Chapter 1238
No.1
A heavy silence filled the room. Gregory shot a venomous look toward Richard and Eleanor. "Look what your family's incompetence has brought upon us. Clean up this mess. That other daughter of yours—the Montgomery heiress. She's rolling in money. Find her. Make her pay for decent accommodations. At least get us out of this hospital hellhole."
Eleanor's head snapped up, a sudden idea flashing in her eyes. She turned to Richard, her meal forgotten. "She's right. Isabella! That ungrateful wretch we took in. This has her fingerprints all over it. Victoria would never do this. She loved us! Isabella must have threatened her. Forced the transfers. Maybe even... eliminated her afterward?"
Richard went rigid, the color draining from his face. The unspoken horror of it settled over everyone.
Penelope shot to her feet, the plastic chair screeching. "Of course! It makes perfect sense! Victoria was the heir. Why would she throw that away? Risk prison? Unless she had no choice! That Montgomery viper! She could have arranged the whole thing! She could have had her killed!"
The air grew thick with dread. Just as Theodore drew a breath to reprimand them, the attorney burst through the door, disheveled and breathless.
"I found something! In the waste bin... pieces... I pieced them together..."
Eleanor snatched the reconstructed page from his trembling hands. The family crowded around, their breaths held.
The handwriting was frantic, desperate.
Why... why wasn't I born a Montgomery? Why is my entire life a lie balanced on a knife's edge?
This constant fear of losing it all is torture! I'm losing my mind!
No.2
What gives you the right, Isabella? Just blood? You want to steal the twenty-three years of love I earned?
Why didn't you just die in that damned village?!
Victoria's breakdown was etched in every jagged word. She'd torn the evidence of her turmoil to shreds, a futile attempt to hide her crumbling sanity. The attorney's meticulousness had unearthed her secret.
The paper trembled violently in Eleanor's grip. Her world tilted on its axis.
Victoria... wasn't hers.
Isabella... was?
Impossible.
She had cradled Victoria, had fed her, had soothed her nightmares. Isabella was the charity case, the child from the trash.
This couldn't be real.
Richard stood frozen beside her, his mouth agape, unable to form a single word. The truth was a physical blow.
No.3
“This can’t be true! Victoria would never write this! There must be some error… Look into it immediately!”
“But… I’ve already verified the handwriting. It’s unmistakably Victoria’s. The document even carries her fingerprints,” the attorney explained helplessly.
What more evidence could they possibly need?
Adrian entered at that precise moment. “There’s no need for further investigation. Isabella is your biological daughter. Years ago, Victoria’s birth mother and Eleanor gave birth in the same hospital. Her mother was dying after delivering Victoria. To secure a better future for her child, that woman secretly switched the babies. She took the true heiress, Isabella, and abandoned her in a trash bin. That’s how Victoria became the Montgomery heiress. This is why your heart ached when you found the baby in the bin. This is why you always treated that foundling better than Victoria.”
Eleanor felt as if struck by lightning. Her pupils dilated in shock.
It was true—her heart had wrenched at the sight of little Isabella in that bin. She had always favored the child she rescued over Victoria. But was that really enough to believe Isabella was her actual daughter?
It sounded absurd.
Everyone in the hospital room was stunned into silence.
Isabella—Eleanor’s real daughter? Victoria was just a swapped imposter? It was too dramatic to believe. It felt like a plot from a soap opera.
Adrian handed over a DNA report. “The day after you exiled Isabella five years ago, she asked me to collect strands of your hair for a DNA test outside Westchester. She tried calling everyone to come home, but all her calls were blocked.
No.4
“This new DNA test was conducted yesterday using Isabella and Benjamin’s blood. She always intended to show you, but never got the chance.”
Eleanor, Richard, Theodore, and the others crowded around to read the report. The results were clear: Isabella was undeniably the true Montgomery heiress. She and Benjamin shared the same mother.
The first test might have been done at a hospital outside Westchester, but Grace Memorial was owned by the Blackwood corporation. No matter how powerful Isabella was, she could never have bribed Blackwood staff…
“So… Isabella is actually my cousin?” Sophia murmured, still dazed.
“It does make sense, though,” Gregory added. “Victoria ran off with the money because she knew she wasn’t a real Montgomery. She wanted to destroy the entire family.”
Adrian laughed mockingly. “Oh, it’s much worse than that. Victoria discovered the truth when she was eight. First, she manipulated Benjamin and Isabella, rendering them useless. She planned to seize every share of the family fortune. Five years ago, during Isabella’s engagement party, she overheard Victoria conspiring with Alexander. That’s why they pushed her down the stairs! Victoria has been a demon lurking in the shadows since she was eight, plotting against all of you. And you treated her like royalty! How utterly hilarious.”
His scornful words echoed through the room.
Eleanor’s body jolted violently. Overwhelmed, her blood pressure spiked. She collapsed to the floor, unconscious.
Richard quickly lifted her onto an empty bed. The room descended into chaos again.
Theodore trembled, urgently gesturing to Adrian. “Hurry, find Isabella… Bring her back…!”
No.5
“It’s too late, Father,” Richard muttered, his voice thick with regret. Each word felt like a punch to his gut.
Richard Montgomery’s expression darkened at his son’s words. “Why?”
“I… We believed Isabella was responsible for the destruction at the Kensington Estate yesterday. So we invoked your authority to revoke her shares and formally disowned her. We even gathered men to storm the Rosewood Manor and insulted her publicly. She… She may refuse to assist us now…” Richard hung his head, the shame of facing Isabella overwhelming him.
The elder Montgomery’s face flushed with rage. “You fools! How could you be so reckless? Did I not explicitly say we wait for Benjamin to regain consciousness? How dare you defy me—cough, cough!”
His coughing intensified with each furious word.
Adrian Sinclair rushed to his side. “Please, sir, remain calm. Let them rectify their errors—don’t sacrifice your health over their foolishness.”
“My health is irrelevant… Isabella is what matters. My true granddaughter all along! Richard, you will go to her and apologize immediately! I don’t care how you do it, but you will bring her back into this family. If you fail, I will disown you as my son!” Senior Montgomery’s voice trembled with fury.
Richard nodded grimly. “I understand, Father. Once Eleanor is conscious, we will go together. Please, try to calm yourself.”
He needed to steady his own emotions. The daughter he cherished for twenty-three years was not his biological child, while the one he rejected and mistreated was his actual flesh and blood.
The daughter he adored had been secretly scheming against the family all along.
No.6
The revelation felt like the ground had shattered beneath him.
Eleanor Kensington drifted in a troubled sleep, trapped in a lengthy nightmare. She dreamt of rescuing Isabella from a dumpster and raising her with affection until she turned eight, when the girl became defiant and unruly. Isabella repeatedly humiliated the Montgomery name. Eleanor’s scornful words echoed in the dream: “Get out of this family! I regret ever taking in a stray like you!” “Why are you so ungrateful? You’re just an adopted child! Nothing more!”
Young Isabella stared back with tear-filled eyes. “If you hate me so much, then cast me out!”
She turned and fled, sprinting toward a jagged cliff edge—a gaping chasm with no bottom.
Eleanor tried to chase her, but Isabella leaped into the void, her small form disappearing into the abyss.
“No!”
Eleanor jolted awake, her face wet with tears. Richard gripped her shoulders. “What’s wrong, Eleanor?”
“I… I dreamed of Isabella. She was running away…” Her voice shook with terror.
Her mind foggy, she clutched Richard’s arm. “Tell me it was just a dream. The lawyer hasn’t come, right? Victoria is still our real daughter, isn’t she?”
Richard frowned and sighed heavily after a long pause. He said nothing.
No.7
The hospital room grew thick with tension.
Eleanor’s grip on his arm slackened, her hand falling away.
His silence confirmed the truth. It was no nightmare. Victoria was not her biological daughter. Her real daughter was Isabella…
Isabella was the same daughter Eleanor had scolded and beaten as a child. She had despised this 'adopted daughter' so much she even removed her from the family registry. She had even brought men to attack her private manor! A tidal wave of guilt and regret crashed over her. She clutched Richard's arm desperately. "Oh, Richard, what do we do now? How can we possibly face Isabella? Will she ever forgive us? I'm too ashamed to even look at her!"
"I'm utterly ashamed as well," Richard sighed heavily.
At least Eleanor had been kind to Isabella when she first brought her home. Everyone else had fought against the decision, assuming Eleanor and Richard were just scheming for a larger share of the family fortune. It had caused a massive scandal back then. Because of that, Richard had never liked Isabella from the start. He had never shown her a single ounce of kindness.