AFTER OUR DIVORCE, HE DISCOVERED OUR BABY

Chapter 9: The Secret Mia Recognized

Avery’s POV

“Do not dare look at my daughter like that.”

Mia’s eyes snapped back to mine, wide and glistening. “Avery, please. You do not understand what this means.”

“I said get out!”

My voice rang loudly enough to make Lily turn away from the television. “Mummy?”

I forced myself to look away from Mia and smiled with every ounce of calm I could gather. “It is all right, sweetheart. Keep watching your cartoon.”

When I faced the door again, tears were running freely down Mia’s cheeks. “I never wanted this to happen to you.”

“And yet you stood in a hotel room with my husband while our marriage was falling apart.”

“I know exactly how it looked.”

“Then explain it to me!”

“I cannot do that here.”

I almost laughed. “Of course you cannot. Nobody in my life seems capable of telling me the truth in a straight sentence.”

Mia flinched, then glanced at Lily again and lowered her voice. “How old is she?”

I said nothing.

“Please, Avery. Only tell me how old she is.”

“Why do you want to know?”

“Because if I am right, then you and your daughter may be in danger.”

My hand tightened on the door. “Stop threatening my child.”

“I am not threatening her! I am trying to protect her.”

“From whom?”

Mia opened her mouth to answer, but before she could speak, a black car pulled up across the street, and the color drained from her face. She stepped backward. “Did you tell anyone that I was coming here?”

“No.”

“Did Victor?”

“I have not spoken to him about you.”

She glanced at the car once more, then seized my wrist with trembling fingers. “Listen to me carefully. Do not give that envelope to Victor, do not show him the photographs, and whatever happens, do not let him take your daughter away before you know the truth.”

I pulled my hand free. “You have no right to tell me what to do with my child.”

“I know,” she whispered. “I am sorry, Avery, for everything.”

She turned and hurried down the stairs, and by the time I reached the window, she had already vanished. The black car remained where it was, its tinted windows hiding whoever sat inside, and it looked disturbingly like the car in the photograph of the woman in my old cream coat.

I watched it for another minute, then closed the curtains and locked the door twice.

A few minutes later, Lily ran into the kitchen. “Mummy, who was that lady?”

“Nobody important, sweetheart.”

“Why was she crying?”

I crouched in front of her. “Sometimes grown-ups cry when they have problems.”

“Like you do?”

The question caught me off guard. “Do I cry a lot?”

She nodded with great seriousness. “Sometimes when you think I am sleeping.”

My chest tightened painfully. I pulled her into my arms and kissed her forehead, hoping that she could not hear the uncertainty in my voice as I promised her that everything would be all right.

After lunch, once she was absorbed in her coloring books, I opened the envelope that Mia had left behind. Inside lay a folded document and a photograph. The photograph showed Victor standing outside a restaurant beside an older man whom I did not recognize, and on the back, someone had written THE COLLINS FAMILY AGREEMENT.

I unfolded the document. Most of the writing was too small to read, but one paragraph described a business merger between the Collins family and the Bennett family. Then I noticed the date. The agreement had been signed four months before Victor proposed to me, which meant that he had lied when he said his engagement had ended before we met.

At the bottom of the page appeared three names: Victor Collins, Sophia Collins, and Clara Bennett.

Sophia Collins was Victor’s mother. She had never liked me, and throughout our marriage she had made no secret of the fact that she considered me unsuitable for her son. I had always assumed that she simply wanted him to marry someone wealthy, but now I wondered whether it had been something far more deliberate.

My phone vibrated, and an unknown number appeared on the screen. I answered cautiously. “Hello?”

“Mrs. Collins?” a man asked.

I stiffened. “I do not use that name anymore.”

“Of course. Forgive me. My name is Daniel Reed, and I am Victor’s lawyer.”

I knew the name, because Victor had mentioned him during our marriage. “What do you want?”

“Mr. Collins asked me to contact you. He says that Mia Carter visited you today.”

My blood ran cold. “How could he possibly know that?”

“He believes that someone is monitoring her movements, and he wants you to be careful.”

“Did he send you the document that I am holding?”

There was a pause. “What document?”

I looked down at the agreement. “You are his lawyer. You tell me.”

“Mrs. Collins, whatever you have received, please make no decisions until we have spoken in person. I believe you have been given only part of the story.”

I nearly ended the call, but then he added, “There is something about your divorce that Victor himself does not know.”

My hand tightened around the phone. “What could possibly be hidden from him?”

Daniel lowered his voice. “The agreement between the two families was not only about business. It also included a marriage arrangement.”

I stared at Clara’s name. “You mean Victor was supposed to marry her?”

“Yes.”

“And he married me instead.”

“Correct.”

“Why?”

He hesitated. “That is a question you must put to Victor’s mother.”

The call ended, and I sat motionless with the phone still pressed against my ear. Victor had been engaged to Clara, his family had signed an agreement for their marriage, his mother had never wanted me, and someone had gone to extraordinary lengths to convince me that my husband had betrayed me.

In the living room, Lily hummed softly as she colored a picture of our little family. For five years, I had protected her from a truth that she was too young to understand, and now I feared that the truth might reach her before I could shield her again.

My phone vibrated once more, this time with a message from Victor.

I know Mia came to see you. Please do not trust anything she says until you have heard the full story.

Another followed almost immediately.

And Avery, do not contact my mother.

I frowned, wondering how he could possibly know that I had been thinking of her. A third message appeared.

She is the reason Clara disappeared.

I stopped breathing for a moment, and before I could reply, a fourth message arrived.

But Clara was not the only woman my mother wanted out of my life.

My gaze drifted toward Lily, the little girl who had inherited Victor’s eyes, the little girl his family had never known existed. In that instant, I understood why Mia had looked so frightened when she saw her.

Sophia Collins might never have been trying to save her son’s marriage. She might have been trying to ensure that my daughter was never born into the Collins family at all.