Daniel forced out another nervous laugh.
“Sir, with all respect, you can buy similar necklaces anywhere—”
“Shut up,” Eleanor snapped.
Then she turned the necklace over carefully.
“There’s an inscription on the back.”
Richard’s hands shook violently as Emily allowed him to examine it.
Faded by time, but still visible, were the engraved initials:
E.K. — My light always returns.
Richard closed his eyes.
Then the most powerful man in the room dropped to his knees before the woman in the cheap blue dress.
“Elizabeth,” he choked out through tears. “My daughter… my little Elizabeth.”
The ballroom erupted into stunned whispers.
Emily felt the floor disappear beneath her.
For thirty years, she had lived with a hole inside her life no answer could fill.
Now suddenly, the impossible stood in front of her crying.
Eleanor could barely speak.
“The accident…” she sobbed. “We were told nobody survived. We buried an empty coffin and mourned you for thirty years.”
Richard looked at Emily like he was terrified she might vanish again.
“I spent ten years searching for you,” he whispered. “Private investigators. Police. Hospitals. I never stopped hoping.”
Daniel’s entire expression changed instantly.
The humiliation vanished.
Greed replaced it.
“Baby!” he exclaimed suddenly, trying to wrap an arm around Emily’s waist. “I always knew there was something extraordinary about you! Mr. Kensington, I swear I treated her like a queen all these years.”
Emily stepped away from him in disgust.
“Don’t touch me.”
Daniel blinked rapidly.
“Emily, sweetheart, emotions are running high—”
“No,” she interrupted coldly. “For the first time in five years, I see clearly.”
The room was completely silent now.
“You told me an hour ago to hide near the bathrooms because you were ashamed of me,” she continued. “You spent years mocking the woman who fed me when I had nothing. You treated my past like something dirty.”
Daniel’s face turned pale.
“But now that I’m your boss’s daughter, suddenly I’m worthy?”
Investors nearby exchanged disgusted looks.
“Emily, don’t do this publicly—”
“You love status,” she said sharply. “Not me.”
