Part 3 Noah woke up and found me sitting there, tears streaming down my face.
Part 3
Noah woke up and found me sitting there, tears streaming down my face.
“Emma? What’s wrong?”
I handed him the papers without a word.
He went completely still as he read. His face drained of color. For a long moment, he didn’t speak.
Then, quietly: “I was going to tell you. After the wedding.”
I stood up, voice breaking. “You knew? All this time you knew you had family? Money? That someone was keeping you in that place on purpose?”
Noah’s eyes filled with tears. “I found out when I was 19. I hired someone to look into my past. When I learned what my uncle did… I was terrified. I didn’t want that world. I wanted the life we built together — the real one.”
He wheeled closer. “I was going to renounce the money. Or give it away. I just wanted a few more weeks of being normal with you.”
I wanted to be angry. I wanted to scream.
But I looked at the boy I had loved since I was seven — the one who had held my hand through every rejection, every lonely night.
I knelt in front of his wheelchair and took his hands.
“You should have told me. We’re supposed to be a team.”
“I know,” he whispered. “I’m sorry.”