CHAPTER 2: THE PHOTO IN THE LOCKET
CHAPTER 2: THE PHOTO IN THE LOCKET
Victor Hawthorne slowly descended the staircase.
The crowd parted immediately.
Sophia straightened.
"Mr. Hawthorne, this is just a minor—"
"I asked a question."
His voice was calm.
Which somehow made it worse.
Sophia swallowed.
"There was a uniform issue."
"So your solution was to force a pregnant employee to work barefoot?"
No answer came.
Victor's eyes moved toward Emily.
For a brief moment, something strange crossed his face.
Confusion.
Recognition.
Disbelief.
Emily looked down.
She hated attention.
Especially from powerful men.
Victor noticed the silver locket hanging around her neck.
His expression changed instantly.
"Where did you get that?"
Emily touched it instinctively.
"My mother's."
Victor stepped closer.
The ballroom watched in silence.
"May I see it?"
Emily hesitated before opening the locket.
Inside was a faded photograph.
A young woman smiling beside a handsome man.
Victor's face turned pale.
Several guests gasped.
The woman in the picture looked remarkably like Emily.
But it was the man that shocked him.
Because the man was Victor himself.
Thirty years younger.
The ballroom erupted into whispers.
Sophia's face drained of color.
Victor stared at the photo.
His hands trembled.
"Your mother's name..."
"Anna Carter."
The billionaire stopped breathing.
Twenty-five years vanished from his eyes.
Memories flooded back.
A young woman.
A summer romance.
Promises interrupted by tragedy.
A letter that never arrived.
A goodbye that never happened.
Victor looked at Emily.
Then at the photograph.
Then back at Emily.
And suddenly he saw it.
The same eyes.
The same smile.
The same stubborn strength.
His voice cracked.
"Anna was your mother?"
Emily nodded.
The ballroom became silent again.
Victor whispered something nobody expected.
May you like
Something that changed everything.
"Then you're my daughter."
