Sarah's Final Secret
Chapter 09 - Sarah's Final Secret
Lily searched her mother's house until midnight.
Finally, behind a loose panel in Sarah's bedroom closet, she found another envelope.
On the front were four words.
"For Lily. Not Ethan."
Lily read it alone.
Then she locked herself in the bathroom and cried.
Ethan waited outside.
When she finally emerged, her eyes were swollen.
"My mother knew where you were."
Ethan froze.
"After all those returned letters, she hired someone to find you."
"Then why didn't she come?"
"Because by then, I was fourteen."
Lily handed him the letter.
Sarah had discovered that Ethan had rebuilt his life.
He owned a motorcycle repair business.
He had a circle of friends.
And for several years, he had been engaged to another woman.
Sarah became terrified that appearing with a teenage daughter would destroy everything.
So she stayed away.
Ethan read the page twice.
"I would've wanted to know."
"I know."
Lily wasn't only angry at Dominic anymore.
She was angry at Sarah.
At Ethan.
At Ray.
At every adult who had made decisions about her life without asking her.
"I need to leave."
"Lily—"
"Please."
She walked out.
Ethan didn't follow.
For the first time, he understood something painful.
May you like
Finding his daughter did not automatically make him her father.
And after twenty-four years of absence, he had no right to demand a place in her life.
