Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN WHO CAME BACKI moved Lena and Rebecca into a secure guesthouse.
Sammy thought it was a vacation.
He spent the first afternoon racing toy cars across the hallway.
For the first time in years, my mansion sounded alive.
Lena noticed it too.
“You smile more around him.”
“Sammy?”
“Children.”
I looked at her.
“You make me smile too.”
She looked away.
We didn't rush anything.
That mattered.
Our first love had been built on teenage promises.
This time, we needed something stronger.
Trust.
One evening, Lena found me in the library.
“You're avoiding physical therapy.”
I sighed.
“I had a bad day.”
“You've had six months of bad days.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Come on.”
“I can't.”
“You can.”
“I hate when people tell me that.”
“Then stop giving people reasons.”
She moved behind my wheelchair.
“Ready?”
“For what?”
“To try.”
She helped me transfer onto the parallel bars.
My legs trembled.
Pain shot through my back.
I almost collapsed.
Lena caught me.
“Easy.”
“I can't.”
“Yes, you can.”
I stared at her.
“You sound exactly like you did at seventeen.”
“And you were stubborn then too.”
I tried again.
One step.
Then another.
My knees shook.
But I stayed upright.
Lena's eyes filled with tears.
“You did it.”
I laughed.
“I took two steps.”
“They were the best two steps I've seen all year.”
That night, something changed between us.
Not because I could walk.
Because I had started believing I might.
Then the medical investigation produced a shocking result.
My accident hadn't been random.
Someone had tampered with my brakes.
The mechanic found evidence of deliberate interference.
Marcus had access to my vehicles.
But there was another name in the report.
Daniel Price.
My former chief financial officer.
A man I had trusted for twelve years.
We confronted him.
He confessed.
Marcus had been paying him to manipulate company records.
But Daniel revealed something worse.
“There was a second reason.”
“What?”
“Your father left a trust.”
I froze.
“What trust?”
“An inheritance.”
“How much?”
“Enough to bankrupt Marcus if you expose him.”
I looked at Lena.
She understood immediately.
The trust had been hidden because my father knew Marcus would destroy anyone who tried to claim it.
Daniel handed me a file.
Inside was a photograph.
My father.
Thomas Hart.
And Marcus.
Standing together.
On the back was written:
The truth belongs to both families.
I looked at Lena.
For twenty years, we had believed our families were enemies.
They weren't.
May you like
They had been allies against one man.
And Marcus had spent decades making sure we never discovered it.
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