Chapter 9 - Gregory’s Mother Had Left More Than One Secret Behind
I met Gregory’s mother only once, years before she died.
She had come to see me when Emma was still a baby. She arrived without jewelry, without an assistant, without the polished superiority I expected from anyone in the Vale family. She looked tired. Guilty.
And scared.
She held Emma for exactly thirty seconds before her eyes filled with tears.
“She looks like him,” she whispered.
I remember going rigid.
I thought she had come to threaten me.
Instead, she asked one strange question:
“If there ever came a day when you had to prove who she is, would you be willing to do it?”
I said yes, though I didn’t fully understand.
She nodded, pressed my hand once, and left.
A month later, she died of a sudden stroke.
At the time, I thought that meeting had led nowhere.
But after the wedding disaster, my father searched his files and found something he had forgotten: a voicemail transcription from the same week as that visit.
It was from an unlisted number.
All it said was:
I put something in motion for the child. Keep the cloth. Don’t trust Gregory.
Now it made sense.
She had known her son.
She knew he would lie, stall, hide, and protect himself.
And before she died, she had made sure at least one piece of the truth would survive her.
That realization changed the story for me.
Because for the first time, I understood that not everyone in Gregory’s family had failed Emma.
One woman had tried—quietly, imperfectly, too late—but she had tried.
And that was enough to keep me from turning bitter at the entire bloodline.
Just Gregory.
Just Bianca.
May you like
And anyone else who helped them.
---
Related Stories
