90
The flight was smooth and the sun shone brightly the entire way.
As soon as Naya stepped out of the airport, she saw her father approaching. “Naya!”
He moved in for a hug, but she sidestepped it effortlessly
A hint of awkwardness passed over Finn’s face before he quickly recovered with a smile. “These are from your sister, Kate.“” Naya glanced at the bouquet of vibrant tulips in her hands and immediately pictured Kate’s youthful face, so much like her own, yet always lit up with a smile, as if untouched by hardship.8
Unlike her own guarded composure, Kate had always seemed carefree.
Finn knew his past infidelity had left a permanent scar on their relationship. So, faced with Naya’s indifference, he said nothing, just let out a faint sigh.
“When I first heard you were getting married, I was worried,” he said quietly. “Cesar and Zora’s love story had enchanted the whole city… but you, barely beginning to understand love, got swept up in the beautiful illusion Cesar created.“%
He shook his head again.
Back then, when Naya had insisted on marrying Cesar, Finn had voiced his concerns. But he had never had much influence over her choices.
His betrayal had driven a wedge between them so wide that she hadn’t even told him when her mother passed. Let alone when she got married.
Looking at the remorse on her father’s face, Naya felt a fresh wave of bitterness stir in her chest.
When she met Cesar, she had just graduated, still young, still impulsive, and full of naive hope.
With the assets her mother had left her, Naya worked hard to build a business, determined to carve out a world of her own. But creating an empire was never easy. One evening at a dinner meeting, she fell for a client’s ploy and drank the laced wine.
Something went wrong, and she woke up in Cesar’s bed
Later, she heard all about Cesar and Zora’s sweeping, storybook romance–and more than once, she thought about walking away.
But it was Cesar who held her back. He told her he was single.
He said Zora was long gone, taking with her both his love and his regrets, and that he couldn’t bear to lose someone again. Eventually, they married, Naya cooked for him. Washed his clothes. Gave him children. Gave him everything.
And in the end, she was still betrayed.”
The memory alone made her throat tighten. Bitterness clawed up her chest, Her eyes reddened at the corners, but she blinked quickly, refusing to cry.
Seeing her pain, Finn immediately realized he’d said the wrong thing.
“What do you plan to do now? We’d love to have you come home.” He opened the car door, loaded her suitcase into the trunk, and tried to persuade her.X
For years, the guilt he carried over what he had done to her and her mother weighed on him like a stone pressed to his chest. Some nights, it even stole his sleep, jerking him awake in the dark, gasping from dreams soaked in regret.K
But Naya shook her head. “Take me to the hotel.“”
A painful childhood never truly leaves her. And no matter how kind her stepmother and stepsister tried to be, forgiveness would never come so easily.
Especially, she wasn’t ready to forgive on her mother’s behalf.
“How’s the investigation about the child?” she asked quietly.
The child’s death had always been a deep wound in Naya’s heart. She longed to know where the child had been buried, even if only to see it for a moment.S
