Chapter 13 - MY MOTHER'S FINAL CONFESSION
We sat in silence.
My mother stared at the floor.
“I didn't kill Charles.”
I exhaled.
“Then who?”
She looked at my father.
“Your grandfather.”
I couldn't breathe.
She explained.
My grandfather had discovered the financial fraud.
But instead of exposing Charles, he threatened to destroy everyone involved.
My mother confronted him.
An argument followed.
He fell down the stairs.
She believed he was dead.
But he wasn't.
He survived.
And before he died years later, he changed the trust.
He named me sole heir.
My mother had been protecting me from the Montgomery family ever since.
“But you said you killed someone.”
She cried.
“I believed I did.”
I held her.
For the first time, I understood how complicated the truth could be.
There were no perfect heroes.
No perfect villains.
Just damaged people making terrible choices.
Then Ryan entered.
He looked exhausted.
“Mariana.”
I looked at him.
“The children are asleep.”
“Thank you.”
He sat across from me.
“I want to ask you something.”
“What?”
“Can I be their father?”
I stared at him.
“You are their father.”
“I mean… can I earn it?”
I didn't answer immediately.
Finally I said:
“They will decide.”
He nodded.
“That’s fair.”
Then Lily appeared in the doorway.
“Daddy?”
Ryan froze.
She walked toward him.
He crouched.
“Hi.”
She hugged him.
Ryan closed his eyes.
He cried silently.
I watched them.
Something inside me softened.
Not enough to forgive.
But enough to consider.
Then Alexander entered.
“Mariana.”
I turned.
“We found something.”
He placed a folder on the table.
“The trust isn't worth what we thought.”
“What?”
“It is worth much more.”
I stared.
“How much?”
“Over one billion dollars.”
Ryan looked shocked.
But I barely reacted.
Money no longer impressed me.
I had learned what it couldn't buy.
Time.
Trust.
A childhood.
A mother's presence.
A father's love.
Then Alexander added:
“And there is another beneficiary.”
“Who?”
He handed me the document.
My heart stopped.
“Ryan.”
I looked at him.
He stared back.
The trust required the Hart and Montgomery families to work together.
If they didn't, the entire fortune would be donated to charity.
I laughed.
After everything.
The only way to protect my children's inheritance was to work with the man who had once thrown me out.
Ryan looked at me.
“I'll do whatever you need.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“What?”
“You'll do what the children need.”
He smiled faintly.
“I can do that.”
Then my phone rang.
The caller ID made my blood freeze.
Vanessa.
I answered.
“Hello?”
Her voice trembled.
“Mariana.”
“What happened?”
“I found something in Victor's files.”
“What?”
A pause.
“He wasn't working alone.”
“Who was with him?”
May you like
Vanessa whispered:
“Rebecca.”
