CHAPTER 13: THE MOTHER WHO CHOSE THE LIE
Adrian Vale had imagined this moment many times.
As a child.
As a teenager.
Even as an adult.
The impossible fantasy that one day a lost family member would return.
A mother who disappeared.
A father who was taken away.
A childhood stolen by circumstances beyond his control.
For years, he dreamed of answers.
He dreamed of an explanation.
But standing inside the old Laurent house...
Watching the woman outside step into the light...
He felt something different.
Not relief.
Not happiness.
Fear.
Because dead people were not supposed to return.
And people who returned after twenty years always carried secrets.
The woman stood in the doorway.
Her hair was silver.
Her face was older.
But Adrian knew those eyes.
He had seen them in his childhood memories.
He had seen them in old photographs.
The eyes of the woman who held him when he was sick.
The woman who sang to him before sleep.
His mother.
Isabelle Laurent.
Adrian couldn't speak.
Neither could she.
For several seconds, they simply stared at each other.
Twenty years of separation.
Twenty years of unanswered questions.
Twenty years of pain.
Finally...
She whispered:
"Adrian."
The sound of his name almost broke him.
Because no one said it the same way.
Not Adrian Vale.
Not Mr. Vale.
Just Adrian.
Like he was still a child.
He took one step forward.
Then stopped.
His emotions fought against each other.
A part of him wanted to run toward her.
Another part wanted answers.
"You were alive."
Isabelle's eyes filled with tears.
"Yes."
"You let me believe you were dead."
She looked down.
"Yes."
The honesty hurt.
Adrian laughed quietly.
A broken laugh.
"Everyone lied to me."
Nobody spoke.
"Everyone."
His eyes moved from Isabelle to Damian.
To Elena.
To Alexander.
"My entire life is a collection of lies."
Isabelle stepped closer.
"I know."
"No."
Adrian shook his head.
"You don't."
His voice became heavier.
"You knew what it felt like to lose me?"
The question broke her.
Because she did know.
She looked like someone who had carried that pain every day.
"I lost you the day they took you."
Adrian froze.
"What?"
Isabelle looked at Elena.
Then Damian.
Then back at him.
"Richard didn't just take you from your father."
A pause.
"He took you from me."
Adrian's anger softened slightly.
But only slightly.
"Then why?"
"Why did you disappear?"
Her silence answered before her words did.
"I made a choice."
The room became cold.
"A choice?"
Isabelle nodded.
"The hardest choice of my life."
Adrian stared.
"Explain."
She walked slowly into the room.
Her eyes moved toward the photographs.
Toward the memories.
"Gabriel knew Richard would come for you."
Adrian nodded.
"I know."
"He knew Richard wanted the Laurent inheritance."
"And?"
"And he knew Richard would use you to find it."
Adrian frowned.
"What inheritance?"
Isabelle looked at the recorder.
"The same thing everyone has been fighting over."
"The ownership documents."
"No."
She shook her head.
"That was only part of it."
Everyone became silent.
"What else?"
Isabelle looked at Adrian.
"The truth about your birth."
Adrian felt a familiar coldness.
Again.
Always another secret.
Always another hidden door.
"What truth?"
Isabelle took a deep breath.
"Gabriel wasn't just the founder of Laurent Industries."
Adrian waited.
"He was the rightful heir to the entire organization that later became Vale Corporation."
Damian nodded slowly.
"That's why Richard wanted control."
Isabelle continued.
"But there was one thing Richard didn't know."
"What?"
She looked at Adrian.
"Gabriel had a daughter."
Silence.
Adrian frowned.
"What?"
Isabelle's eyes moved away.
"Before he met me, Gabriel had another family."
The room went still.
Adrian looked confused.
"I don't understand."
"Gabriel had a daughter."
A pause.
"And she survived."
Everyone exchanged looks.
Adrian's heart began beating faster.
"Where is she?"
Isabelle looked at him.
"Standing in this room."
Nobody moved.
The words were impossible.
Adrian slowly turned.
His eyes moved across everyone.
Until they stopped.
Elena.
Damian.
Alexander.
Clara.
No one.
Then...
His eyes landed on the woman standing beside the door.
The woman who had arrived with Isabelle.
A woman he hadn't noticed before.
She stepped forward.
Adrian stared.
Because he recognized her.
Not personally.
But from somewhere.
Photographs.
Company meetings.
News articles.
The woman who had recently become the youngest chairwoman of a major investment group.
The woman who had been competing with Vale Corporation for years.
The woman everyone called a genius.
Her name was...
Victoria Laurent.
Isabelle whispered:
"Your sister."
The room went silent.
Adrian couldn't process it.
A sister.
Another hidden child.
Another person erased from history.
Victoria looked at him.
Unlike Alexander, her eyes held no hatred.
Only sadness.
"I wanted to tell you."
Adrian stared.
"How long have you known me?"
Victoria looked away.
"All my life."
The answer hurt.
"Then why didn't you find me?"
She smiled sadly.
"Because I was told you were safer without me."
"Who told you?"
Nobody answered.
Adrian already knew.
Richard.
Again.
Always Richard.
But then Victoria spoke.
"It wasn't only Richard."
Everyone looked at her.
She continued:
"Someone else helped him."
Adrian's expression changed.
"Who?"
Victoria looked at Damian.
Then at Elena.
Then finally at Isabelle.
Her voice became quiet.
"The person who hid your identity..."
A pause.
"Was your mother."
The room froze.
Adrian stared at Isabelle.
His own mother.
The woman he had spent twenty years believing was a victim.
"You?"
Isabelle started crying.
"Adrian..."
"No."
He stepped back.
"You knew?"
"I had no choice."
"Everyone says that."
His voice cracked.
"Everyone always says they had no choice."
Isabelle looked devastated.
"I was trying to save you."
"By lying to me?"
"Yes."
The answer stunned him.
Because she didn't deny it.
She accepted it.
"I made a deal with Richard."
Adrian felt his chest tighten.
"What deal?"
Isabelle closed her eyes.
"Your life."
A pause.
"His empire."
Silence.
"He promised he would let you live if I disappeared."
Adrian stared.
"And you believed him?"
Isabelle looked at him.
"No."
A tear fell.
"I knew he would eventually betray me."
"Then why?"
She looked at him with unbearable sadness.
"Because I was a mother."
A pause.
"And mothers make impossible choices."
Before Adrian could respond...
A loud explosion shook the house.
Everyone turned.
The windows shattered.
Smoke filled the hallway.
Someone had attacked.
Again.
Damian immediately moved.
"We need to leave."
But nobody moved.
Because in the middle of the chaos...
Victoria looked at Adrian.
And whispered something that made him freeze.
"Adrian..."
"What?"
She looked terrified.
"Richard didn't come here to stop you."
A pause.
"He came because he knows the final secret."
Adrian stared.
"What final secret?"
Victoria's voice dropped.
"The reason Richard was afraid of Gabriel."
The house shook again.
Then she said:
"Your real father didn't leave you an inheritance."
A pause.
"He left you a weapon."
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Hết Chapter 13
(Chapter 14: Adrian phát hiện "vũ khí" Gabriel để lại không phải là tiền hay quyền lực, mà là thứ có thể lật đổ toàn bộ những kẻ đang tranh giành. Nhưng để lấy nó, Adrian phải đối mặt với ký ức bị Richard xóa hoàn toàn.)
