Chapter 2: The Family’s Suspicion
As months turned into years, William’s health grew worse.
Some days, he could still read the financial pages and sign important documents. Other days, he sat by the window for hours, staring at the garden as if he were looking into another lifetime.
Richard became more impatient.
Every time the family doctor visited, Richard asked the same question.
“Is my father still legally capable of signing papers?”
The doctor always answered carefully.
“At certain times, yes. At other times, no. It depends on his condition at the exact moment.”
That answer angered Richard.
He had spent his entire life believing he would inherit the Hartwell empire. The company, the mansion, the private investments, the family name — all of it should have been his.
But William had never officially handed over full control.
And that terrified Richard.
Victoria noticed something else.
William had begun asking for his private lawyer, Samuel Grant. Twice in one month, Samuel came to the mansion and stayed inside William’s study for hours.
William also ordered Martha to search old storage boxes. He asked Nurse Claire to contact a city records office. He stopped allowing Richard to enter his study without permission.
Richard did not like being shut out.
One evening, Emma was changing William’s bedsheets when Richard walked into the room.
“Leave us,” he told her.
Emma looked at William. He was tired but awake.
“Mr. Hartwell needs rest.”
“I said leave.”
Emma was about to go, but William suddenly reached out and took her hand.
“Stay.”
Richard stared at his father’s hand on Emma’s.
“You are letting a stranger interfere in family matters.”
William’s voice was low.
“Sometimes strangers are kinder than family.”
The room went silent.
Richard stepped closer.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Understand it however you want.”
Richard looked at Emma with cold anger.
“I understand that a young woman with no real background is influencing my father.”
Emma froze.
“I have never—”
“Be quiet,” Richard snapped. “You are paid to care for him, not to stand between a father and his son.”
William tried to sit up, but a violent cough shook his body. Emma rushed to support him, and Nurse Claire hurried in.
Richard watched them, his jaw tight.
From that day on, Emma knew she had become a threat in Richard’s eyes.
But she did not leave.
Not because of money. Her salary was modest. Not because of ambition. Emma had never dreamed of becoming part of a world like the Hartwells’.
She stayed because, on William’s worst nights, he reached for her hand like a drowning man reaching for a rope.
“Don’t go,” he once whispered in a fever. “Don’t leave me like she did.”
Emma did not understand who “she” was.
But she understood what it felt like to be left behind.
So she stayed.
A week before the inheritance meeting, Samuel Grant came to the mansion again.
He was a serious man in his sixties, with silver hair and a brown leather briefcase. He had served as the Hartwell family lawyer for more than thirty years.
That day, after his meeting with William, Samuel stopped in the hallway and looked at Emma for a long moment.
“Your name is Emma Miller?”
“Yes.”
“Where did you grow up?”
Emma felt uneasy.
“In a small town up north. I was adopted when I was little.”
Samuel’s expression changed.
“Do you still have your adoption papers?”
Before Emma could answer, Richard appeared from the hallway.
“Samuel, my father called you here for legal work, not to question the staff.”
Samuel closed his briefcase.
“I only asked a simple question.”
“You don’t need to ask her anything,” Richard said sharply. “Her background was checked when she was hired.”
Samuel looked at Richard calmly.
“A background check only shows what people are allowed to see.”
Emma did not understand what he meant.
But that night, she found William sitting in front of the locked black steel safe in his study. His frail hand rested against the metal door.
“Do you need something from the safe?” Emma asked.
William turned to her.
“Emma, have you ever wanted to know who your birth parents were?”
The question made her chest tighten.
She had wondered about them all her life. But after years of silence, she had trained herself not to ask.
“Yes,” she admitted. “But I don’t know where to begin.”
William looked at her with deep sadness.
“What if one day you learned they did not leave you because they didn’t love you?”
Emma stared at him.
“What do you mean?”
Before he could answer, Richard entered the room.
“Dad, we need to talk.”
William immediately fell silent.
Emma never got the answer.
But that night, she took out an old wooden box from the bottom of her suitcase. Inside were her adoption papers, childhood photos, and a small silver bracelet left behind by her adoptive mother.
Emma held the bracelet under the lamp.
On the inside, two tiny letters were engraved.
May you like
E.H.
For the first time, Emma was afraid of the truth.
