Chapter 5
Jimmy and Martha didn’t believe the test results and went to other agencies for testing.
But every single report came back the same–Laura wasn’t their biological daughter.
“How could this be?” Martha stared blankly at the stack of results.
The shock and guilt hit her all at once, nearly suffocating her.
Lynette was their real daughter all along…
Which meant–years ago, someone had deliberately switched the babies, leaving Lynette beside a hospital trash bin.
That’s how they’d mistaken Laura for their own!
“Oh God! What have I done all these years?” she thought.
She forced Lynette to get divorced and kicked her out of the house.
She even used her as a walking blood bank for the daughter who wasn’t even hers.
When Laura’s heart condition worsened, she pushed Lynette down the stairs to make her miscarry–just to get blood.
Then made her sell a kidney to fund Laura’s business.
Martha shook her head, tears spilling down her face.
“I have to find Lynn. I need to talk to her. Where is she?”
She jumped up, ready to leave the hospital room, only to realize she had no idea which hospital Lynette was in–or even where she lived now.
“Alex, do you know where Lynn is? I need to see her.”
“She was taken away by someone,” Alexander said hoarsely. “I don’t know where she went…”
Martha froze for a moment, then scrambled to grab her phone and send Lynette a message.
But the second she hit send, a single tick popped up.
Stunned, she tried again. Still nothing.
“She blocked me?!”
Alexander immediately checked his own phone. Same result.
Even the number they’d just dialed earlier–now disconnected.
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Chapter 5
Lynette had blocked them all. Even canceled her number.
Martha finally collapsed into the chair, her heart hollow and cold.
“It’s over.
“Everything is over….
“Lynn must’ve given up completely–that’s why she cut all ties and left.
“But now… where could we even begin to look for her?”
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Four years passed in the blink of an eye.
During that time, no matter what the Harold family or Alexander tried, any trace of Lynette was completely locked down–someone had wiped her info clean.
There was no way to find her.
Ever since discovering that Lynette was truly their biological daughter, Jimmy and Martha had been living under a constant cloud of guilt and regret, staring blankly at the few childhood photos they had of her.
That day was no different. Martha sat at home, lost in one of Lynette’s old pictures.
Out of nowhere, her right eyelid started twitching hard, and her chest filled with an inexplicable panic.
Thinking she just needed to move around, she decided to stop by Laura’s office.
Yes, Lynette was her real daughter now, but she’d also loved Laura deeply for so many years.
She couldn’t just cast her aside overnight.
At the office, Martha didn’t ask the receptionist to go with her. She quietly made her way to Laura’s office, where the door was slightly open.
She reached out to push it open, but froze when she heard shouting inside. Curious, she peeked in, then went com- pletely still.
Inside, Laura was arguing with Becky, the old housemaid who’d once gone to prison for theft!
“You lose your damn mind in prison or something?” Laura snapped.
“Yeah, I’m not a real Harold, but what makes you think I deserve to be your daughter?”
Becky sneered. “If I hadn’t switched your tags with Lynette’s after Mrs. Harold gave birth, back when the nurse took you both to the nursery, you’d still be God knows where, struggling to survive.
“So what if I ask for a few hundred dollars to pay off my gambling debts? The Harold family is loaded, and your heart condition’s cured. What’s a few bucks to you?
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Chapter 5
288 Vouchers
“Or do you want me to tell Mrs. Harold how you stole Lynette’s clothes, pretended to be her, and tricked Mr. Allen into falling for you instead?”
Laura stared at the middle–aged woman in front of her–so familiar and yet so vile.
Her chest heaved in fury.
Thoughts started to spiral in her mind. “Why?!
“Why did Lynette get to be the real daughter? Why had I never measured up, no matter how hard I tried?”
Before the DNA test, she had to imitate Lynette just to get Alexander to notice her.
After the truth came out, everything–status, love, even family–was slowly slipping through her fingers.
She couldn’t accept it!
Just as she was figuring out how to get rid of Becky, the office door suddenly swung open.
Martha stood there, pale as a ghost, her eyes cold and unrecognizable.
“Mom?!” Laura’s face went completely white.