“Home.”
“You found her.”
It wasn’t a question.
I looked at Lily.
“Yes.”
Ryan went silent.
Then he whispered,
“Please.”
“Please what?”
“Don’t destroy my life.”
I laughed bitterly.
“You destroyed your own life six years ago.”
“I never meant for this to happen.”
“You paid Maren.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“You stole my daughter.”
“I thought—”
“You thought I would never find out.”
Silence.
Then I heard Maren’s voice in the background.
“Ryan, hang up.”
My entire body went still.
“You’re with her.”
Ryan said nothing.
I ended the call.
Then I looked at Victoria.
“Find them.”
She nodded.
“We already have.”
Police were waiting at the private clinic.
Maren was arrested before she could leave.
Ryan surrendered two hours later.
And the truth finally came out.
Maren had planned the entire scheme.
She had convinced Ryan that if he helped hide Lily, he could eventually control the inheritance.
Ryan agreed.
Tessa arranged the fake records.
The private trust was created using forged signatures.
And Patricia?
She had known enough to help them cover it up.
She hadn’t come to my mansion because she believed it belonged to Ryan.
She came because she believed that after the divorce, I would be too exhausted and emotionally broken to fight back.
She was wrong.
Three weeks later, the court restored Lily’s legal identity.
Her inheritance was placed under an independent court-supervised trust.
The woman who raised her was allowed to remain in her life.
And I became Lily’s mother again.
Slowly.
Carefully.
One day at a time.
I didn’t try to erase the six years she had spent with someone else.
I didn’t want to.
Those years were part of her story.
I only wanted to give her the years she still had left with me.
As for the Montgomerys, their lives changed completely.
Ryan faced criminal charges.
Maren was sentenced for fraud and kidnapping.
