My Birth Parents and Husband Chose the Adopted Daughter, So I Vanished Chapter 09

My Birth Parents and Husband Chose the Adopted Daughter, So I Vanished Chapter 09

Six months had passed, and I thought I had finally found peace.

But hearing those words again still made my body go cold before I could stop it.

I pushed Adrian away.

“So what? Now you know you were wrong, and I’m meant to be grateful? I’m meant to forgive you for lying to me, betraying me and letting people humiliate me, then go back to how things were?”

Adrian’s face went deathly pale.

But I wasn’t finished.

“Do you have any idea what those years were like? Every time I closed my eyes, I was back in that

kidnapping. I thought I’d been assaulted. I thought the baby I was carrying wasn’t yours.”

“I kept wondering whether I really was too sensitive too common, too unworthy of your world.

Every one of you kept telling me Serena understood the rules, that she was the proper Carter

daughter.”

“She was the one worthy of standing beside a Don. And me? I was just the woman who’d come out

of foster care, the one whose past made all of you ashamed.”

My voice started to shake.

“I was in intensive care eleven times. My body was ruined, and my mind nearly went with it. Now I’ve finally got a new family, what gives you the right to come after me again?”

Adrian’s eyes were bloodshot.

I stared at him coldly.

“I have a family who truly care about me now. I’m not unwanted. And you think saying sorry wipes all of that away? Have you lost your minds?”

Adrian finally dropped to his knees.

The Don who had once made the entire New York underworld fear his name was kneeling in front

of me.

“Evelyn, I’m sorry. I was a complete bastard. I know I’ve no right to ask you for anything.”

“But give me one more chance and I’ll hand you everything the Moretti Family has. No one will ever

look down on you for where you came from again.”

I almost laughed.

“Adrian, you still don’t get it. I don’t need the Morett Family, and I don’t need you to decide whether

I’m good enough. I was never beneath any of you. You’re the ones who had to use my past to make yourselves feel superior.”

His lips lost all colour.

I continued.

“How many promises did you make me? Every time you swore you’d never hurt me again. Then Serena cried, and you still chose her. So get off your knees. Don’t hurt yourself to prove anything, and don’t try to win me back by offering me the title of Don. I don’t want any of it.”

Then I turned to Richard and Margaret.

“The same goes for you. Don’t pretend Serena fooled you. She didn’t. You knew exactly what you

were doing.”

“You thought Serena was more respectable because she grew up in the Carter family. She was polished, just like you. Whoever fit the Carter image best was the daughter you truly wanted.”

“When I came back from foster care, you never really welcomed me. You only took me in because I was your blood and you felt you had to.”

My father shook his head.

“That’s not true.”

My mother reached for my hand through her tears.

“Evelyn, Mum does love you. Please, give us another chance.”

Then a voice came from behind me.

“Who are you lot, and why are you blocking my daughter’s doorway?”

Irene had returned carrying bags of groceries.

Thomas stood right behind her.

The second Irene saw my reddened eyes, her expression hardened.

She stepped directly in front of me.

“Please leave. She doesn’t want to see you.”

Margaret stared at her without speaking.

Maybe that was the first moment she truly understood.

already had a mother.

A mother who didn’t make me prove I was worthy of being her daughter first.

A mother who wasn’t ashamed of my past.

A mother who would never ask me to give my place away to someone else.

Just then, another car pulled up at the kerb.

Noah Reed walked towards us.

He was the legal adviser to a counselling centre, someone I’d met after coming to this world. He

was also my fiancé.

He stopped beside me and glanced at Adrian.

“Evelyn’s already said no. I respect her decision. Now leave.”

Adrian visibly froze.

“Who’s he?”

I took Noah’s hand and held it tightly.

“My fiancé. We’re getting married at the end of the year. Now, will you leave?”

Adrian’s entire body went rigid.

I looked straight at him and made one final thing clear.

“And one more thing. Don’t try to ruin the life I’ve built. I kept backing down because I loved you. I don’t anymore.”

“I don’t care whether you’re the Don of the Moretti Family or the most powerful man in New York.

None of it means a thing to me now. Touch my family, and I’ll expose everything you’ve done all

over again.”

“And this time, I won’t stop at anonymous forums of the Family’s internal channels. I’ll make sure

the whole world knows.”

Adrian lowered his head.

In the end, he didn’t try to change my mind again.

Richard and Margaret said nothing either.

All three of them eventually left in silence.

That night, I told Thomas, Irene, and Noah everything about my past.

None of them asked why I hadn’t fought back sooner.

None of them asked why I’d ever loved someone like Adrian.

Irene simply wrapped her arms around me.

“You never have to go back there again.”

A few months later, Noah and I got married.

When the ceremony ended, the System appeared again.

[Host. That world has begun to collapse. After you left, Adrian spent months refusing to carry out his duties as Don. The Moretti Family fractured completely from within.]

[Because he is that world’s central figure, its timeline has lost stability. The system governing space and time has begun reclaiming it. Those people and that world will disappear soon.]

I listened quietly.

I didn’t look back.

Noah handed me a glass of champagne.

Thomas and Irene were sitting not far away, smiling as they raised their glasses to me.

Sunlight streamed through the floor–to–ceiling windows.

I lifted my glass too, toasting everyone who truly wished me well.

That Chapter of my life, the one tied to New York, the Moretti Family, the Carters, and Serena, was

finally over.

And my real life was only just beginning.