Fake Daughter Is the Real Legend novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: The Old Bridge

The old stone bridge on the county road had been closed to cars for years.

Bethany stood at the middle of it in a rain jacket, with a black folder held against her chest and nobody else in sight.

I came on foot from the far end.

Leander waited in the trees by the road, where she could not see him and I could.

"You came alone," she said.

"I said I would."

The river ran loud and brown under us.

A wind came up the valley and moved her hair across her face. She did not push it away. She looked at it and not at me.

"You can have the files," she said. "I only want one thing."

"I know. Tell me why first."

She laughed, short and wet.

"My mother never wanted me," Bethany said. "I was a mistake. I was something she hid in a boarding school until I was old enough to be useful. She came on my birthdays if she needed something."

"Helen."

"She called me 'the investment.' When I was seventeen she told me exactly who my father was, and then she showed me the Ashcroft house in a magazine." Her mouth twisted. "She said, 'That's where you belong.' I thought it meant she loved me."

I said nothing. She needed the quiet more than the comfort.

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