Chapter 155

Haley’s POV: The hospital corridor was heavy with silence, the kind that pressed against my chest until breathing felt like a task. I had just learned the truth. My eyes were still fixed on Veronica—my mother. The woman I had only just begun to know. She was pale, leaning against the doorway of her VIP ward, her voice weak but steady. And what she said had stunned me to the core. “Susan,” she had said, her tone firm despite the tremor in her voice, “is my adopted daughter.” The words echoed in my head, ringing like a bell that refused to fade. Adopted. Susan… the woman who had slapped me just minutes ago… had lived her entire life believing she was Veronica’s only child. And now, here I was, standing in the same hallway, the blood daughter who had returned from nowhere. I could feel Susan’s fury rolling off her in waves. Her eyes widened, her lips parted, and her entire body trembled. “What?” I whispered before I could stop myself. Veronica’s gaze flicked toward me, soft, guilty. “Yes,