Shadows Of A Forgotten Spring
Billionaire Shadow 98

Chapter

98

She had scheduled sessions with a child psychologist, desperate for any help to battle his fears, but progress was slow. Each night when he whimpered in her arms, she had whispered promises of safety, of a world where justice prevailed and monsters didn't walk free,

but now she wasn't sure she could keep all those promises.

And then there was Annie. The woman who haunted her life like a relentless shadow. Annie took to the press shortly after Adam's death, oozing with insincerity. She granted the press interviews, her facial muscles stretched and twisted into a picture-perfect mask of grief and tear for her future as a mother. She spoke of the 'tragic incident with a saintly sorrow, her hand resting protectively over her growing belly. Her words became sharp daggers, to carve sympathy from her clueless

And when the crocodile tears slid down her cheeks on national television, Emma felt bile rise in her throat, burning and acrid. The sheer audacity of Annie's performance made her stomach churn

The world saw a grieving, expectant mother caught up in a horrible accident: Emma saw a manipulative liar who was willing to destroy anyone to protect her secret.

The Blackthorn Hospital issued a formal statement of apology, die legal team scrambling to keep the fallout at bay. They promised reforms, tight security, and swore that such a tragedy would never happen again. But the words were not enough for Emma. There was nothing that could replace what had been taken from her. Nothing to return Adam to her and rub the scars off Ethin's soul and the other kids' souls.

With the sun down, making longer shadows in her living room, there came a knock at her door. Emma's heart stuttered. For one frightening moment, she thought it was one of those journalists who had managed to make it into the compound, but when she peeped through the peephole, there was Jaden standing there with a sea of worries within his eyes.

He had tried calling and trying to reach her all day, but Emma had been ignoring him; seeing him now, she couldn't help the relief that filled her heart. She opened the door and looked into his eyes soft, full of concern

"Hey," he said softly, stepping inside. Without another word, he wrapped her in a hug, his arms strong and steady, a shelp!

against the storm that raged inside her.

The dam of her composure cracked, and the tears she had been holding back fell freely. She clung to him, the sobs shaking her shoulders, her pain finally finding an outlet.

I should have been there, she whispered into his chest. "I could have stopped it. I could have-

"Emma, Jaden interrupted, firm but soft. "You can't blame yourself for this. You did everything you could."

She wanted to believe him, to take comfort in his words, but the weight of what was lost was too heavy. She leaned into his embrace, letting his presence remind her that she wasn't entirely alone.

Jane Manson slammed her glass onto the marble countertop, the sound reverberating through the empty room. The sharp clink of glass against stone felt like a scream bottled up inside her, threatening to shatter. She had had enough of watching. Emma rise like a phoenix while she crumbled like ashes.

Her knuckles whitened as she gripped the edge of the counter. The world wasn't fair. While Emma was out there, bathed in the light of public sympathy, gathering supporters who believed in her innocence, Jane's life was spiraling into an unrecognizable mess. Her parents, always teetering on the edge of disapproval, now seemed ready to write her off completely. The cold indifference in their eyes, the way they had stopped returning her calls-it was only a matter of before they shut the door on her for good.

The thought twisted a knife deep in her gut. She couldn't bear the thought of being cast out, of losing their last shred of faith. in her. She needed a way out. And she needed it now.

Jane's eyes flickered toward the wine bottle, half-empty but no longer offering the comfort she sought. She picked it up.

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Chapter 98

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a long, burning gulp, and let the liquid sear down her throat. It was time to stop waiting, time to stop playing by rules that no longer served her. If she was going down, she wasn't going down alone.

Her fingers trembled as she grabbed her phone, swiping through her emails until she found the draft she had been holding onto for days. The secret she had planned to wield at the perfect moment, a secret so potent it could destroy the entire world. She had been saving it, savoring the power it gave her, imagining the day she would use it to turn the tides in her favor. But desperate times called for desperate measures, and her desperation was a wildfire consuming her sanity.

She typed out the email address she'd painstakingly uncovered: Emma's official mail.

Her breath came in shallow gasps as she added the finishing touches to her message, each word chosen to cut like glass, to wound in a way that couldn't be healed. Her eyes burned with unshed tears, but her determination blazed brighter.

I'm coming for you Emma. She thought

Her thumb hovered over the send button, her mind a whirlpool of anger. A voice in the back of her mind whispered doubts, asking if this was truly the path she should take. But that voice was drowned out by the roar of resentment, the ache of knowing she was tilting on the edge of being forgotten.

With a final, decisive breath, she pressed send.

As the email sound broke the silence in the room, It felt like she had just set fire to the last bridge between her and the world, but she couldn't bring herself to care. She tilted the wine bottle back and drained the last of it, the bitterness on her tongue mirroring the bitterness in her heart.

SEND GIFT