Chapter 117: Her Family

It was Morgan who answered.

"Your mother’s name was Rosella Lancey."

The name settled heavily in the room.

Rosella Lancey.

Isobel repeated it silently before allowing it to leave her lips.

"So... I carried my mother’s maiden name."

A bittersweet smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.

She suddenly remembered what Mama Rena, the elderly caretaker at the orphanage, had told her years ago.

When she was found as an infant, she was wrapped in a faded blanket with a handwritten letter tucked beside her. The letter contained only two things—her name and her birthday.

There was no explanation. No apology. No clue as to why she was abandoned.

The orphanage’s director had searched for anyone bearing the surname Lancey in the nearby towns, hoping to reunite the baby with her family. But every search had ended in disappointment.

It was as if the Lancey family had vanished from the face of the earth.

"Rosella Lancey..." Isobel whispered again, lingering over every syllable.

It was the first time she had ever spoken her mother’s name.

It felt unfamiliar... yet strangely comforting.

As though speaking it aloud somehow brought her a little closer to the woman she had spent twenty-two years wondering about.

Morgan quietly recounted everything Julian had remembered.

How Julian had escaped his kidnappers with no memories of who he was. How Rosella had found him half-dead and nursed him back to health.

How two lonely souls had slowly fallen in love.

How they had dreamed of a simple future together.

And how that dream had shattered the moment Julian’s family found him and brought him back to the life he had forgotten.

He hadn’t even had the chance to say goodbye.

By the time Morgan finished, silence engulfed the room. Isobel lowered her eyes. Her chest felt unbearably heavy.

Her mother’s story was heartbreak wrapped in sacrifice. Rosella had loved a man who had never intended to betray her...a man who was never meant to be hers.

She slowly lifted her gaze to Julian.

The resentment she had imagined feeling wasn’t there. Instead, her heart was tangled in emotions she couldn’t even begin to untangle: Pity, sadness, longing, and confusion.

Then, for the first time since learning the truth, her eyes drifted toward Leanne. She truly looked at her.

Leanne sat quietly beside Julian, her posture elegant despite the pain hidden behind her composed expression.

She wasn’t angry. She wasn’t glaring. If anything, there was only quiet sorrow in her eyes.

Their gazes met. A lump formed in Isobel’s throat. An overwhelming sense of guilt washed over her.

She felt as though her very existence had become a painful reminder of another woman’s heartbreak.

A child born from a love that should never have happened.

Leanne Foster had done nothing wrong.

She had been a faithful wife... a loving mother.

Yet because of circumstances beyond anyone’s control, she had unknowingly shared her husband with another woman.

Isobel lowered her head.

"I’m... sorry."

The words escaped before she could stop them. She wasn’t even sure what she was apologizing for.

For being born? For existing? For reopening old wounds? For being living proof of a past no one wanted to relive?

Tears blurred her vision.

She swallowed hard before forcing herself to ask the question that had haunted her since Morgan uttered her mother’s name.

"Is... is my mother still alive?" Her voice cracked on the last word.

Deep inside... she already knew the answer she feared.

Twenty-two years. If Rosella had wanted her, she would have come.

And yet, a tiny, stubborn part of her heart still clung to hope.

"I don’t know."

This time, it was Julian who answered.

His voice was rough with regret.

"In all honesty... I only remembered Rosella after seeing you the other day."

His eyes reddened.

"I had forgotten everything about that part of my life. Even her face... even her name."

Slowly, he reached for Isobel’s trembling hands.

His weathered, wrinkled palms enclosed hers with surprising gentleness, as though afraid she would disappear if he held too tightly.

His own hands shook.

"I’m sorry, my child."

His voice broke.

"I failed your mother."

He closed his eyes, unable to hide the agony etched across his face.

"I never meant to abandon her. I never meant to leave either of you."

A tear escaped the corner of his eye.

"But intentions don’t erase the pain I caused."

He tightened his grip ever so slightly.

"And I failed you, too."

His shoulders slumped beneath the crushing weight of decades of guilt.

"While I lived surrounded by my family... you grew up without parents. You suffered through twenty-two years of loneliness, wondering why no one ever came for you."

His voice became barely above a whisper.

"I can never give those years back."

Silence filled the room once more.

Only the quiet sound of Isobel’s sobs remained, echoing through the space like the grief of two lives that fate had torn apart long before either of them had a choice.

Then, all at once, the pieces fell into place.

Isobel’s eyes widened.

She slowly turned toward Morgan, her lips parting as the realization crashed over her like a tidal wave.

"Morgan..."

Her voice trembled.

"If Julian is my father..."

She swallowed hard, tears already gathering in her eyes.

"Then... then you’re..." She couldn’t finish the sentence.

Morgan smiled through the tears welling in his own eyes and gave a small nod.

"Yes, Isobel."

His voice was thick with emotion.

"I’m your brother."

The words shattered the invisible wall around her heart.

Before she knew it, Isobel had thrown herself into his arms.

Morgan caught her effortlessly, wrapping his arms around her as though he had been waiting his entire life for this embrace.

She cried against his shoulder.

"No wonder..." she whispered between sobs. "No wonder I always felt safe with you."

She laughed weakly through her tears.

"It was as if something kept pulling me toward you... as if my heart already knew what my mind didn’t."

Morgan gently stroked her hair.

"Maybe blood recognizes blood."

Isobel tightened her embrace.

"I’m so happy..." she murmured. "I’m so happy you’re my brother."

She pulled back just enough to look at him, her tear-streaked face breaking into the brightest smile she’d worn in years.

"That means Kristoffer and Kirsten..."

Morgan chuckled.

"They’re your nephew and niece."

A soft laugh escaped her lips.

"I have a family."

The words sounded foreign but beautiful.

"I finally have a family."

For twenty-two years, she had believed she was alone in the world.

An orphan. But now... She had a father, a brother and sister, a sister-in-law. A nephew and a niece.

A home she had never known existed.