"I have the documents."
"I’ve been tracking them."
"For months."
My head spun.
I looked at Ethan.
The man I loved.
The man I trusted.
He was a stranger.
Everything was a lie.
The marriage.
The life.
The baby.
It was all a plot.
"They needed your inheritance," my father said.
"They needed the house."
"The accounts."
Elena stopped smiling.
Her hand dropped from her belly.
"It was just business," she spat.
She looked at Ethan.
"Tell her, Ethan."
He looked at me.
His eyes were cold.
No warmth.
No love.
"She was so easy," he laughed.
"So desperate for a child."
The cruelty cut through me.
I gripped the chair.
My hands shook.
"The baby?" I whispered.
"Is the baby real?"
He sneered.
"There is no baby."
He took a step.
"I never touched you."
"The fertility treatments?"
"Fake doctors."
"Fake tests."
"You were never pregnant."
The world collapsed.
I fell to my knees.
My mother caught me.
"Ava!" she cried.
I looked up.
I saw the truth.
I saw the monster.
And I felt something else.
Rage.
Pure, blinding rage.
I looked at my father.
"Do we have them?"
He nodded.
"The police are outside."
Ethan laughed again.
"Police? For what?"
"You can't prove anything."
I stood up.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
I wiped my eyes.
"I don't need to prove it," I said.
May you like
"Because this house is mine."
"And you're leaving."
