CHAPTER 2 – The Woman in the Last Pew
Emily drove for nearly an hour before stopping beside an abandoned lake.
Her hands shook as she read the letter again.
My name is Sarah.
Three years ago Ethan promised to marry me.
He disappeared the day after our daughter was born.
He told everyone the baby died.
She didn't.
She's alive.
Ask him why he erased us.
Emily wanted to believe it was fake.
She desperately wanted proof that someone had forged everything.
Then her phone rang.
It was Ethan.
Again.
And again.
Thirty-two missed calls.
She ignored every one.
A new message suddenly appeared.
"Please don't believe the letter. Meet me before making a decision."
Before Emily could reply...
Another unknown number called.
She answered.
A little girl's soft voice whispered through the phone.
"Are... are you Miss Emily?"
Emily froze.
"Yes..."
"My mommy told me to call if anything happened."
Emily couldn't breathe.
The child continued quietly.
"My daddy's picture looks exactly like your husband."
Silence.
Then the little girl asked one heartbreaking question.
"Can I finally meet my daddy today?"
Emily dropped the phone.
Tears blurred her vision.
Everything she believed was collapsing.
But she still didn't know the truth.
Because the mysterious woman in the church...
Had never intended to stop the wedding.
She wanted Emily to discover something even darker.
The little girl...
Wasn't Ethan's daughter.
She was Emily's.
And twenty-five years earlier...
Someone had switched two newborn babies in the very hospital where Emily herself had been born.
The wedding wasn't the biggest lie.
May you like
It was only the door...
To a family secret buried for a generation.
