The CEO's Regret: His Lost Wife's Secret Twins novel Chapter 113

Chapter 113

EMMA

“You should have thought about that before, Richard said.

“Before what?” I cried. “Before being switched at birth? Before being raised as your daughter? What exactly was I supposed to do

differently?”

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“You could have told the truth ten years ago,” Elaine said. “When you first found out about the accident. About Aaron. About everything.”

“I was scared!” I protested. “I was young and scared and didn’t know what to do!”

“You were old enough to make choices,” Richard countered. “Old enough to decide that your comfort was more important than justice.

More important than Aria’s life.”

I crawled toward them on my knees, desperate. “I’ll make it right. I’ll do whatever you want. Just please, please don’t abandon me. I’ve been your daughter for twenty-three years. That has to count for something.”

“It did count,” Richard said. “It counted for every dollar we spent on you. Every opportunity we gave you. Every door we opened. You’ve

been well compensated.”

“Compensated?” The word was like a slap. “You’re saying you paid me to be your daughter?”

“Isn’t that what it was?” Elaine asked. “A transaction? We gave you the Grant name, the Grant wealth, the Grant status. And in return, you gave us… what? Lies? Manipulation? The destruction of our real daughter?”

“I loved you!” I sobbed. “I really did! I wasn’t acting!”

“Love doesn’t hide the truth, Richard said. “Love doesn’t let innocent people suffer. Love doesn’t build itself on someone else’s misery.”

I couldn’t breathe. The room was spinning. “Where am I supposed to go? What am I supposed to do?”

“That’s for you to figure out,” Elaine said, standing. “We’re leaving for Europe in three days. This house will be closed. All the staff have been let go except for essential security.”

“You’re leaving the country?” Panic hit me. ‘You can’t leave me alone!”

“We’re leaving New York, Richard said. “What you do is your business.”

I grabbed Elaine’s leg, past caring about pride. “Mom, please. I’m begging you. I’ve lost so much today-

She pulled away, looking down at me with pity. Or disgust.

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Chapter 113

“You lost everything when you chose lies over truth,” she said.

:

“But Aria’s dead!” I screamed. “She fell off that cliff! Why are you punishing me for something that can’t be changed?”

Silence.

Richard and Elaine exchanged a look.

“Only one person fell from that cliff and got eaten by fish.”

Her tone made my blood run cold. There was something knowing in her voice that terrified me.

But before I could ask what she meant, they turned and walked away, leaving me kneeling on the floor in my ruined dress, completely and

utterly alone.

I stayed there for a long time after they left, shivering in my wet clothes, my makeup running, my hair dripping muddy water onto the pristine marble. The grand foyer that had been my home for twenty-three years suddenly felt like a tomb.

I had nothing left. No Blake. No family. No home.

I pulled myself to my feet, my legs shaking.

RICHARD

I watched Emma stumble out the door, her face pale with shock. My own daughter-no, Christine’s daughter-a stranger who’d lived in my house for twenty-three years. I’d thrown her out without hesitation. She wasn’t my blood.

No wonder Emma never felt like ours. All those years, I’d sensed something was off. But Aria had always felt different. Familiar. The intelligence in her eyes, her determination-blood calling to blood. She was ours. She’d always been ours.

The blue sapphire pendant started it all. Aria’s pendant was identical to the one I’d given Elaine twenty-three years ago, Too perfect to be

coincidence.

“Elaine,” I said, entering our bedroom. She sat brushing her hair. “Do you still have that sapphire pendant I gave you before Emma was

born?’

She looked surprised. “Of course. Why?’

“Show me.”

Elaine opened her jewelry box and pulled out the pendant. It caught the light, throwing blue reflections across the room.

“The engraving?” I asked.

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Chapter 113

She turned it over. “My Wife Health, Joy, Peace.”

Identical to Aria’s, except hers was smaller. Like a child’s version. My heart hammered.

Tell me about Emma’s birth again, I said. “The early delivery.”

Elaine’s face softened. “Why now?”

*Please.”

She sighed. “Perfect pregnancy until the end. Then I fell in the greenhouse while you were away. Went into labor two weeks early.”

“What happened exactly?”

“I was looking at the orchids. Got dizzy and fell. No one heard me scream. She trembled. “The doctors said we were lucky to survive.”

After she fell asleep, I called my assistant.

“Find every nurse who worked NICU at New York Central in June 2002. Night shift.”

Weeks later, we found Patricia Winters. Former nurse who’d quit suddenly after Emma’s birth.

“You worked NICU twenty-three years ago,” I said when my security team brought her in.

Her eyes darted around. “I thought you were debt collectors.”

I showed her documents. “We know what happened.”

Her face went white. ‘You found out?”

“Tell us everything.”

She collapsed into her chair. ‘I needed money. Christine offered fifty thousand to switch two babies.”

“Christine Taylor? Our housekeeper?” Elaine’s voice cracked.

Patricia nodded. ‘She wanted her daughter to have wealth, status. Everything the Grant name could provide.”

“There’s more. The greenhouse fall wasn’t an accident. Christine tampered with the stones. She wanted you both dead.”

Elaine gasped.

“When that failed, she came to the hospital. Your baby was in NICU. Christine brought her daughter, born two days earlier.”

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“And you switched them.”

“Yes. Mrs. Grant had put a pendant in her daughter’s bassinet. After the switch, Christine wanted me to transfer it to her baby-the one

you’d take home. But you came early, so I couldn’t. I had to give it back to Christine.”

“She tried to kill me, then stole my daughter, Elaine whispered.

“She planned everything. Said her daughter deserved better than poverty.”

“Aria is my daughter, Elaine said, tears streaming.

The truth crashed over me. Emma wasn’t ours. Aria was our flesh and blood.

Twenty-three years of lies. Christine had been in our home, watching her scheme succeed.

I pulled out my phone, then saw dozens of missed messages. One made my blood freeze.

“What is it?” Elaine asked.

“Aaron is dead. Drowned three days ago. The funeral was yesterday.”

Elaine covered her mouth.

“Aria handled everything alone.”

Our daughter had buried the only father she’d ever known. I had to find her.

I drove to Blake’s house. Empty. I called everyone. Nothing.

“The police just called. Miss Taylor’s car was found wrecked on Route 27!”

I didn’t wait. I floored the accelerator.

When I arrived, I saw them. Aria stood at the cliff’s edge, Christine gripping her arm. The wind whipped their hair.

Aria fell.

My world stopped. Elaine screamed beside me. We ran to the edge, looked down at the dark water below.

Our daughter. Gone.

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