Chapter 6

Twenty Years Later, I Became Her Boss Chapter 08

4 min read

Twenty Years Later, I Became Her Boss Chapter 08

Richard slumped to the floor and stared up at me, his lips trembling for a long moment.

“You… didn’t you run off with some thug?”

I froze for a second, then laughed out loud.

“I ran off with some thug? Is that what Lauren told you?”

Richard whipped his head toward Lauren.

Lauren’s face was frighteningly pale, and her eyes kept darting away.

“Didn’t you tell me she got into trouble at boarding school, started running around with some lowlife from outside campus, got pregnant, and ran off with him?”

Richard’s voice was shaking.

“So you believed whatever she told you?”

My voice was cold.

“Why don’t you ask your wonderful wife where she really sent me back then?”

Lauren shot to her feet and pointed at me, shrieking.

“You’re lying. Your father sent you to boarding school, and you were the one who had no shame—”

I pressed the remote.

The giant screen lit up. It showed a letter written by Lauren to the director of Sunrise Children’s Home.

The letter read, [Keep Emily Bradford under control. You don’t have to be gentle with her. Don’t let her outside. Don’t feed her properly. Beat her if you have to, lock her up if you have to, and just keep her alive. I’ll send the payment on time every year. Don’t let her escape.]

The date was the third day after I had been thrown out of the Bradford family.

The studio went silent for one instant, then erupted.

“Don’t feed her properly? Beat her if you have to? What kind of monster writes that?”

“Twenty years ago? She was only six.”

Lauren’s body kept shaking, and the muscles in her face twitched.

“I didn’t write that letter. You forged it.”

“Forged it? The handwriting is yours, the bank transfers are yours, and the children’s home has had that letter in its files for twenty years.”

I stared at her.

“Lauren, you thought I would die in there. But not only did I survive, I escaped.”

Richard pushed himself up from the floor, his eyes bloodshot as he glared at Lauren.

“You told me she was at boarding school, but behind my back, you did this?”

Then he turned to me, his face full of sudden tenderness.

“Emily, I did look for you. When you were sixteen, I said I wanted to bring you home—”

“Did you actually look?”

I cut him off.

Richard opened his mouth, but the words stuck in his throat. After a long moment, he forced out a sentence.

“It was Lauren. Lauren said you had run off with some thug, and I was so angry that I—”

I smiled.

“So you still believed whatever she told you.”

I looked into his eyes.

“Just like back then, when she said I was bullying Anna, you threw me out of the house without even thinking. I was six years old.”

Richard’s face turned ashen.

He spun around and slapped Lauren hard across the face.

“This is all your fault. All of it, you bitch.”

The slap sent Lauren crashing into the arm of the couch.

She clutched her face and froze for a second before lunging at him, her nails raking toward his face.

“Stop pretending you’re some loving father. Richard, every time you saw her, didn’t she remind you of your dead first wife? You wanted her gone forever too. And now you’re blaming me?”

The two of them started fighting.

Anna screamed and rushed forward to pull them apart, only for Lauren’s elbow to hit her in the chin. She fell back onto the couch, crying.

Camera flashes went wild.

The studio doors opened.

Uniformed officers walked in. The one in front stepped up to Richard and showed his badge.

“Richard Bradford, you’re under arrest on multiple charges, including bribery, embezzlement, and using violence in illegal property seizures.”

Another officer walked up to Lauren.

“Lauren Bradford, you’re under arrest for unlawful confinement of a minor and child abandonment. Come with us.”

Lauren’s body went limp, and she collapsed to the floor.

Anna threw herself over her, sobbing.

“What gives you the right to arrest my mom?”

No one answered her.