My Lost Daughter Came Home to Destroy Me
Rumor had spread through the Vittori family that the daughter they had lost years ago had finally been found.
The moment I heard, I left the family branch and rushed back to the main estate.
My car had barely stopped when a young woman hurried over and grabbed my hand.
“So you’re the Vittori family’s adopted daughter,” she said with a smile that looked painfully sincere. “Your dress is so beautiful. It must cost tens of thousands of dollars. You can tell you’ve never really had to worry about anything before. Unlike me. I grew up in places where even finding my next meal was a problem.”
For a second, I didn’t understand what she meant.
Then her eyes lowered to the only necklace around her neck.
“This is the only thing I have from Mother,” she whispered. “Please don’t hate me for wearing it.”
The next second, she suddenly grabbed my hand, dragged it up toward her throat, and yanked hard.
The necklace snapped.
Pearls scattered across the marble floor.
“Why would you do that?” she cried, staring at me in shock. “If you hate seeing Mother’s gift on me, I’ll take it off right now. I won’t stay and make things difficult for you. Just please don’t tell Father and Mother. I don’t want them caught in the middle, and I don’t want this family fighting because of me.”
She curled into herself on the marble floor, shaking as she cried, while the guests around us immediately turned to stare.
I stood there completely stunned.
I had imagined a thousand ways I might meet my daughter again.
I never imagined she would look me in the eye, mistake me for someone else, and frame me before I had even spoken.
Because I was not Valentina.
I was her mother.