CHAPTER 3 — THE WOMAN WHO STOLE A LIFE
The next morning, the scandal dominated every headline.
The Laurent family emergency meeting lasted for hours.
Finally, Anna was found.
She lived in a small coastal town hundreds of miles away.
When Lucas arrived, he found a tired woman standing on a porch, tears already filling her eyes.
She knew why he had come.
"I never wanted to keep her from her family," Anna whispered.
"Then why did you disappear?"
Anna looked toward Lily playing nearby.
"Because they told me to."
Lucas felt cold.
Anna revealed everything.
Twenty years ago, Amelia's mother had died unexpectedly.
A vicious battle over inheritance followed.
Several family members feared that Amelia's existence would divide the fortune.
One night, the child vanished.
The public was told she had died.
In reality, Anna had been ordered to take the baby away and never return.
She had been paid to stay silent.
But she couldn't abandon the child.
So she raised Amelia as her own daughter.
Protected her.
Loved her.
Sacrificed everything for her.
Back in the city, investigators uncovered financial records proving that several family executives had participated in the cover-up.
Including Evelyn's father.
The same man who had arranged Evelyn's engagement to Lucas.
Not for love.
For control.
For money.
The board of directors reacted immediately.
Assets were frozen.
Investigations began.
Arrests soon followed.
And when reporters surrounded Evelyn outside her luxury apartment, she finally understood the truth.
The little girl she mocked wasn't a beggar.
She was one of the rightful heirs to the Laurent fortune.
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And Evelyn had publicly humiliated her in front of hundreds of witnesses.
Her future collapsed overnight.
