CHAPTER 2: THE LETTER

CHAPTER 2: THE LETTER

The photograph lay shattered beneath the crystal chandelier.

No one dared move.

Richard Morgan—the billionaire everyone admired—stood frozen as though twenty years had disappeared in a single heartbeat.

His wife, Victoria, looked from the photograph to the trembling waitress.

Then back to her husband.

"You knew her," she whispered.

Richard slowly closed his eyes.

"I loved her."

The confession echoed through the silent ballroom.

Gasps rippled across the guests.

Victoria staggered back as though struck.

"You told me she died."

"I believed she had."

Richard's voice was hollow.

"Emily disappeared the same week she told me she was pregnant."

He turned toward the waitress.

"How old are you?"

"Twenty."

His heart stopped.

Twenty years.

Exactly.

He struggled to breathe.

"What... what happened to your mother?"

The young waitress wiped away her tears before reaching into her apron pocket.

"There was something else."

She unfolded a yellowed envelope whose edges had nearly fallen apart with age.

"My mother made me promise I wouldn't open this until I met you."

Richard recognized the handwriting instantly.

Emily's.

His trembling hands barely managed to unfold the letter.

"Richard...

If you're reading this, then fate has finally brought our daughter back to you.

I never left because I stopped loving you.

I left because someone paid me to disappear.

They threatened our baby's life.

They told me if I ever contacted you again... we would both die.

I spent twenty years protecting our daughter.

Please don't waste any more time.

Love her the way you once loved me.

—Emily."

Richard's knees nearly gave way.

Someone had stolen twenty years from them.

Someone had destroyed their family.

Victoria slowly whispered,

"Who... would do something like that?"

The answer came before Richard could speak.

A familiar voice echoed from the back of the ballroom.

"I did."

Every head turned.

Standing in the doorway...

Was Richard's elderly former business partner.

Charles Whitmore.

The man who had helped build Richard's empire.