Chapter 3: The Mother Who Was Never Dead
The music stopped. Conversations died down. People started staring.
Victoria felt like she couldn’t breathe. She took a step toward the woman, then another. Alexander followed closely behind her.
When they reached the back of the room, Eleanor looked up. There were tears in her eyes, but she didn’t look surprised to see them.
“Mom?” Victoria’s voice cracked. “You’re… alive?”
Eleanor nodded slowly.
“I am.”
Alexander looked between them, confused and angry.
“Someone needs to explain what the hell is going on right now.”
Eleanor took a shaky breath.
“Three years ago, I found out something terrible about your father, Victoria. He wasn’t the man we thought he was. He was involved in things… dangerous things. When I confronted him, he tried to kill me. The car accident was staged to look like I died. But I survived. I went into hiding.”
Victoria felt dizzy.
“Why didn’t you come back? Why didn’t you tell me?”
Eleanor looked at her daughter with pain in her eyes.
“Because your father threatened to hurt you if I did. And because…” She glanced at Lily, who had followed them. “Because I had to protect her too.”
Victoria looked down at the little girl.
“Who is she?”
Eleanor’s voice was barely above a whisper.
“She’s your daughter, Victoria.”
The words hit Victoria like a physical blow.
Alexander took a step back, staring at his new wife in shock.
Victoria felt the room spin. Memories she had buried for years came rushing back — the secret pregnancy when she was only seventeen, the baby she had given birth to in hiding, the decision her mother had helped her make.
She had told everyone the baby died.
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She had told Alexander her mother died.
Both were lies.
