Chapter 2 - THE SECRETS WE KEEP
The entire mansion seemed to hold its breath.
Julian gently pulled his two crying daughters into his arms, kissing the tops of their heads.
“Go to your beds, my sweet angels,” Julian whispered softly to the girls.
“Papa needs to speak with the nanny for a moment.”
The girls hesitated, looking back at the crying woman on the floor.
“You won't let the bad lady make her leave, will you, Papa?” the older girl pleaded.
Julian’s eyes hardened as he glanced quickly at Victoria.
“No one is ever making her leave this house again,” Julian promised fiercely.
Once the girls were safely tucked under their covers, Julian stood up and locked the nursery door.
He turned to face Clara, who was still kneeling on the floor, shivering uncontrollably.
“They told me you burned in the wreckage of that car four years ago,” Julian said, his voice breaking.
“I buried a closed casket because they said there was nothing left to see.”
Clara wrapped her arms around her own waist, looking down at the terrible scar on her collarbone.
“I was thrown from the vehicle right before it exploded, Julian.”
“I woke up in a private, underground clinic with no memory of who I was or where I came from.”
“Someone had paid the doctors to keep me heavily sedated and locked away from the world.”
Julian’s blood instantly ran colder than ice.
“Who would do such a horrific thing?” he demanded, his hands curling into tight fists.
Clara slowly lifted her tear-stained face and pointed a shaking finger directly at Victoria.
Victoria’s face turned the color of pale chalk.
“She is a liar!” Victoria screamed, stepping backward toward the locked door.
“She is a psychotic imposter trying to steal my future husband and my fortune!”
May you like
Julian did not blink, his lethal gaze completely fixed on the woman in the red dress.
The dark, twisted puzzle of the last four years was finally clicking into place.
