My father believed her.
Claire didn’t.
Then Claire confronted Peter Hale.
And Peter laughed.
Not cruelly.
In astonishment.
Because Peter knew something nobody else did.
Peter Hale had been adopted.
Years earlier, he’d discovered the identity of his biological father.
That man had another son.
My mother’s former boyfriend.
My biological father.
The genetic link to Peter was real.
But the conclusion Claire drew from it was wrong.
My mother had not betrayed my father during their marriage.
She had become pregnant shortly before they met.
My father knew from the beginning.
He married her anyway.
He raised me as his daughter because to him, I was.
I cried so hard I could barely read the next paragraph.
Claire had left because she was ashamed.
Not because Harlow chased her away.
Not because she feared for her life.
She had hurt people she loved, become tangled in a corporate dispute she couldn’t prove, and decided distance was easier than repair.
