Chapter 3 â Every Lie Comes Due
"I raised your daughter as my servant?"
Isabella's voice cracked.
Julian's eyes never left hers.
"No."
"You turned my daughter into your servant."
Maya stared at both of them.
"I don't understand."
Julian took a deep breath.
"Twenty-five years ago, I loved your mother before I met Isabella."
"She disappeared before she could tell me she was pregnant."
"I searched for both of you."
"For years."
He reached into his briefcase.
Private investigators' reports.
Hospital records.
Adoption files.
Photographs.
"I never stopped."
Maya looked down at the old picture.
It showed a young Julian holding a smiling woman beside a newborn baby.
Tears quietly rolled down her cheeks.
"I thought my parents abandoned me."
Julian's voice trembled for the first time.
"I never knew where you were."
Isabella suddenly screamed.
"She's lying!"
Julian turned slowly.
"No."
"You are."
He pressed a button on the television remote.
Security footage appeared.
Three years of recordings.
Every insult.
Every impossible order.
Every public humiliation.
Every cruel word Isabella had spoken to Maya.
May you like
No one said anything.
The evidence spoke for itself.
