Chapter 3 - THE FIRST LIE
I sat frozen in that quiet room, the letter shaking in my hands.
Daniel was not Margaret’s son.
I read the words again. Then again. They didn’t make sense. Margaret had raised him. She had loved him. She had bragged about him, spoiled him, built her whole life around being his mother.
Why would she pretend he was hers if he wasn’t? And who was his real mother?
I kept reading.
*Margaret could not have children. It was her deepest shame. She adopted Daniel hours after his birth, telling everyone she had delivered him prematurely. Only I knew the truth. Because I was there. Because I helped.*
My breath caught.
*His real mother was a young woman from this town. Someone Margaret paid to disappear. Someone who begged me to watch over her son. And that woman… was my own sister.*
I dropped the letter. It fluttered onto the desk, the words blurring before my eyes.
Daniel was my cousin.
My husband was my cousin.
And Margaret had stolen him from my aunt, hidden the truth, and raised him as her own to secure her place in the Sterling family.
I felt sick. Dizzy. The room seemed to tilt.
I picked up the letter with trembling fingers and finished reading.
*Margaret fears one thing above all else: that the truth will come out. That Daniel will learn who he really is. That he will turn to his real family. She hates Olivia because she sees her as a threat. If Olivia knows the truth… she could destroy everything Margaret has built.*
*That is why I transferred all my assets to Olivia. To protect her. To give her power when the truth finally comes out. Margaret will try to take it. She will try to destroy you both. Be careful. Trust no one. Not even Daniel. Not until he knows the truth himself.*
I sat there for a long time. The silence of the room pressed in on me.
Daniel had no idea. He thought Margaret was his mother. He thought he was a Sterling by blood. He had spent his whole life living a lie. And I had married him without knowing we shared the same blood.
But then… that meant Olivia was not related to him in the way everyone believed. She was his daughter, yes—but she was also the great-granddaughter of my father, and the granddaughter of his real mother. Which meant Margaret had no blood claim to any of them. None at all.
And that was why she hated Olivia. That was why she called her illegitimate. She was projecting her own secret shame onto an innocent child. She was terrified that Olivia would grow up, learn the truth, and take everything—including Daniel—away from her.
My phone buzzed again. This time it was a text from an unknown number.
*You think papers will stop me? You think secrets stay buried? I know things too, Emma. Things about your father. Things about you. Things about that little girl. Be very careful what you dig for.*
My blood ran cold.
Margaret.
She knew. She knew I had found something. Or at least… she suspected.
May you like
I looked down at the letter in my hands.
The war had just begun. And neither of us would stop until one of us was destroyed.
