Chapter 102

Victoria collapses into the chair after my confession. The devastation in her eyes is unraveling me.

Nathan, who had been holding me, releases me as if I’ve scorched him. He steps back slowly, putting distance between us.

I know the others are stunned, but their reactions don’t matter right now. Not when my own family is staring at me like I’m a stranger.

"Tell me this is some twisted joke," Victoria pleads, her voice trembling. "Tell me you didn’t hide a child from us all these years."

I wish I could lie. Just to erase the heartbreak in their eyes. But the truth is out now. There’s no escaping it.

"I’m sorry," I sob, stumbling toward her. "I wanted to tell you, but I was so ashamed."

I reach for her hand, but she flinches away.

This is exactly what I feared. Sophia was right. I was the golden child—the one who never faltered, the one who thought before acting.

Except for that one mistake.

Now they see me for what I truly am. Flawed. Human. The advantage I held over Sophia is gone.

I’m just like her now.

"How?" Nathan demands, pacing angrily. "When did this happen? Did Dad know?"

"No. Only Lucas and Evelyn knew." I can’t bring myself to meet Victoria’s gaze.

"Start from the beginning," Victoria snaps, her voice sharp. "I want to know why you kept my grandson a secret."

I don’t want to relive this, but I have no choice.

"After Ethan married Sophia, I was shattered. I pretended to be fine—for you, for Dad, for Nathan. But I was drowning. When I went back to school, I fell into depression."

I sink onto the grass, feeling as small as I did the day I learned Ethan had slept with Sophia.

"I stopped eating. Stopped sleeping. Barely left my room. Evelyn noticed. She threatened to call you if I didn’t get help. I couldn’t let you see me like that. I couldn’t let Sophia know she’d broken me."

The bitterness I felt toward Sophia back then was suffocating.

"Eventually, I got better. Evelyn became my anchor. My grades improved. I stopped crying over Ethan." I take a shaky breath. "Then I ran into Lucas again. We went to the same university. He was Evelyn’s project partner."

"We barely spoke. I tolerated him for Evelyn’s sake. When he didn’t act obsessed like in high school, I relaxed. We coexisted."

This is agony. I want to stop, but they won’t let me.

"Things were okay for a while. Then Evelyn called to tell me Sophia had given birth to a boy. That Ethan adored his son the moment he saw him." My voice cracks. "Everything shattered. All the pain I’d buried resurfaced."

"I was furious. At myself for rejecting Ethan’s proposal. At Ethan for sleeping with Sophia. At Sophia for marrying him. At the baby for existing."

A sharp inhale comes from Ethan. I don’t need to look to know it’s him.

"I wanted to hurt Ethan. I knew he hated Lucas for liking me, so I seduced him. I wanted word to get back to Ethan. I wanted him to feel what I felt."

I don’t tell them it was also how I lost my virginity. I’d saved myself for Ethan. Instead, I gave it to a man I didn’t love.

"I regretted it the next morning. I told Lucas it was a mistake. I snuck out, thinking that was the end."

But fate had other plans.

"My period was late. A test confirmed it. I was pregnant."

It was the worst moment of my life. I’d always believed Ethan and I would reconcile. A baby would ruin that.

"Why didn’t you take the morning-after pill?" Victoria asks.

"I was naive. It was my first time. I didn’t think once was enough." My cheeks burn. "If I’d told Evelyn, she would’ve made me take it. But I was too ashamed."

"You and Ethan never…?" Nathan asks, stunned.

Ethan groans. "Do we have to discuss this?"

"Yes, I was a virgin," I say flatly. "I told Lucas about the baby. I wanted an abortion, but he refused."

"You wanted to—?" Victoria’s voice is thick with horror.

I nod. "Lucas threatened to tell you if I went through with it. So I carried the baby. It was the worst nine months of my life."

"That’s why you disappeared," Nathan murmurs.

"I stayed off-campus with Lucas. When I gave birth, I told the nurses to give the baby to him. I didn’t want to see him. Hold him. Nothing."

"You didn’t even look at your own child?" Victoria whispers.

"No. To me, he was a mistake I wanted to forget."

Victoria stands abruptly. "You lived your life as if he never existed?"

"Mom—"

"Enough!" she shouts, then softer, "Enough. First your father. Then Sophia. Now this? I can’t even look at you."

She walks away, leaving me sobbing on the ground.

One by one, the others follow. Nathan is last.

He shakes his head in disgust. "I never expected this from you, Isabella. Never."

Then he’s gone.

I curl into myself, weeping. Everything was perfect before Sophia ruined it.

This is all her fault.

I’ll never forgive her.

Never.