Chapter 6 - Sarah's Last Secret
I returned to the hospital.
Sarah's bed was empty.
No nurse knew where she had gone.
The security cameras showed nothing.
Then Lily found something.
A note beneath her pillow.
Nate, I'm sorry.
My heart sank.
I had to leave before they could use me against you.
I read the rest.
Sarah had discovered the ledger years earlier.
She had spent decades protecting it.
But she had also discovered something else.
My father had secretly transferred a fortune into a trust for Lily.
Not billions.
But enough to give her a life free from the Moretti family.
Sarah had refused to touch it.
She wanted Lily to grow up without becoming part of my world.
I understood.
Then came the final line.
I never stopped loving you.
I sat on the bed.
For thirty years, I had hated her.
And now I realized I had never stopped loving her either.
A week later, I found her.
She had gone back to the church where we used to meet as teenagers.
I found her sitting in the last pew.
“You shouldn't have disappeared again.”
She smiled.
“I didn't know what else to do.”
“You could have trusted me.”
“I didn't know if you were still the same man.”
“I wasn't.”
She looked at me.
“No.”
I sat beside her.
“I'm different now.”
“Because of Lily?”
“Yes.”
She smiled.
“Then she saved both of us.”
I took her hand.
“Come home.”
Sarah looked at me.
“Do you still have room for me?”
I smiled.
“I've been waiting thirty years.”
May you like
She cried.
So did I.
