Chapter 2 - THE SECRET INSIDE THE VALE ESTATE
Three days before the gala, I had already realized something was wrong.
The Vale estate was usually quiet.
Beautiful.
Almost peaceful.
But that week, the silence felt different.
Like everyone was hiding something.
My name was Emma Carter.
For two years, I had worked as a personal assistant and housekeeper at the Vale estate.
I never expected to fall in love with Adrian Vale.
A billionaire.
The man everyone admired.
The man who treated employees like human beings.
The man who remembered birthdays and asked workers about their families.
He was different from the rest of his world.
At least, that was what I believed.
Until his mother found out about us.
The day Beatrice discovered I was pregnant, she came into my room without knocking.
She placed a folder on my bed.
Then she looked at me.
“You will leave.”
I stared at her.
“What?”
“You heard me.”
I looked at the folder.
“What is this?”
“A resignation agreement.”
I slowly opened it.
A payment offer.
Enough money to disappear.
Enough money to never contact Adrian again.
My hands shook.
“You’re asking me to sell my child?”
Her expression didn’t change.
“I’m asking you to be realistic.”
“He is the father.”
“He is a Vale.”
The way she said it made my stomach turn.
Like the family name mattered more than the baby inside me.
“He will choose his family.”
I looked at her.
“I am his family.”
That was the first time I saw hatred in her eyes.
“You really believe that?”
She laughed softly.
“You think a man like Adrian stays with women like you?”
Those words stayed with me.
Because they weren’t just cruel.
They were meant to break me.
But I didn’t leave.
I stayed.
Because Adrian deserved the truth.
And because my baby deserved a father who knew they existed.
After the gala incident, Adrian took me to a private room inside the estate.
A room where nobody could hear us.
He closed the door.
Then looked at me.
“I’m sorry.”
Two words.
Simple.
But they almost broke me.
Because I had spent weeks pretending I was strong.
And hearing him apologize made all the pain come back.
“I should have seen it.”
I looked away.
“Adrian…”
“No.”
He stepped closer.
“I should have protected you.”
My eyes filled with tears.
“You didn’t know.”
“I should have.”
The silence between us was heavy.
Then he noticed something.
The folder on the table.
The one Beatrice had given me.
“What is that?”
I froze.
I didn’t want to tell him.
Because I knew it would change everything.
But I handed it over.
He opened it.
His face changed with every page.
A payment agreement.
A confidentiality contract.
A demand that I leave the estate immediately.
His hands tightened.
“She tried to buy you.”
I nodded.
“She wanted me gone.”
Adrian looked up.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
I looked at him.
“Because every time I tried, she found a way to make me feel like I was destroying your life.”
His expression became painful.
Then his phone rang.
He looked at the screen.
It was his lawyer.
He answered.
“Daniel?”
A pause.
Then his face changed.
“What do you mean missing?”
My heart dropped.
Adrian listened silently.
Then he looked at me.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
His voice became quiet.
“The pregnancy records from the family medical file…”
He stopped.
“What about them?”
“They were deleted.”
I felt cold.
“What?”
Daniel continued speaking through the phone.
“Someone accessed the system two weeks ago.”
Adrian slowly lowered the phone.
“And the person who deleted them…”
He looked toward the door.
Toward his mother’s wing of the estate.
“Had my mother’s security code.”
My breath caught.
Beatrice wasn’t just trying to embarrass me.
She wasn’t just trying to remove me.
She was trying to erase proof that my baby existed.
May you like
And then Adrian said something that terrified me.
“She knew about the baby before I did.”
