crying now.
“Your father told everyone I was dead because he wanted to erase me from your life.”
I shook my head.
“No…”
“He wanted my company. My inheritance. My influence.”
My hands trembled.
“Why did you let me believe you were gone?”
Her face broke.
“Because I had no choice.”
The woman I married.
The woman everyone called my mistake.
The woman everyone thought had taken advantage of me.
Was standing in front of me with the truth of my entire childhood.
And suddenly I realized something much worse.
The people who had warned me about Eleanor…
The people who told me she would destroy my life…
Had no idea she was the only person who had ever tried to save it.
But I still had one question.
The question that would reveal the darkest secret my family had hidden for more than twenty years.
“Why did you come
