When I got back to the mansion, Mom was in the kitchen, scrolling through recipe videos on her phone.
Years earlier, Dad had been in a highway crash while scouting projects out of state for the company.
He'd broken his leg badly. The surgery was successful, but his leg still ached every time the weather turned cold or rainy.
Mom doted on him. Over the years, she tracked down top specialists and physical therapists, then got certified in myofascial release and sports rehab herself—all so she could help him manage the pain at home, no strangers needed.
It had been almost 10 years since the accident.
My little brother, Teddy, was born last year.
But today, I was about to shatter the lie Dad had built our whole lives around.
My throat tightened so bad it hurt to swallow. I walked up behind her.
She was in her early 40s. She'd had Teddy not long before, so her figure hadn't fully bounced back.
But her skin was soft and glowing. She'd always been well cared for, sheltered from every hard thing in the world.
But her hands—that never should have known hard work—had thin calluses across the knuckles, slight deformities in her fingers, and faint bruises up her forearms.
These were all from practicing massage techniques on herself, over and over, in the home rehab studio she'd had built just for Dad.
Tears spilled down my cheeks before I could stop them.
Mom turned around at the sound. She set down her spoon, grabbed a napkin, and dabbed my face with a soft smile.
"What's wrong, honey? Did the cooking smoke get in your eyes?"
She called the housekeeper to help her cook, then led me into the living room.
She was bright and excited as she told me about her new massage technique, her voice warm.
"I've just learned this new method—it's gentler than the last one. When your dad gets back from his business trip, I can try it on him—"
"Don't bother!"
My voice came out sharper than I meant it to, cutting her off like a knife.
She stared at me, stunned. My lashes trembled so hard I could barely see.
My throat felt stuffed full of cotton, and I forced the words out through gritted teeth.
"Mom... Dad had another woman before he married you. Her name is Ava Carlisle.
"She lives in that Westside estate. They have a son. That boy... he's four months older than me."
All the color drained from Mom's face in an instant. I felt as if I couldn't breathe.
My fingers shook so bad I almost dropped my phone when unlocking it.
I pulled up photos of the brooch from the consignment shop, then opened the first batch of files Grandpa's assistant had just sent over.
My hand trembled as I scrolled through bank records and hotel receipts.
I laced my fingers through Mom's cold ones.
"Ava and Dad were college classmates. They started dating their sophomore year. When Grandpa was looking for a husband for you, he met Dad at a campus recruitment event.
"He thought he was an honest, hardworking man, so he arranged for you two to meet and offered him a place if he married into the Haleworth name. To climb the ladder, Dad turned Ava into his secret mistress."
My voice was low and measured; every word landed like a weight. I was scared she'd collapse.
"When you were first pregnant with me, he said the company was prepping for its IPO, and he had to travel nonstop. But he was with Ava.
"She had terrible morning sickness, and he cooked for her every day. Right under your nose, he siphoned money from a regional subsidiary to buy her that Westside mansion."
I paused, but I didn't stop. I couldn't stop now.
"When you couldn't keep anything down and were so dehydrated that you had to go to the hospital, he was in that house, taking care of her while picking a name for their son.
"When you couldn't sleep through the night in your third trimester, he was pacing outside a private hospital delivery room, waiting for her to have a C-section."
I wiped the tears off Mom's face, my voice thick with anger and heartbreak.
"Mom, it was all a lie from the start. I have everything—their text messages, bank transfers, hotel records. All of it. Every last detail."
Mom pulled me into her arms. Her lips moved slightly, like she was talking to herself, like she couldn't believe it.
"Almost 20 years of marriage. He's always been so kind and gentle. We have you and Teddy... How could he...?"
I bit back a sob, wiping the tears off her jaw. I had one more bomb to drop.
"Mom, do you remember when I was in second grade? That man tried to grab me outside school?"
She nodded slowly, her red eyes filling with the memory.
"Of course, I do. Your dad was there to pick you up that day—he rarely got the chance. He said he stepped into a convenience store for a pack of gum, and when he came back, you were gone.
"He ran the whole length of the street, chased the man down, and tackled him. He held you and cried and said if anything happened to you, he wouldn't want to live either."
Her voice cracked. "After that, he donated a whole new security system to the school in his name. Said he never wanted you to go through something like that again. I thought then... that man loved you more than anything in the world."
I felt ice-cold in my chest. I laid out the truth, slow and steady.
"What if I told you Dad had hired that man to grab me?"
Mom went still.
"He needed a way to get his son into our family legally. If I'd been a boy, he would have swapped us at birth. But I was a girl... so he planned to make me disappear in an 'accident'."
I closed my eyes for a second, pushing past the sharp, stabbing pain in my chest.
"A police car was patrolling the area that day. That's the only reason it didn't work."
"What?"
Mom pulled back, her eyes wide with raw, unfiltered horror.
"But all these years... he's been so good to you, to Teddy..."
"It was all for show." My voice was flat, hollow. "The only person he ever cared about was Ava and their son. Eddie is the only heir he ever recognized."
After I said it, Mom held me tighter. Her voice went sharp and unshakable.
The soft wife was gone. In her place was the Haleworth heiress.
"Sebastian Haleworth. How dare he!"
She listed them off, one by one, like she was reading charges.
"Lying about being single to trick me into marriage. Embezzling from the company. Hiring someone to abduct his own daughter..."
Her tone was ice.
"I suppose I've been too soft all these years. He has forgotten where he came from. He's forgotten everything he owns came from my family."
I buried my face in her shoulder, tears soaking her sweater. I hated him for his lies, for trapping Mom in a fake marriage for 20 years, and for humiliating her.
I hated that I never had a real father. I hated that he saw his own daughter as nothing but an obstacle to get rid of.
After a while, the crying faded. That was when the housekeeper knocked softly on the living room door.
"Madam? Mr. Haleworth's secretary called. He has an executive strategy seminar tomorrow morning. He asked if you could take Serena and Teddy to the Cabo villa first. He'll wrap up his project and fly out that night to meet you."
Mom and I exchanged a look.
Once, she would have believed him without a second thought.
He was so careful, so calculated. How many times had he used "business trips" and "meetings" as an excuse to see Ava?
This time, he was trying to send us away so he could spend Christmas Eve with his little family.
Not a chance.
I couldn't wait to crash their perfect little Christmas dinner.
Aksara