Chapter 4She Gave Our Daughter to Her First Love

Hugh's POV

But Felicia didn't believe me. She was still angry and convinced that I was being unreasonable.

"Gordon didn't want to blow this up or call the cops and make things harder for you. You're just malicious."

Then, she added, "Your mom found out the truth before she died. She begged me to let her see Elsa and bring the girl back to you. Thank goodness I didn't listen."

Something inside my head seemed to explode.

Realizing she'd slipped up, Felicia immediately clamped her mouth shut.

I stared at her in disbelief. Betrayal from someone this close cut deeper than anything else.

No wonder Mom's condition had suddenly worsened, landing her in the ICU. She'd been so sick she couldn't speak, and she barely had the strength to move her hands.

Even in her final moments, she'd kept trying to speak, desperate to tell me the truth. In the end, she died with her eyes still open, full of regret.

Tears rolled down my face. Mom was the only family I had left. My chest ached as if it had been cut open. She had devoted her whole life to caring for me, only to spend her last five years consumed by guilt and self-blame.

I grabbed Felicia. "Why did you do this? Why do you have to tell her? Why? You made me suffer, and I accepted that. But my mom was innocent. She always treated you like her own daughter!"

A flicker of remorse crossed Felicia's face.

I thought of how Felicia had always been in poor health and how Mom had looked after her for more than six months. After Elsa was born, Mom continued to be there for Felicia, giving her the maternal love she'd never had.

And this was how she repaid my mom. How could she be so cruel?

Felicia knew she was in the wrong, but she still refused to back down. She took Elsa and left.

She had said I deserved every bit of the pain I was in. After all, I'd caused Gordon pain too.

The door slammed shut behind them.

Soon, posts twisting the narrative started flooding the Internet. Felicia claimed that our marriage had been over for a long time. She portrayed me as mentally ill and reckless, even accusing me of having hurt Elsa in the past.

She said she'd had no choice but to let Gordon raise Elsa to keep her safe and continued to give our daughter her love.

Every single word painted me as a terrible husband, a dangerous man who had lost his mind.

When Elsa spoke out online too, she sealed my fate. The entire Internet turned against me.

One comment read, "And to think we actually believed he loved his daughter and cared about finding her. What a joke!"

My phone blew up with calls, and people even started sending me death threats.

I had nowhere left to go, so I hid out at Mom's gravesite. I brushed my fingers over her gravestone and said, "Mom, we both misjudged them."

Rain was falling when Felicia showed up with an umbrella in her hand.

"This will blow over soon. You shouldn't have posted that, so you brought this on yourself. But about your mom… That was my fault. I never meant for her to find out the way she did, and I never meant for it to make her condition worse," she said flatly.

I let out a bitter, broken smile.

I hadn't betrayed anyone in this relationship. The only person I'd ever let down was my younger self, the guy who had once believed so deeply in love.

As for them, I was done. I wanted nothing more to do with them.

I pushed Felicia's umbrella away, slowly got to my feet, and walked away on unsteady legs.