The Last Goodbye

PART 2 — The Secret He Never Knew

Three days after I disappeared, Ethan Carter finally listened to my recording.

He was sitting in his private office when Marcus placed the small device on his desk.

“Mr. Carter, Mrs. Carter asked me to deliver this personally.”

Ethan barely looked up.

“Where is she?”

Marcus remained silent.

“I asked you a question!”

“She told me not to reveal her location.”

Ethan slammed his fist against the desk.

“She is my wife!”

Marcus looked directly at him.

“Not anymore, sir.”

For several seconds, nobody spoke.

Then Ethan pressed play.

When my voice filled the room, his expression changed.

But it was the final sentence that made him freeze.

“Our baby wasn’t your only child.”

Ethan replayed it twice.

“What does that mean?”

Marcus lowered his eyes.

“Perhaps you should read the second envelope.”

Inside was a medical report and an old photograph.

The report revealed that I had been pregnant with twins. One baby had died that terrible night, but the second had been delivered through an emergency procedure and transferred to another hospital because of a life-threatening complication.

The surviving child was a little girl.

Her name was Grace.

She was alive.

Ethan stood so quickly that his chair fell backward.

“Where is my daughter?”

Marcus hesitated.

“Emily took her away before you returned home.”

“Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

“Because Mrs. Carter believed you wouldn’t protect her.”

Ethan stared at the report.

Then he noticed another document.

It was a DNA report.

The little girl was his biological daughter.

But there was something else.

A note from the specialist explained that Madison Blake had been asking questions about Emily’s pregnancy and had attempted to obtain confidential medical information.

Ethan immediately called his head of security.

“Find Madison. Now.”

An hour later, he discovered something far worse.

Madison hadn’t entered his life by accident.

Her father had been investigating the Carter family for years. She had deliberately gotten close to Ethan to obtain access to his business records and family secrets.

And she knew about Grace.

She had even arranged for someone to follow Emily before she disappeared.

For the first time in thirteen years, Ethan felt genuinely afraid.

Not of losing his empire.

But of losing the only family he had left.

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, I was sitting beside a hospital window in a quiet coastal town.

A nurse placed a sleeping baby girl in my arms.

“She’s getting stronger every day, Mrs. Carter.”

I kissed Grace’s forehead.

“I know, sweetheart. Mommy is going to keep you safe.”

I had lost one child.

I refused to lose another.

And this time, I wasn’t going to let Ethan Carter decide our future.