Secrets 289
Chapter 289 The Substitute
Finished
“Franklin, what are you so afraid of? Afraid Martha will find out her daughter is just a substitute? Afraid Rebecca will discover she was nothing more than a pawn from the moment she was born?”
“Chloe!” Franklin’s voice shot up so suddenly the receiver crackled with static. “I already made it up to you back then!”
“Made it up to me?” Chloe’s laugh slithered through the line, cold and sharp, stabbing straight into Rebecca’s ears.
“Your so–called compensation was locking me away when I was carrying your child, while you went off to play happy family with someone else?”
The words seared Rebecca’s mind like a brand of hot iron, her vision darkening as she staggered against the sofa, her nails digging deep into the leather until it felt like blood should spill from the grooves.
“When I first took over the Joyner family, do you know the situation I was in?” Franklin’s tone was laced with agitated defensiveness, like a trapped animal baring its teeth.
“Martha’s family connections were my lifeline. I brought Rebecca close to the old estate and hired the most expensive nanny in the city. How did I ever shortchange her? If it hadn’t been for-”
“If it hadn’t been for Martha getting pregnant, you would have left Rebecca hidden away forever, right? Just another illegitimate child no one could mention?”
Chloe’s voice cracked into a jagged edge, trembling with grief and rage that made the air
vibrate.
“You said it yourself — once Martha gave birth, you’d find a way to bring Rebecca back, to use her as a substitute!”
“You said with Martha’s good family background, and three sons already, she’d surely dote on a daughter. Rebecca could slip right into that spot!”
The word “substitute” landed on Rebecca’s skull like a hammer,
She had thought she was the wronged daughter, the true blood child denied her place,
She had thought losing a kidney for Scarlett was the cruelest betrayal, while Scarlett thrived in the Joyner family.
But she had never imagined this…
8:32 Sat, Sep 27
Chapter 289 The Substitute
“How was I supposed to know things would go wrong!”
90
Finished
Franklin’s voice broke apart in panic, ragged in a way Rebecca had never heard before.
“Martha hemorrhaged during labor. The baby… didn’t survive. I sent someone to fetch Rebecca, but the nanny ran off with the money. She disappeared too!”
“Found her?” Chloe’s laugh was shrill and hollow, a sound that raised every hair on Rebecca’s
skin.
“You only dragged Rebecca back because Martha lost her baby. You couldn’t let your scheme collapse, so you shoved her into Martha’s arms as if she were a ‘miracle return.”
“Can you even tell Martha the truth? That the daughter she treasures isn’t the one she carried for nine months?”
“Shut up!” Franklin roared, the crash of furniture colliding echoing through the line.
“Rebecca is living well in the Joyner family now. Martha loves her like her own. Why drag up this old dirt!”
“Living well?” Chloe’s tone dropped, quiet but soaked in despair.
“Your Joyner family is already gone. Who’s left living well?”
“You used Rebecca as a tool to ease your guilt. Martha used her as a bargaining chip to hold on to her marriage. Did either of you ever ask what she wanted?”
Her voice caught, then rose again, shattering with grief.
“You think she became ruthless after prison because she was born that way? No. You people, waving the banner of ‘family,’ drove her to the edge of the cliff!”
The private room was deathly silent, the only sound the faint hum of the chandelier overhead.
Rebecca pressed against the cold wall, feeling every pattern in the wallpaper carve into her back like a scar that would never fade.
“Scarlett…” Her voice broke, her mascara running in dark streaks down her face like twin trails of blood. She locked her eyes on the woman across from her. “You knew, didn’t you? From the moment you used that voice changer in the livestream
you already knew!”
–
Scarlett finally raised her gaze. Her eyes were calm, an abyss of frozen water. But when they flicked over the blood etched into Rebecca’s palm, a ripple broke the stillness.
“I only just found out.”
8:33 Sat, Sep 27
Chapter 289 The Substitute
90
Finished
Her fingers slid along the rim of the teacup, the crackled glaze glowing like spiderwebs in the light. “Chloe is my second aunt. Back then, her past with your father wasn’t known to the Lane family.”
Of course, that was also because her second uncle was notorious for his affairs.
No one ever thought they would marry.
By the time it all came to light, Chloe’s past had already been buried deep.
The Lane family could have dug it up easily, but her uncle had fought tooth and nail to shield
her.
No one dared press the matter further.
And so the secret was sealed away.
Over the years, every trace of evidence had been erased. Even if someone investigated now, nothing would be found.
Before, Scarlett had suspected Franklin had ties to the Lane family.
Whoever he was connected to, they had to hold some influence.
But she had never expected this twist.
She paused, her words soft as snow, yet cutting precisely at Rebecca’s rawest wound.
“From the moment Franklin carried you into the Joyner estate, you were trapped in a prison built of lies and schemes. That so–called family of yours was rotten from the very root.”
Send Gifts
匪
978
B