Chapter 1125:
Jacob didn’t follow her lead. Instead, he offered a faint smile, his eyes glinting with something unreadable. “Compared to your mother, I’ve been a lousy father,” he said, his voice low. “I’ve been so caught up with the hospital, the company, your mother’s health… I haven’t made enough time for you. It’s been too long since we’ve just talked like this.”
Alethea mirrored his smile, though it didn’t reach her eyes. “It’s not your fault, Dad. I haven’t exactly made things easy. I know I’ve been a handful in the past.” Jacob’s gaze lingered on her, and for a moment, she felt the weight of his scrutiny. Then, without warning, he shifted gears, his voice cutting through the air like a blade. “Do you know that Carrie is actually the relative we’ve been trying to find?”
The question hit like a shockwave. Alethea’s breath caught, her eyes widening before she could school her expression. Panic flickered across her face, brief but undeniable.
She recovered quickly, forcing her features into a mask of surprise. “What?”
He wasn’t looking at her but instead turned his gaze forward, saying, “I said, Carrie is the relative we’ve been trying to find. And I think you’ve known that for a while, haven’t you?”
This time, his words weren’t a question—they were a statement, heavy with certainty.
The words hit Alethea like a slap, sharp and unyielding, slicing through the fog of her carefully constructed mask. She froze, her breath catching as Jacob’s question hung in the air, heavy with suspicion.
How much did he know? The question gnawed at her, a relentless whisper in the back of her mind.
Panic surged through her, cold and slick, like ice water flooding her veins. Beads of sweat prickled her brow, chilling her skin. She forced her lips into a smile, but the effort felt brittle, as if it might shatter into something uglier than tears.
Jacob’s gaze pinned her in place, his eyes narrowing as he twisted the cap onto the water bottle with deliberate slowness. “Alethea, you know I value honesty above everything else. I do not tolerate lies. Whatever you say today, I will take as the truth. But there will not be a second chance.”
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Her mind raced, sifting through every step she had taken, every secret she had buried.
Even if the world turned against her, Jacob could only have learned one thing: she had gone after Carrie.
Her dislike for Carrie had always simmered, a quiet resentment that flared whenever their paths crossed. Targeting her had not seemed like a grave sin—at least, not at the time.
But if Jacob knew the full truth, if he suspected Alethea had acted against Carrie with knowledge of her true identity, it was not just Carrie she had betrayed. It was Kelsey.
Alethea’s heart thudded as she pictured Kelsey, the woman Jacob cherished with a devotion that bordered on obsession. Some whispered that his love was a facade, a calculated move to secure the Hinks family’s fortune. Alethea knew better.
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