روايات وقصص ضمن The Secret Daughter Book

I didn't see this coming and wasn't prepared for it. A new email notification popped up on my phone. It was from my dad. My chest tightened as I opened it. The subject line read: “Your Daughter’s Secret.” I tapped on the email with shaky hands, my breath caught in my throat. The message was brief, but every word felt like a hammer to my chest. "Mr. Newman, Your daughter has been hiding something that would tarnish your family’s reputation. Transfer twenty million dollars to the account below, or the truth will go public. You have 48 hours.

This intruder was inside my house through a four-inch screen, whispering poison into my daughter’s ears. “You are not using this phone, Luna. Come downstairs for breakfast,” I said, turning to walk away. "Daddy said I have to keep it hidden! It’s our secret!" Luna reached for the pink phone, her small hands clawing at my arm. "Auntie Lila says you’re mean! Give it back!" The sound of my daughter—my soul, the person I had sacrificed everything for—defending her snapped something inside me. "Secrets?" I whispered, my voice trembling with a terrifying heat. "In this house?"

"And what happens now?" Richard already knew. "The truth comes out," she said. "The real daughter returns." His expression hardened. "And the daughter you've been protecting all these years?" The woman didn't hesitate. "She steps aside." Richard's hand tightened around the phone. For all his mistakes, she was still his daughter. The daughter he had kept hidden from the world. The daughter who could never publicly carry his name because of the secrets surrounding her birth. "That's enough." "Is it?" Her voice sharpened. "You spent years chasing opportunities."

For a second,I watched her read it. I closed the screen against the desk. Too late to matter. "Camille." "Sorry ….. I was just getting water, I didn't mean to…." "It's fine." Though It wasn't. "Go back to bed." She went, though I saw the question land behind her eyes before she did, I watched her turn my brother's name over the same way I was turning it over, and I understood, with a specific and unwelcome clarity, that whatever this was, she was no longer separate from it. It had become her mystery too, whether either of us wanted that or not.

I opened my eyes and looked back at the screen. Ariana Carter. Age: 21. Enrolled: School of Medicine. My stomach tightened. It wasn't a coincidence. A strange, dark weight settled into my chest. The girl I'd spent the last two weeks trying ...and failing....to get out of my head wasn't just my sister's innocent best friend. She was the daughter of the woman at the center of my father's deepest secret. Did she know? Was that why she looked at me with that guarded caution? Was she playing a game of her own?

The call made Natalie release her embrace on Dave. "What is it?" asked Dave, still in a tone as flat as a toll road. "There are Mr. Kay and Key," he said, making Dave nod. "Tell them to come in," said Dave, who was nodded off by his secretary. "You go home, Natalie; I'm busy." Natalie snorted in annoyance, walked away, and even ran into Kay and Key. The door closed tightly, and they both sat in the chairs opposite Dave. "She's the daughter of that man?" asked Key, to which Dave nodded.

​ Naomi, with the trembling voice she fought to steady. Naomi, with the gaze she tried not to send my way. ​ Naomi with a child who— ​ My jaw tightens. ​ I don’t want to jump to conclusions. I’m not that reckless. But the familiarity hits me harder this time. ​ Her daughter’s hand gripping hers, same way Chloe Quinn used to grip her textbooks— Tight, cautious, protective. ​ I close my eyes briefly. ​ No, this is a coincidence. ​ It has to be. ​

They were alike in so many ways and she didn't even raise her. And then, just when she was about to tell me, she turned around to look at Zade whom shook his head and raised his finger to his lips. She placed her hands behind her and giggled, "I'm not saying, it's a secret." She ran away before I could drill the secret out of her, giggling as she ran away like she held some sort of valuable secret she could sell for money. She was cute anyway. I turned to Zade, "What the heck dude? What did you do with my daughter? And why did you let her in?" I asked calmly, watching him for any sign of anything damning.

She knew that they were the key to unlocking her father's secrets. She quickly took out her smartphone and snapped a picture of the document, her hands trembling slightly with excitement. She had to get out of the office before anyone could find her, before anyone could catch her. She moved to the bookcase, her eyes scanning the rows of books, her fingers tracing the spines. She knew that her father kept his most important documents in a locked cupboard behind the bookcase. She had seen him go in and out of it countless times, and she knew it was where he kept his secrets.

To let someone see her not just as the poised, enigmatic designer who defied odds, but as the woman still trying to glue together the shards of who she once was. But every time she imagined that, her thoughts circled back to one unmovable truth. She had a daughter. A secret daughter. From a man who had once called her ugly. A liar. A mistake. And Julian… Julian didn’t know. He didn’t know that her life wasn’t just filled with runway lights and award ceremonies and velvet gowns. It was diapers and midnight fevers, bedtime stories and tangled hair, laughter over cereal, and the softest little voice that called her mama with all the trust in the world.