y own heart felt like it was being squeezed
in a vise. Tears, hot and silent, streamed
down my cheeks.
Susan, revived and propped up on the sofa,
her face a canvas of disbelief and dawning
joy, reached out and tenderly wiped my tears.
“My child,” she whispered, her voice thick
with unshed tears of her own. “My dear, dear
child. You’re home. You’re finally home.
You’ve suffered so much all these long,
terrible years. Thank God. Thank God, He’s
brought you back to your mother.”
<
Once everything was irrefutably, one hundred
percent confirmed, Hannah immediately
called her older brother, Michael, who was
still at his corporate office, and her father,
Mason, who was on the other side of the
world, engaged in a relentless, round–the- globe cycling journey – a desperate, years- long quest to find his lost daughter.
Me.
As soon as they heard the news, they
dropped everything and rushed back.9
The moment my brother, Michael Moon, saw me, the carefully constructed composure of
the powerful, feared CEO crumbled.
This man, who commanded boardrooms and
made titans of industry tremble, fell to his
knees right in front of me, his shoulders
shaking with uncontrollable sobs.
He apologized, over and over again, his voice choked with guilt.
For years, he had carried the crushing burden
of blame, convinced that if it hadn’t been for
his momentary lapse in attention all those
years ago, I would never have been abducted.
My father, Mason, his hair prematurely white
from years of fruitless searching and
heartache, stood before me.
Looking at the deep lines etched on his face,
a testament to his endless journey through
wind and storm, I couldn’t hold back my own
emotions any longer. I threw myself into their
–
arms, and we all wept together tears of
sorrow, of relief, of a joy so profound it was
almost painful.
The Moon Corporation, a global powerhouse,
immediately issued a press release, officially
announcing my identity to the world.
Landon Forrester, freshly and ignominiously
released from his brief stint in jail, saw the
news.
<
Stunned, disbelieving, he came running to our
gates.
He actually knelt on the pavement outside our
family home, begging, pleading for
forgiveness.
My mother, Susan, appeared at the doorway.
Without a word, she calmly picked up a large
watering can and emptied its icy contents
directly over Landon’s head.
“Mr. Forrester,” she said, her voice dripping
with polite disdain, “I do sincerely apologize.
For a moment there, I mistook you for some
pathetic, mangy stray dog loitering at my
doorstep. I didn’t realize it was you.”
Landon, drenched and humiliated, pretended
not to register the venom in her words. “Mrs.
Moon,” he stammered, “I… I need to see
Stella. Could you please, just let me in? Just
for a moment.‘
“I’m terribly sorry,” Mom replied, her voice like
く
chipped ice. “There’s no one named Stella in
this house. Mr. Forrester, I believe you’ve
come to the wrong address.”
I stood just behind my father, watching
Landon’s pathetic display with cold, detached
eyes.
Sure, the Forrester Corporation might have
been a big deal in his city, but out here, in the
wider world, there were always bigger fish,
much bigger.
The Moon Corporation wasn’t just a company;
it was a legacy, a family dynasty built over
generations. Compared to them, Forrester’s
little empire was like an ant trying to
challenge an elephant.
Landon saw me then. His eyes, desperate and
bloodshot, fixed on mine. He still wouldn’t
give up. He gritted his teeth, his voice a
hoarse, desperate plea.
“Stella! Stella, I swear, I know I was wrong!
L
Please, I’m begging you, can we get
remarried? Just give me one more chance, please! Think about Nina! She’s so young, she can’t grow up without a father!”
He even had the nerve to try and enlist my help. “Tell your parents! Explain to them! Everything that happened before… it was all just a huge misunderstanding! It wasn’t real,
none of it…”
“A misunderstanding?” My mother’s voice cut through his blathering, sharp as a razor. “Mr.
Forrester, you have a truly remarkable talent
for twisting the truth, for turning black into
white.”
The memory of the humiliation, the
degradation I had suffered at his hands, made
her tremble with a rage she could barely
contain.
If my father hadn’t been there, his hand firmly
on her arm, I have no doubt she would have
<
flown at Landon and torn him limb from limb.
“Mr. Forrester,” my father said, his voice calm
but unyielding, “my daughter has made it quite clear. She does not know you.
Therefore, I must ask you to leave.”
He paused, then added, with a steely glint in his eyes, “As for my granddaughter, Nina, not having a father, you need not concern
yourself with that. My daughter, Stella, is an extraordinary woman. If and when she so
desires, I can assure you that every eligible,
outstanding young man in South City will be lining up, vying for the honor of being Nina’s
father.”
In the end, Landon was forcibly escorted
away by our family’s security.
He arrived back at his own empty mansion,
only to walk in on Vivian Calloway, chattering
away on the phone with another man.
Her voice, smug and conspiratorial, drifted
L
down the hallway.
“Don’t you worry your handsome little head
about it, darling. Lándon is such an utter fool.
As long as I tell him this baby is his, he’ll believe me, one hundred percent.”
A pause, then a silken laugh. “When my belly gets a little bigger, I’m going to demand a hefty chunk of Forrester Corporation shares. And you, my sweet, are the only one I’ve ever truly loved. I left him for you three years ago. Do you honestly think I could ever feel
anything for that pathetic loser now?”
Landon trembled, not with grief, but with a
murderous rage.
He stormed into the room and his hands shot
out, closing brutally around Vivian’s throat.
“You bitch!” he roared, his face contorted
into a mask of pure hatred. “Go to hell! If it
weren’t for you, Stella and Nina would never
have left me! This is all your fault! All yours,
Г
you scheming, worthless whore!”
Mrs. Peterson, the housekeeper, heard the
terrifying commotion and rushed upstairs.
She burst in to see Landon pinning a
struggling Vivian to the floor, his hands still
locked around her neck.
Vivian’s eyes were wide and bulging, her face
a terrifying shade of purple, her breath
coming in ragged, choking gasps.
Mrs. Peterson nearly fainted from sheer
terror.
She somehow managed to pull Landon off
Vivian.
He collapsed to the floor, completely
unhinged, muttering incoherently, his sanity
clearly shattered.
Vivian, gasping for air, clutched her stomach.
She’d been punched, hard, several times
during the assault.
A dark stain of blood was spreading rapidly
beneath her.
They rushed her to the hospital, but it was
too late.
The baby was gone.
A few days later, after the dust had settled somewhat, Landon, in a last, desperate bid
for… something, posted a long, rambling
essay on the Forrester Corporation’s official
social media accounts.
Hannah, her face a mixture of disgust and
pity, showed it to me, practically vibrating
with the urge to unleash a string of curses.
In his self–serving diatribe, Landon waxed
lyrical about how he had supposedly fallen
deeply in love with me, how tragically he had
lost me, and how he had finally, belatedly,
seen the error of his ways and was desperate
to win me back.
He poured out his “heartfelt” emotions,
painting himself as a tortured, repentant
<
lover.
It might have even swayed a few gullible fools, if someone hadn’t immediately dug up
and re–circulated all the damning evidence
the photos, the videos, the eyewitness
―
accounts — of him publicly humiliating and abusing me, all for Vivian Calloway’s sake.
His carefully constructed persona of the
devoted,
(chiqing zhong – infatuated
one) crumbled into dust.
—
I read his pathetic attempt at redemption and
just found it laughable. Utterly, contemptibly,
laughable.
Life, meanwhile, had become beautiful.
Mom and Dad took Nina out for walks in the
park every single day, proudly showing off
their precious, miracle granddaughter to
anyone who would listen.
My brother, Michael, showered Nina with
affection, bringing home a new and different
amazing toy for her every single day, his face
lit up with a joy I hadn’t seen in years.
One afternoon, I took out the jade pendant,
the one I’d found tangled in Nina’s clothes.
Mom looked at it, a puzzled frown creasing
her brow. “Wait a minute,” she said. “Isn’t this
other half… mine? How on earth did it end up
with you?”
I explained how it must have fallen off and
gotten caught in Nina’s things during the
chaos and confusion at the hospital that first
day in South City.
Mom and Dad exchanged a look, a shared
sigh of wonder.
Perhaps, they said, some things were
simply…
destined to be.
(mingzhōngzhùding)
–
Not long after, news broke that the Forrester
Corporation was under federal investigation
for massive tax evasion. Major shareholders
<
bailed, contracts were canceled, and ongoing
projects ground to a halt.
Just as Landon was drowning in a sea of debt
and despair, Vivian Calloway, ever the
opportunist, resurfaced just long enough to
team up with her latest lover and
systematically drain every last cent from
Landon’s remaining assets.
He was left with nothing.
His company collapsed. He was bankrupt,
owing a mountain of money he could never
repay.
He tried to find Vivian, to exact some kind of
revenge, but she had vanished as if into thin
air, leaving no trace, no trail to follow.
It was only later, from a quiet word from Mom
and Dad, that I learned my brother, Michael,
had orchestrated Landon’s financial ruin, a
silent, ruthless act of retribution for
everything I had suffered.
<
Hearing all this… gossip, all this drama
unfolding from a safe distance… I won’t lie.
It felt good.
Damn good.
A few days later, Landon Forrester showed up
at my parents‘ gate again.
Only a few months had passed since I’d last
seen him, but he looked like he had aged
twenty years overnight.
He wore a baseball cap pulled low, his face
hidden in shadow. He looked up, saw me
standing on the veranda, and said only one
thing, his voice a hoarse whisper.
“I love you, Stella.”
I just found it bizarre. Utterly, pathetically,
irrelevant.
Before he could utter another word, I signaled
to the security guards, and they promptly, and
unceremoniously, removed him from the
premises.
<
premises.
It was from Hannah, much later, that I learned
the full, chilling truth.
At the time of that last, strange visit, Landon
Forrester had already become a murderer.
―
Consumed by hatred for Vivian for her
betrayal, for cheating him out of his fortune –
he had stalked her to her apartment late one
night.
And there, in a final, brutal confrontation, he
had stabbed her to death.
The very same day he came to see me, to
utter those three hollow words, he turned
himself in to the police.
But that same night, alone in his jail cell,
Landon Forrester chose to end his own life.
I overheard this final piece of news whispered
between my parents. They had tried to shield
me from it, worried it would upset me, dredge
up old traumas.
<
But that same night, alone in his jail cell,
Landon Forrester chose to end his own life.
I overheard this final piece of news whispered
between my parents. They had tried to shield
me from it, worried it would upset me, dredge
up old traumas.
But it didn’t.
Not really.
Because Landon Forrester, and everything he
represented, had ceased to have any
connection to me, any hold over me, long,
long ago.
From now on, my life was about one thing,
and one thing only:
Cherishing every precious, beautiful moment
with my family.
My real family.
