Chapter 2: The Truth Hidden for Ten Years
Chapter 2: The Truth Hidden for Ten Years
The ballroom doors were quietly locked by hotel security.
No one wanted to leave anymore.
The engagement party had become something else entirely.
Scarlett turned toward Evelyn.
"What happened?"
Evelyn inhaled deeply.
"The truth is much uglier than the story everyone believed."
Ten years earlier...
The camping trip had never been an accident.
She remembered wandering only a few steps away to chase a butterfly.
Before she could return...
Someone grabbed her.
A cloth covered her mouth.
She passed out.
When she woke up, she was hundreds of miles away.
A couple living in poverty had purchased her from human traffickers without knowing she had been kidnapped. They believed they were rescuing an abandoned child.
"They weren't bad people," Evelyn said softly.
"They loved me."
"But they never knew who I really was."
Scarlett covered her mouth in horror.
"And when I became old enough to search..."
Evelyn looked toward Eleanor.
"I discovered every report about me had been erased."
The guests gasped.
Scarlett slowly faced her stepmother.
"Eleanor..."
"What did you do?"
Eleanor's expression remained frozen.
"I don't know what she's talking about."
Evelyn smiled sadly.
"I expected you to deny everything."
She pulled out her phone.
"I spent three years looking for proof."
She tapped the screen.
The ballroom speakers suddenly connected to her phone.
A recorded phone conversation echoed throughout the room.
Eleanor's unmistakable voice filled the hall.
"As long as the younger girl disappears, Scarlett becomes the only heir."
Silence.
Then another voice asked:
"What if the child is found?"
Eleanor answered without hesitation.
"She won't be."
The recording ended.
The room erupted.
Guests whispered in disbelief.
Scarlett staggered backward.
"No..."
Her fiancé looked at Eleanor in complete horror.
"You kidnapped a child?"
Eleanor's carefully built image cracked before everyone's eyes.
But she still had one final card to play.
She smiled.
"You have no evidence that voice is mine."
Evelyn nodded calmly.
"I thought you'd say that too."
At that exact moment, the ballroom doors opened.
May you like
Three detectives walked inside.
"We do."
