CHAPTER 2 — The Secret That Destroyed A Perfect Marriage
Silence swallowed the ballroom.
Nathan slowly stood from his chair.
His hands were shaking.
Victoria had never seen her husband look afraid before.
He reached toward the paper.
Emily didn't move.
Instead she quietly unfolded one more page.
"This belongs to you," she said.
Nathan recognized it immediately.
A DNA test.
Twenty-three years old.
His signature covered the bottom.
His breathing became uneven.
Victoria grabbed the document before anyone could stop her.
"What is this nonsense?"
She scanned the first few lines.
Then her entire body froze.
Probability of paternity...
99.99%.
She stared first at Nathan...
Then at Emily.
"No..."
"No..."
"This can't be real."
Nathan finally spoke.
"It is."
The room erupted into whispers.
Years earlier, before Nathan had built his empire, he had fallen deeply in love with a young nurse named Sarah.
She became pregnant.
Nathan promised to marry her.
But before he could return from a business trip overseas...
His wealthy father intervened.
Sarah disappeared.
Nathan was told she had left him voluntarily and wanted nothing to do with him.
Heartbroken, he buried himself in work.
He never stopped searching.
But he never found her.
What he never knew...
Was that Sarah had died giving birth.
Emily had been raised by her grandmother ever since.
The old woman had protected the truth because she believed Nathan had abandoned them willingly.
Only recently, while battling terminal illness, had she finally revealed everything.
She handed Emily the sealed envelope.
"Find your father," she whispered.
"Even if he never wanted us..."
Emily came only to deliver the truth.
She expected nothing else.
Victoria's face twisted with humiliation.
"So she's..."
Nathan nodded.
"My daughter."
The ballroom exploded.
Every guest remembered the slap.
Every guest remembered the insults.
Every guest remembered who had called the billionaire's own daughter a gold digger.
Victoria suddenly reached toward Emily.
"I...I didn't know..."
Emily quietly stepped backward.
"You never asked."
Her words hit harder than any slap.
Nathan slowly walked toward his daughter.
His eyes filled with tears.
"I'm so sorry..."
Emily looked at him for several seconds.
Then softly asked...
"Where were you when Mom died waiting for you?"
May you like
Nathan couldn't answer.
Because there was no answer powerful enough to erase twenty-three years of pain.
