The Secret Behind the Birth Certificate
Victoria’s lips trembled.

“Richard, she’s lying! She’s probably trying to steal your money!”

But Richard wasn’t listening.

He gently took Emily’s hand and noticed a small crescent-shaped birthmark near her wrist.

His knees nearly gave way.

“My daughter had that exact mark.”

Emily stepped backward.

“My grandmother told me my mother abandoned me at the hospital.”

Richard shook his head.

“No. I held my daughter for ten minutes before the doctors took her away. The next morning, Victoria told me she had died.”

Every face turned toward Victoria.

Richard immediately called his family’s longtime attorney, who arrived carrying documents from a private investigation.

The records revealed that a newborn girl had been transferred from the hospital under a false name twenty-three years earlier.

The transfer had been authorized by Victoria Harrington.

“Why?” Richard demanded, his voice breaking. “Why would you take my daughter from me?”

Victoria collapsed into a chair.

“Because she wasn’t supposed to survive. The doctors said she needed expensive treatment. I was afraid you’d give away everything to save her!”

Emily covered her mouth, tears streaming down her cheeks.

Richard looked at the young waitress standing before him.

“You were alive all these years, and I never knew.”

But the attorney interrupted.

“Mr. Harrington, there’s something else. Emily’s grandmother left a signed statement before entering the hospital.”

He unfolded the document.

“It says Victoria wasn’t acting alone. Someone else arranged the baby’s disappearance.”

Richard stared at the signature at the bottom.

It belonged to his younger brother, the man who had controlled the Harrington family fortune for twenty-three years.

And suddenly, Richard understood why his daughter had disappeared.