The Secret Heiress | ✔️

23 | 𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚜𝚑𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚗𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠

I blink in shock, her words like splashes of water drowning me in new realizations. I'd never know all of this about Moon. . .she'd always been so closed-off and composed.

"But then?" Moon lets out a delicate scoff, "Paul was a respected man in the society, I barely had a degree to raise a child. I had to fight so hard to just have my daughter to myself. Just because I didn't want her to be raised by a man I knew had a temper. He might not hurt her but I couldn't trust him entirely, couldn't let Mia in his care even on joint custody. I wanted my daughter away from the shadows of that man, away from his influence. I gave up everything to stop him. But he kept approaching Mia to go to him, displaying his twisted love for her. It stopped only after I got married to Samuel because Paul couldn't break through Samuel's security."

A foreign admiration blooms for the woman before me for all the courage she'd shown against a man who deserved to rot for raising his hand on his wife.

Moon was very off-topic with her words and it gave me an insight into her life before she married Dad. But none of it confirmed what I'm here for. . .

"Did you publish the article, Moon?" I ask calmly, too calmly.

Moon shakes her head, seeming to be in her own mind. She looks a little crazed but answers anyway, "No, I didn't. Mia wouldn't want me to. She's not okay. I would do anything to keep her happy and protected."

Suddenly it clicks why she's so keen on keeping Mia happy and a defensive anger rushes through me for my sister, "Just because Mia has a heart condition, doesn't make her not okay. Don't treat her like she's someone weak."

Moon shakes her head vehemently, muttering something in Vietnamese I can't catch up with fast enough. She picks up her Dior bag and rises from her seat with finality, "I'm done with this conversation."

And then she walks away just as gracefully as she entered. While I'm left with more confusion than before.

***

☘︎ Lʏᴋᴀs Vɪᴛᴀʟʟɪs ☘︎

Ethan's office inside the NY police department is like something out of a top-notch five star hotel lounge area with a touch of a detetive's lair—tinted glass cabinets, blackwood interior, grey carpeted floors and a huge green board consisting pictures of criminals and news articles pinned on it's surface.

"Is that why you joined the police force instead of taking over your father's shipping company? Because of the kidnapping?" I toss a paperweight in the air, twirling around in the chair in front of his desk.

Ethan doesn't look up from the file he's been flipping and glaring at for the last half an hour, "Yes, I wanted to do something which would ensure there was never another kid who'd be a victim of what we went through. And even if unfortunately something similar happened, then I wanted to know I could do something like the police officer who hunted down the clown years back did. He rescued us on time. A day more and we all would be dead. Violet-Jennifer-even she had limits to what she could endure. She isn't invincible even though I can never be thankful enough how she'd saved us all back then by not giving up."

I know Jennifer is fucking strong, it's engraved in her fierce personality to not show weakness. But even then, a thread could only stretch so much before it breaks. And I'd be damned to let her reach that point.

When Jennifer had told Ethan and I about the kidnapping and the incident a put her mother a week ago, while Ethan had approached wanting to know the truth so that he could help with settling down the scandal. The things she'd revealed. . .it'd gutted me to know she had to go through all of it at such a young age. It explained why she was so closed-off about her life and had trust issues.