The Rescue That Was Never A Rescue Chapter 02

The Rescue That Was Never A Rescue Chapter 02

Laughter spilled from my lips, but the harder I laughed, the more tears streamed down my face.

A flicker of panic crossed Landon’s eyes, quickly smoothed over into calm detachment.

“Laurel, you’re talking nonsense. I simply spilled the soup by accident.” He sighed, sounding weary and long-suffering. “I know you’ve endured so much unfairness, but you can’t take it out on me.”

He stepped closer and brushed the tears off my cheek with his warm thumb. “Be reasonable. Stop making a scene, and I’ll take you home.”

I tilted my face away from his touch.

My fingers closed around the necklace I’d worn against my skin, day and night Hanging at its end was a starstone pendant.

The second his gaze landed on that stone, Landon’s smile froze.

“You gave me your word. Before God, you swore you’d never lie to me.”

My knuckles whitened around the chain. Through the starstone, I held his gaze.

The Reeds hadn’t found me by the time I turned eighteen.

I’d been gathering herbs in the mountains when a storm struck without warning.

Taking shelter, I found Landon, lost and badly hurt with a broken leg.

I carried him ten miles down the mountain on my back, staggering all the way to a hunter’s cabin.

For three days and nights, I nursed him without rest.

When he regained consciousness, his voice hoarse, he asked for my name. Then he handed me this starstone.

Beneath the sweep of his hair, his eyes blazed bright, as if he’d trapped every star from the night sky inside them.

“Laurel, let God bear witness.” His voice was quiet, yet every word carried weight. “Once I settle my affairs back home, I’ll come for you. I, Landon Nash, will never lie to you for as long as I live.”

That promise had been the single ray of light cutting through my bleak teenage years.

Later, after the Reeds brought me home, I learned my fiancé was none other than him.

Secretly, I’d thought fate had kept that old vow.

But faith cannot sustain a hollow heart, and promises only endure as long as passion does.

My throat tightened with sobs, tears dripping onto my burned hand.

“Landon, that camera in your tie clip—you wore it for Waverly, didn’t you?”

“Watching me humiliate myself just to entertain you… did you enjoy every second of it?”

Landon flinched as if my tears had burned him. Conflict flickered across his face.

It vanished fast, replaced by icy indifference.

“So you found that online thread.”

His usual gentle demeanor slipped away completely, leaving only cold cruelty.

“Yes. I filmed all of it for Waverly.”

He stepped toward me, his slender fingers gripping my jaw like a vise. He forced my head back to meet his eyes.

“And it wasn’t only her. Your own parents put me up to it.”

My whole body went rigid. I stared at him in stunned silence.

Deep down, I’d suspected the truth all along.

The Reeds had never searched desperately for their long-lost daughter out of longing.

Six months ago, Mr. Reed suffered a catastrophic hemorrhage. A blood transfusion compatibility test exposed the hospital mix-up from twenty years prior.

They tracked me down while I was working night shifts at a club, scraping together enough to pay off my late foster mother’s debts.

They stood under neon lights and watched me for ten full minutes before grudgingly bringing me home.

There was no joy in finding their lost child—only revulsion.

They disapproved of my nightlife job and thought I lacked refinement; no matter how hard I tried, I could never compare to Waverly, raised by their side, trained in music, painting, and etiquette.

She embodied twenty years of the Reed family’s love and pride, already an irreplaceable part of their lives.

I couldn’t name grand vintage wines, fumbled with silverware at formal dinners, and still carried a faint rural accent. So they favored Waverly without a shred of guilt.

My voice cracked, sharp pain throbbing in my chest. “Then you never loved me at all, did you?”