The Price of a Stolen Marriage Chapter 03
Chapter 3 The Truth He Never Knew
Author: Perfect Timing
Hailey fixed me with a hard stare. “Mrs. Wellington, do you really think marrying into the Wellington family makes you somebody important?”
She rose to her feet and looked down at me. “You’re a woman with no name, no family, no background. Do you really not know what got you where you are today?”
Her gaze slowly moved from my face downward, sharp and insulting.
“Benjamin and I have spent forty years building connections and influence in Kingsport. That’s not something you can earn just by warming a rich man’s bed for a few years. “Don’t reject a generous offer and expect there to be no consequences.”
I looked at her calmly.
People who stole someone else’s life could never truly change what they were at their core.
She could wear the finest designer clothes and the most expensive jewelry, but the moment she opened her mouth, the bitterness underneath came pouring out.
“Are you done?” I stood, picked up the document from the table, and pressed it back into her hands. “Mrs. Ashcroft, you should leave. As for your granddaughter, there’s nothing left to discuss.”
The moment the door closed, I heard her sneer behind me. “Ungrateful bitch.”
I smiled.
All those years ago, when my mother went to the Ashcroft estate looking for my father, she had heard those exact same words before being thrown out.
Word for word.
….
That evening, Christopher knocked on my door. “Mom, can I come in?”
He sat across from me in silence for a long while. “Mom… about Natalie. I want to know why.”
I met his eyes. They were earnest, but there was no anger, no accusation.
He had always been like that. Thoughtful. Considerate. Never someone who made me worry.
“Mom,” he said again, “I know you have your reasons for not accepting Natalie. I just… I want to understand.”
My hands tightened in my lap before slowly relaxing. It still wasn’t time.
“Chris,” I said, “I can’t tell you yet. But do you trust me?”
He looked at me without the slightest hesitation. “I do.”
He stood and walked to the door, then turned back. “Mom, I already told Natalie to go home. Until you give your approval, I won’t bring her here again.”
The door clicked shut.
I sat there, my eyes stinging. That boy had never given me a single day of worry.
When he started preschool, the other children cried when their parents left. He simply held my hand and said, “Go to work, Mommy. I’ll be good.”
It was not that I wanted to keep two people in love apart. But his grandfather and Natalie’s grandfather were the same man.
No matter how I looked at it, I could never approve of this marriage.
…
The next day, the housekeeper came in looking uneasy. “Mrs. Wellington, Mr. Ashcroft is here.”
My hand clenched inside my sleeve. “Show him in.”
The moment he walked through the door, I recognized the man my mother had loved for decades.
My biological father.
His hair had turned completely white, but it was neatly combed back. He wore a black tailored suit, gold cuff links catching the light.
Two people followed behind him, one carrying a briefcase, the other a thermos. He certainly knew how to make an entrance.
He stopped in the doorway. His eyes swept over me without the slightest flicker of recognition.
He did not know who I was.
He had never known he had a daughter in this world.
