He Threw Me Out At Six And Came Back Twenty Years Later To Marry Into My Family Chapter 05

Less than two hours after the Hales left the Voss manor, the internet exploded.

The first trending headline:

Voss adopted daughter blocks brother’s marriage.

The second:

Hale couple lost eldest daughter twenty years ago-then gets humiliated again.

My father gave a media interview.

On camera, his eyes were red, but he kept his composure.

“The Hales went to the Voss family today in good faith to discuss the kids’ future. We never expected Miss Voss to attack us with my long-missing eldest daughter.”

“Elowen was, and always will be, a wound for my wife and me.”

“I hope capital won’t be placed above basic human decency.”

My mother went live.

She wore a plain long dress, a photo of a little girl placed in front of her.

In the photo, I was six, a pearl clip in my hair.

It was taken the morning I was dumped.

My mother sobbed into the camera.

“I don’t know why Miss Voss would hurt us like this.”

“If Elowen were still here, she’d never bear to watch her mother humiliated like this.”

The comments section was all cursing me.

[Afraid the future sister-in-law will steal her brother’s attention.]

[They lost their daughter for twenty years and she uses it to strike at their deepest, most vulnerable grief. Poisonous.]

[The Voss family really lets someone like this run things? Aren’t they afraid the company will collapse?]

Liora posted too.

[My sister’s room is still here. Mom and Dad celebrate her birthday every year. We never forgot her.]

The photo was a pink bedroom.

Dolls on the bed, a cake on the desk, and on the wall: “Elowen, come home.”

I stared at those words, my fingers cold.

Twenty years ago, I really did want to go home.

When I woke up in the Voss house, burning with fever, my first words were:

“Did my mom come?”

No.

The police came. The Voss family came.

The Hales had been notified.

But they sent a lawyer to the media first.

Then someone to handle the surveillance footage.

And finally, a unified statement:

The Hale eldest daughter is suspected of being abducted.

Ronan walked into the study and pulled the tablet from my hands.

“Stop looking.”

His voice was hoarse.

“I’m sorry.”

I looked up at him.

He stood in front of me, and for the first time, obvious guilt crossed that usually calm face.

“I didn’t know Liora was a Hale. If I’d known…”

I cut him off. “Ronan. This isn’t your fault.”

Ronan closed his eyes.

“But I brought them into the Voss house.”

Matriarch Clara came in on her cane.

“Good that they came.”

She looked at me.

“Some debts can’t be dodged.”

Elias and Maeve came in after her.

Elias set a file box on the desk.

Inside were documents from twenty years ago.

Backups of the intersection surveillance.

Traffic police records.

Hospital records.

The Voss family’s missing-person notices.

The Hale family’s legal letters.

The driver’s recording.

Hale Enterprises’ internal press releases.

And the Starlight Haven Foundation’s accounts.

Maeve set a glass of warm water by my hand.

“Elowen, whether to go public is your call.”

That was how the Voss family always was.

They shielded me from the wind, but they never decided for me whether I should hate.

I opened the file.

Six-year-old Elowen Hale curled on a hospital bed, a cut on her wrist from the bed rail.

The doctor had written:

Severe fright, dehydration, minor abrasions, multiple soft-tissue contusions.

Note:

Patient repeatedly asks after waking whether her parents are coming to pick her up.

I looked at it for a long time.

Then I picked up my phone and posted.

[Three days from now. Joint Hale-Voss press briefing.]

[Voss Consolidated will publicly explain whether the Hales deserve to discuss marriage and partnership at all.]

Ten minutes after that post, my father’s call came through on Elias’s phone.

Elias put it on speaker.

My father’s voice was low and controlled.

“Mr. Voss, the kids’ feelings shouldn’t be destroyed by old news.”

I took the phone.

“Mr. Hale knows about children being destroyed?”

Silence on the other end.

A moment later, he said coldly, “Elowen Voss, don’t think the Voss family can protect you forever.”

I smiled.

“Then don’t think the Hales’ lies can stay buried forever.”