CHAPTER 12 The Lie That Stole Twenty Years
CHAPTER 12
The Lie That Stole Twenty Years
I opened the recovered email with shaking hands.
It was only three sentences long.
Lucas,
Natalie knows the truth and has chosen this family.
She doesn't wish to have any contact with you.
Please respect her decision.
I stared at the screen.
"I never wrote this."
Ethan quietly replied,
"I know."
Another recovered attachment appeared beneath it.
A scanned document.
A forged signature.
Mine.
I had supposedly signed it...
At sixteen years old.
Except...
I'd never even seen it before.
"They forged my name."
Ethan nodded grimly.
"Whoever created this wanted Lucas to believe you rejected him voluntarily."
Suddenly every missing birthday card...
Every unanswered letter...
Every year of silence...
Made sense.
Not because no one cared.
Because someone had made sure we could never find each other.
That evening, I drove alone to my parents' house.
Mom was sitting in the garden as though nothing had happened.
She looked up when she saw me.
"I wondered how long it would take."
I threw the forged letter onto the table.
"You stole twenty years from me."
She didn't deny it.
She calmly folded the paper.
"I protected my family."
"You destroyed it."
She met my eyes without remorse.
"If Lucas had taken you away, Richard never would have loved Brielle the same."
I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
"So this was about Brielle?"
"No."
She stood slowly.
"It was about keeping what was mine."
Before I could respond, a black SUV pulled into the driveway.
Three people stepped out.
One of them wore an FBI windbreaker.
Another carried a warrant folder.
The lead agent walked toward the house.
"Margaret Whitmore?"
She remained perfectly still.
"We have a warrant to search this property."
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For the first time in my life...
I watched the confidence leave my mother's face.
