After Five Years of Lies, I Left the Family and Made Them Regret It Chapter 04

After Five Years of Lies, I Left the Family and Made Them Regret It Chapter 04

“He only thinks badly of you because I always had to hide whenever I came back to New York.”

Adrian immediately stepped in front of her.

“If you’ve got something to say, say it to me. Don’t scare him.”

Without hesitation, he moved Serena and Noah behind him.

Five years ago, after the crash, he had protected me the same way while I lay injured and bleeding.

Back then, he had sworn that no matter what it cost, he would make the person who hurt me pay.

Now, the reckoning he had once promised me had long since been abandoned, and he was standing on the side of the person who had hurt me.

I looked at him. “Did Serena really spend five years at Bedford Hills?”

Adrian said nothing.

Dad answered impatiently instead.

“No, she didn’t spend all five years in prison. We sent her to Canada. She couldn’t return to New York openly or attend family meetings. In what way was that not a punishment? She’s my own daughter. Would you only have been happy if prison had ruined the rest of her life?”

I stared at him.

“But she had all of you in Montreal. She had Adrian and she had Noah. Who did I have when I went through three operations at the Hospital for Special Surgery?”

The hallway fell silent.

Mum’s eyes reddened again.

“Why is it always your suffering you remember? Serena was pregnant with a Moretti child and alone in Canada. Do you think that was easy? We only went over now and again to make sure she was all right.”

Now and then.

They had appeared in every video from Noah’s birth until his fourth birthday.

But through my three surgeries and countless rehabilitation sessions, not one of them had shown up even once.

I lowered my head and asked, “Why did you give him the name we’d chosen for our baby?”

Adrian frowned.

“It’s a name, Evelyn. Our baby is gone. Are you saying no one else is ever allowed to use it?”

My body swayed.

So, in his eyes, our child was dead. The name, the silver baby bracelet, even Adrian’s place as a father could all simply be given to another child.

I was the only one still holding on to the past.

Our argument frightened Noah, and he burst into tears.

Adrian picked him up at once.

My parents immediately moved to Serena and Noah’s side, shielding them protectively.

And I stood alone opposite all of them, my left leg still damaged from what Serena had done to me five years ago.

Not one person came towards me.

Mum looked at me with disappointment.

“Serena’s only just come home, and it’s Noah’s birthday. Do you really have to start all this today?”

Dad’s voice turned cold.

“Don’t forget who took you out of foster care. We gave you our name and a place in this world. You don’t have a drop of Bennett blood, yet you think you can speak to the family heir like that?”

Even Adrian joined in.

“Evelyn, I stayed married to you. That was me doing my duty. You know the Morettis were never going to accept this marriage easily, not with your background. You lost the baby, but you can’t expect the rest of us to stay frozen in that moment forever.”

Suddenly, I felt exhausted.

Too exhausted even to argue.

“What if I can’t live with it?”

Mum’s expression turned completely cold.

“Then go. But think very carefully before you do. If you walk out of this hotel today, don’t ever set foot in a Bennett home again. And don’t call us Mum and Dad.”

Adrian’s voice was just as cold.

“Walk out now and I won’t come after you. Come back when you’ve remembered where you stand.”

They all looked at me.

They were certain I had no other family to turn to. They were certain that a woman with no place in the Bennett bloodline, no standing of her own, and a badly injured leg would never dare walk away from the life they had arranged for her.

I nodded once.

“All right.”

No one tried to stop me.

Mum turned away to comfort Serena.

Dad crouched down to pick up Noah’s birthday hat from the floor.

Adrian carried the boy back into the ballroom without even looking at me again.

The door closed in front of me.