They mocked the disgraced sister at the Duke’s wedding—then he stopped the ceremony after learning why she had vanished eight years ago

Chapter 8

Several days later, Isabella returned quietly to Ashcroft Manor.

The estate felt different now. The grand halls seemed colder. The ancestral portraits on the walls looked less impressive. Even the servants appeared uneasy — many had witnessed the wedding scandal, many already knew the truth. She avoided notice as much as she could. Her purpose was not confrontation, not yet. She wanted answers.

The family records were kept in a locked study that her mother rarely allowed anyone to enter. As a child, Isabella had never questioned why. Now she intended to find out.

Late one evening, while Cordelia attended a gathering in town, Isabella slipped into the study. Dust coated many of the shelves. Leather-bound ledgers filled the cabinets along the walls. The room smelled faintly of old paper and long-extinguished candles.

She searched for hours — tax records, correspondence, property accounts, correspondence between her mother and the family solicitors. None of it explained anything. Frustration began to creep in.

Then she noticed something unusual.

Behind a row of account books sat a small locked box, the kind her father had kept his private papers in. The key was hidden inside the desk drawer, just where he had always kept it. Her hands trembled as she worked the lock.

Inside lay documents tied together with faded ribbon.

The moment she began to read, her blood ran cold.

They were legal papers. Her father’s papers. His last will and testament.

Her eyes raced across the page, and then she read it again, unable to believe what she was seeing. The estate. The investments. The properties. Most of it had been left to Emmeline. Not to Isabella. Not to Cordelia. To Emmeline — the eldest daughter, the daughter her mother had thrown out into the street eight years ago.

A separate letter written in her father’s hand accompanied the will. Its contents shattered her heart.

He spoke of his eldest daughter’s kindness and intelligence. He spoke of his hope that she would continue her education. He spoke of his desire to secure her future — to give her everything she deserved. Everything he had planned had been stolen.

Isabella suddenly understood the real reason her mother had done all the things she had done. It had never been about discipline. It had never been about protecting the family’s reputation. It had been greed. Pure, cold, calculating greed. Cordelia had thrown Emmeline out because Emmeline stood between her and everything their father had intended to leave behind.

Taking the documents carried enormous risk. If she was discovered, Cordelia would never forgive her. But hesitation lasted only seconds. Isabella gathered every piece of evidence she could find — the will, the property records, the letters, the financial documents. Then she left the estate before dawn, the portfolio pressed against her chest like a stolen heart.

Several days later, she arrived in London.

Emmeline welcomed her into the nurses’ sitting room, where a fire crackled softly in the grate. Bella placed the leather portfolio on the table.

“You need to see these.”

Confusion crossed Emmeline’s face. She opened the portfolio and began to read. The further she read, the paler she became. By the time she reached her father’s letter, tears were blurring the words before her eyes. Her hands trembled.

For eight years she had believed her father had left her with nothing. For eight years she had secretly wondered whether he had forgotten her, whether she had ever truly mattered to him. Now the truth sat before her in black ink, written in his own hand, signed with his own name.

Holding the evidence in her hands, Emmeline finally understood that her father had never abandoned her at all.