hapter 13 Her Real Father
Noelle’s POV
The screen lit up.
My hands trembled.
I didn’t blink.
There she was.
My mother.
Younger. Beautiful. In a white wedding dress, slightly off her shoulders. Her face looked flushed, dazed.
The video zoomed out.
My so–called father–Williams Bentley–was
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standing beside a man. He handed him a
wad of cash.
I leaned closer.
“You’re paying him?” I whispered.
The screen showed the man nodding, pocketing the cash, then walking up to my mother and grabbing her waist.
“No,” I breathed.
She looked confused. Disoriented. She mumbled something, swayed on her feet. The man tugged her away.
My eyes widened as the camera panned again, shakier now. The next clip showed the man pushing her into a hotel room. “What… what is this?” I turned to Alaric, stunned.
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“I’m sorry you had to see this,” he said quietly. “But you needed to.”
“So my father didn’t sleep with my mom on their wedding night?” My voice cracked.
Alaric nodded. “He drugged her. Paid someone else to take her away so he could spend the night with his mistress–Jocelyn’s mother.” I blinked, unable to process it.
He continued, “That night… I happened to be nearby. I heard screaming coming from one of the rooms. I broke down the door and found your mother trying to fight that man off. He’d already ripped part of her dress.”
My stomach churned.
“She was… drugged. Not in control.
Disoriented. I chased him off. She was in shock, Noelle. I couldn’t leave her like that.”
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eintent
of bo
was
y voice was hoarse. “So you… slept with
r?”
No,” he said firmly. “Not at first. I just
anted to calm her down. But the drugs
19 were messing with her system–she was
er ahot, shaking. She started begging for me to ld help her. I tried to hold her off, I swear. But
she kept clinging to me. Crying. I stayed with her all night. I didn’t even realize what had happened until morning.”
I stared at him in disbelief.
“When I woke up,” he said, voice soft, “she was gone. I didn’t even get her name.”
“So you just forgot about her?”
“No!” he said quickly. “I tried to find her. I really did. I went to every event around that
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1
area, asked questions, and described her. Nothing. She vanished.”
“And then?”
“Years passed. Then one day, I saw her at a design exhibition. I recognized her instantly. I approached her, told her everything. She was stunned. She never even remembered that night. It all came back to her after I explained.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Why didn’t she tell me?”
“She was scared. She didn’t want to hurt you. Or break your image of family. But she told me she was going to tell you when you were ready.”
My voice dropped. “But she never got the chance.”
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Alaric nodded solemnly. “She tried reaching out to me. She came to my office several times, but I was traveling a lot. She called. Left letters. I never got any of it. Not until it was too late.”
He reached into a folder and pulled out a worn envelope. “This came in the mail three months after her death. My assistant found it buried under a stack of ignored fan mail.”
He handed it to me.
My name was scrawled in her handwriting.
I opened it with shaking fingers.
My mother’s voice echoed in my head as I read the words:
“If you’re reading this, it means I’m gone.
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Please take care of Noelle. She’s yours. I never got the courage to tell her. But she’s not Williams‘ child. She’s yours. Protect her the way I couldn’t.”
Tears welled in my eyes.
Alaric showed me another item–a silver
crest.
It was identical to the design on the brooch my mother gave me before she died. The one Jocelyn shattered.
I touched it. My fingers trembled. “She told me… this would protect me.”
Alaric smiled faintly. “It’s our family crest. I gave it to her that night. I never thought she would keep it.”
I stared down at it, stunned.
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All this time, I’d believed in a lie.
“I thought my mother loved my father,” I said, voice barely audible.
“She did, in her own way. But he never loved her. He wanted a business marriage. That’s why he never touched her on the wedding night. His heart was always with Jocelyn’s mother.”
“And yet he made her life miserable.”
Alaric’s expression darkened. “She deserved better.”
I clenched my fists. “So all these years… I was never his daughter?”
“No.”
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“And Jocelyn’s not just my stepsister?”
“No. She’s nothing to you. You don’t share a drop of blood.”
My breath caught.
Alaric placed a hand on the table. “I didn’t come into your life to confuse you, Noelle. I only wanted to give you the truth.” I looked at him, tears slipping down my cheeks. “You should’ve come sooner.”
“I tried.”
I sat back, everything swirling.
“So my mother was drugged and almost raped on her wedding night… how could my father be so cruel?!”
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