Chapter 3
I spent the next hour chasing Diane through the hotel.
Ethan followed, yelling her name, but she didn’t stop. She ducked into the women’s bathroom and locked the door. I pounded on it so hard my knuckles turned white.
“Open up, Diane!”
“Go away!” she screamed from inside. “This is none of your business!”
“You slapped a child! You lied about your necklace! You ruined my wedding! Of course it’s my business!”
The lock clicked.
Diane stood in the doorway, her eyes red, her perfect hair falling out of its updo. She looked nothing like the polished, put-together woman I’d known for three years. She looked desperate.
“I didn’t mean to hit her that hard,” she whispered. “I was angry. I saw that photo in her hand, and I… I panicked.”
I froze.
“You knew who she was,” I said slowly. “Before my dad asked. You recognized her. Or at least you recognized the photo.”
Diane said nothing. She just stared at the floor.
“Ethan,” I said, not taking my eyes off her. “Call the police. Your mother just admitted she assaulted a child and filed a false police report about a stolen necklace.”
Diane’s head snapped up.
“You wouldn’t dare.”
“Try me.”
Ethan hesitated. He looked at his mother, then at me. For a second I thought he’d choose her. He always had before.
“Mom,” he said, his voice tired. “Tell her the truth. What are you hiding?”
Diane let out a bitter laugh.
“You want the truth? Fine. Twenty-two years ago, your father—your perfect, saintly father—was engaged to my best friend. Eleanor Voss. Then he met Margaret at a charity gala, dumped Eleanor two weeks before the wedding, and married her six months later. Eleanor was pregnant when he left her. She had the baby alone. Named her Clara.”
My breath caught.
“You knew,” I said. “All this time. You knew Clara existed. You knew my dad had a daughter he never knew about.”
“I knew Eleanor was pregnant,” Diane corrected. “I didn’t know the baby lived. Eleanor told everyone she’d lost the baby in a car crash three months after Robert left. I believed her. We all did. Until tonight.”
“Why didn’t you tell my dad?”
“Because he didn’t deserve to know!” Diane shouted. “He broke Eleanor’s heart! He left her with nothing! And then he got to live this perfect life with Margaret, with you, with all his money and his fancy houses and his perfect little family? Why should he get to be happy when Eleanor was working three jobs just to keep a roof over her baby’s head?”
“So you let him think Clara was dead for twenty-two years?” Ethan said, horrified.
“I did Eleanor a favor,” Diane snapped. “She didn’t want anything from Robert. She told me that a hundred times. She said she’d rather die than let him know he had a daughter. I was respecting her wishes.”
“Some favor,” I said. “Now Clara’s dying of leukemia, she can’t find a bone marrow match, and the only person who might be able to save her is the father Diane spent twenty-two years hiding from her.”
Diane flinched like I’d slapped her.
“I didn’t know she was sick,” she said quietly. “I swear to God, I didn’t know.”
The bathroom door creaked open behind us.
My father was standing there, holding Lila’s hand. Lila’s eyes were puffy, but she was no longer crying. Robert’s face was stone.
“I heard every word,” he said.
Diane went white.
“Robert, I can explain—”
“Explain what?” he said, his voice low and dangerous. “That you knew I had a daughter for twenty-two years and you never told me? That you let me grieve Eleanor and our baby when they were alive the whole time? That you slapped my granddaughter across the face tonight because you were scared I’d find out the truth?”
Lila peeked out from behind Robert’s leg.
“You hit me because you didn’t want me to find my grandpa,” she said, her voice small but clear.
Diane burst into tears.
“I’m sorry,” she sobbed. “I’m so sorry, Lila. I didn’t know. I didn’t know who you were. I was just… I was scared everything would change.”
“Everything has changed,” Robert said. “And it’s all your fault.”
He turned to Ethan.
“Get her out of my sight. If I ever see her within a hundred feet of Lila or Clara again, I’ll press every charge I can think of. Assault. Defamation. Fraud. Whatever it takes. She’ll rot in jail before she hurts my family again.”
Ethan nodded, his face ashen. He took his mother’s arm and led her away. She didn’t fight. She just kept crying, over and over, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”
Robert knelt down in front of Lila.
“Come on, sweetheart,” he said, his voice softening completely. “We’re going to the hospital. We’re going to see your mom.”
Lila took his hand.
“Will you help her?” she asked.
“I will do everything in my power,” Robert said. “I promise you. I’ve wasted twenty-two years. I’m not wasting another second.”
I followed them out of the bathroom, my head spinning. My wedding was over. My family was falling apart. And somewhere in a hospital bed ten minutes away, a woman I’d never heard of was fighting for her life—all because of a secret Diane had kept for more than two decades.
I pulled out my phone and called my mom.
It went straight to voicemail.
I tried again. Same thing.
A cold feeling washed over me. Margaret had left the reception an hour ago. She’d had plenty of time to get home. But what if she hadn’t gone home? What if she’d heard enough of Diane’s rant to know the truth about Robert and Eleanor? What if she’d done something stupid?
I texted her.
Call me. Please. I’m scared.
Five seconds later, my phone rang.
It wasn’t Margaret.
It was the hospital.
“Is this Ava Hale?” the nurse on the other end asked.
May you like
“Yes. What’s wrong?”
“Your mother, Margaret Hale, was just brought in by ambulance. She was in a car accident on Lake Shore Drive. She’s in critical condition.”
