Chapter 1315
Kaleb shot to his feet and pulled Rita into a crushing embrace.
“Welcome home, little sister!”
Rita stood motionless, stunned. The news felt unreal, as if fortune itself had rearranged her life in an instant. Her mind reeled to grasp the enormity of it.
Edgar and Elsie rushed forward, gripping her hands, their faces trembling with emotion.
“It all makes sense now,” Edgar whispered, overcome.
“Your eyes, your grace, your quiet strength—you’re exactly the daughter I always imagined.”
Elsie dissolved into deeper sobs.
“My poor child… I failed to protect you. You must have suffered so much out there.”
Tears streamed down Rita’s cheeks. For ten long years her memories had been blank. She had drifted through life like a piece of driftwood on a vast sea, rootless and adrift. Now, hearing Edgar and Elsie call her daughter, a warmth spread through her that felt like home—an ache finally soothed.
Around them, the household exhaled. Servants who had watched Rita with polite distance now wept openly, moved by the reunion. Jenifer reached for Rita’s hand and squeezed it gently.
“We will make up for lost time,” she promised.
Kaleb knelt and touched Rita’s shoulder as if pledging himself.
“We will protect you. From now on, you’re family.”
Edgar’s face, usually so stern, softened until it seemed almost boyish with relief. He looked at the people around him—Elsie, Kaleb, Jenifer, the staff—and then back to Rita.
“We will find the truth about what happened that night,” he said hoarsely.
“Whoever stole you will answer for it.”
Rita shook her head, bewildered and grateful.
“I don’t know what to say,” she whispered.
: ν
“I only know I’m tired of being alone.”
“You are not alone anymore,” Elsie said.
“Not ever again.”
As the Thompsons gathered around Rita, hope and sorrow braided together—grief for the years lost, and a fragile joy that the central wound had finally been exposed. Outside the mansion, the night pressed in, but inside the house a new light had been kindled: the long search for truth had just begun, and with it, the possibility of healing.
Rita felt the weight of years lift from her shoulders. She had wandered through life rootless and alone, but now she finally understood—her home had been here all along, and her family had been waiting for her.
“Dad! Mom!” she called, the words awkward on her tongue but full of a joy that almost made her dizzy.
Edgar and Elsie dissolved into tears, relief and love crashing over them. They pulled Rita into a fierce embrace, clinging to her as if fearful fate might still try to snatch her away. Their hands trembled as they held her, each touch a promise to never lose her again.
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