Chapter 2: Three Years of Lies
Chapter 2: Three Years of Lies
The ballroom was emptied within minutes.
Only Logan, Sophia, Emma, Vanessa, and a few trusted family attorneys remained.
Emma sat peacefully in Sophia's lap.
For the first time anyone could remember, she looked happy.
Logan sat across from them.
His entire world was collapsing.
Sophia took a shaky breath.
“Three years ago, Vanessa arranged everything.”
Vanessa immediately exploded.
“You're lying!”
Sophia ignored her.
“I discovered she was embezzling money from Mercer Holdings before Logan and I were supposed to get married.”
Logan looked at Vanessa.
She refused to meet his eyes.
Sophia continued.
“She knew I would expose her. So she bribed one of the boat operators to stage an accident.”
Logan's hands curled into fists.
“She tried to kill you?”
Sophia nodded.
“I survived.”
Everyone sat frozen.
“But I suffered a severe head injury. I lost parts of my memory.”
She gently stroked Emma's curls.
“A retired couple found me hundreds of miles away.”
Tears rolled down her face.
“When my memories returned months later, I came back.”
She glanced toward Vanessa.
“But she threatened me.”
Vanessa shouted.
“You have no proof!”
Sophia quietly reached into her pocket.
She placed a flash drive onto the table.
“There are recordings.”
Vanessa's face turned ghost white.
Logan immediately understood.
Guilty people always feared evidence.
One of the attorneys inserted the drive into a laptop.
The room filled with Vanessa's own voice.
'If Sophia comes back, Emma must never see her. The child will recognize her immediately.'
Silence.
Then another recording.
'As long as Logan believes she's dead, everything belongs to me.'
Logan slowly closed his eyes.
The betrayal was complete.
He had invited a monster into his home.
And worst of all…
He had allowed that monster near his daughter.
Vanessa suddenly bolted toward the exit.
But security was already waiting.
“Miss Cruz,” one guard said calmly.
“You're not leaving tonight.”
Emma looked up at Logan.
“Daddy…”
He instantly turned toward her.
The little girl reached out her tiny hand.
Then she reached toward Sophia with the other.
“Together.”
Just one word.
But it shattered Logan completely.
Because he finally understood.
For years he had been trying to buy solutions with money.
May you like
What Emma had needed all along…
Was love.
