“That’s impossible,” he whispered.
The older woman slowly shook her head.
“No. It’s the truth.”
Emily’s tears began falling.
“You’re saying… he’s my father?”
The woman nodded.
“Your mother loved him. But twenty-eight years ago, I made sure they never found each other again.”
Victor’s face collapsed with shock.
“Why?”
The woman looked down.
“Because I was afraid of losing everything.”
Emily stepped backward.
“You destroyed my family… for money?”
“No,” the woman cried. “For something even worse.”
She turned the photograph over.
Written beneath Victor’s name was a date.
And beside it, one sentence:
“If he ever discovers the truth, tell him what happened the night Emily was born.”
Victor looked at Emily.
“What happened that night?”
The older woman began sobbing.
“Your mother didn’t abandon you, Emily…”
Emily froze.
“She came back for you.”
“Then where is she?” Emily whispered.
The woman looked toward the ballroom doors.
Suddenly, they opened.
An elderly woman in a wheelchair was being slowly pushed into the room.
Emily stared at her face.
She knew those eyes.
Her entire world seemed to stop.
The woman whispered through her tears:
“Emily… my baby.”
Emily covered her mouth.
After twenty-eight years…
her mother had finally come back.
And she was holding a second photograph.
One that revealed the real reason Emily had been taken away.
THE END.
