Mara hadn’t spoken to her in almost six years.
“No…” Mara whispered.
Thomas entered the ballroom holding the little girl’s hand.
Guests began staring.
Mara marched toward him.
“I watched them bury you!”
Thomas didn’t answer.
Instead, Evelyn stepped forward.
“You buried an empty coffin.”
The entire room went silent.
Mara looked from Evelyn to Thomas.
“Why?”
Thomas finally spoke.
“Because someone paid me to disappear.”
Mara laughed bitterly.
“Who?”
Thomas looked toward the head table.
Mara followed his eyes.
Her mother was sitting there.
Completely pale.
Mara froze.
Her mother slowly stood.
“Mara, I can explain.”
“Explain WHAT?”
Evelyn pulled an envelope from her purse and threw it onto the table.
Inside were bank transfers totaling $2 million.
All sent from Mara’s mother to Thomas.
Mara’s hands began shaking.
Her mother whispered:
“I couldn’t let you marry him.”
Mara stared at Thomas.
“So you took the money?”
Thomas shook his head.
“No. I took the money because she threatened my daughter.”
Mara looked down at the little girl.
“My daughter?”
Thomas swallowed hard.
Then he said the words that made Mara collapse into a chair.
“She isn’t Evelyn’s daughter.”
He looked straight into Mara’s eyes.
“She’s yours.”
And suddenly Mara remembered the hospital night eight years earlier…
The baby she had been told was stillborn.
The baby she had never been allowed to see.
Her mother had lied about Thomas.
Lied about the funeral.
And worst of all…
She had lied about Mara’s own child.
