Chapter 2 - THE SON HE NEVER KNEW EXISTEDNo one moved.
The ballroom seemed frozen in place.
Hundreds of people stared at Robert Hale.
The billionaire who had been laughing moments earlier now stood completely still.
Victoria's face had lost all color.
“You're lying,” she whispered.
Oliver looked at her.
“I wish I were.”
Robert finally found his voice.
“Clara told you I was your father?”
Oliver nodded.
“She told me everything.”
Robert's knees nearly buckled.
He grabbed the back of his chair.
Thirty years vanished in an instant.
He remembered a tiny apartment above a bakery.
A broken heater.
Cheap coffee.
Clara laughing while wearing his oversized sweater.
He remembered promising her that someday they would have a better life.
Then came the letter.
The business opportunity.
The Hale family.
Victoria.
Money.
Power.
A choice.
And Robert had chosen wealth.
He had left Clara.
He had convinced himself it was temporary.
He had told himself he would come back.
He never did.
“I thought she married someone else,” Robert whispered.
“She didn't.”
Robert closed his eyes.
Oliver continued.
“She waited for you.”
Victoria stared at him.
“Stop.”
Oliver turned.
“She waited for years.”
“Enough!”
Oliver's voice hardened.
“She told me you were ambitious.”
Victoria stepped forward.
“She lied.”
“No.”
Oliver looked directly at Robert.
“She protected you.”
Robert flinched.
Victoria shook her head.
“This is absurd.”
Oliver reached into his pocket.
He pulled out another object.
A folded piece of paper.
“My mother wrote this before she died.”
Robert stared.
“What does it say?”
Oliver unfolded it.
“Dear Robert.”
The billionaire closed his eyes.
Oliver continued.
“I don't know if you'll ever read this. But if you do, know that I never stopped loving you.”
Victoria turned away.
Robert whispered,
“Please.”
Oliver kept reading.
“I raised our son alone.”
A gasp spread through the ballroom.
“Our son.”
Robert opened his eyes.
Oliver looked at him.
“She knew I was yours.”
Robert's breathing became uneven.
“Why didn't she tell me?”
Oliver folded the letter.
“She did.”
Robert frowned.
“What?”
“She sent you letters.”
Robert froze.
“I never received them.”
Oliver looked toward Victoria.
“That's what I thought.”
Victoria stiffened.
“What does that mean?”
Oliver pulled out an envelope.
It was old.
Yellowed.
The address was visible.
Robert Hale.
Same handwriting.
Same sender.
Clara Bennett.
Robert took it.
His hands trembled.
“I never saw this.”
Oliver said nothing.
Robert opened the envelope.
Inside was a photograph.
A baby.
Oliver.
And another letter.
Robert read silently.
His eyes filled with tears.
Then he looked at Victoria.
“Did you know?”
Victoria's expression hardened.
“Know what?”
“That Clara had a child.”
“No.”
Robert stared.
“You're lying.”
Victoria stepped backward.
“You have no right to accuse me.”
Oliver looked between them.
“My mother told me something else.”
Robert looked at him.
“What?”
“She said the reason you disappeared wasn't because you stopped loving her.”
Robert's heart pounded.
“She said someone made sure you never found us.”
Silence.
Victoria's face became unreadable.
Robert whispered,
“Who?”
Oliver looked at her.
“My mother never told me the name.”
Victoria's eyes widened.
Robert noticed.
And suddenly, the ring didn't feel like the only thing that had been brought into the ballroom that night.
May you like
There was another secret.
And someone in the room knew it.
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