From Ashes of Scandal to His Embrace (Laurinda) novel Chapter 326

“When... when did you find out about all this?”

“Which part are you talking about? My real identity, or the fact that you exposed my parents?”

“Both! Just stop with the questions and give me a straight answer!” Aileen shouted at Laurinda. Her nerves were shot, panic rising inside her until she felt like she couldn’t breathe. She had no idea what else Laurinda knew, and the fear was eating her alive.

All she could picture was Laurinda discovering everything she’d done. There was no way Laurinda would ever let her kids off the hook. Honestly, Laurinda might destroy the entire Gates family.

“I’ve always known who I am. But as for you leaking my mother’s identity, I only found out about that recently. Otherwise, do you really think you’d still be standing here right now?”

Laurinda had spent years digging for the truth about who had exposed her parents. For the longest time, she’d actually believed her parents had slipped up themselves while arranging for her to be sent back to Stonehaven for special training.

But as she kept investigating, she realized her father had used special privileges to get her out, and no one should have known her real identity.

Then, when she turned ten, her secret suddenly came out. And just like that, her parents’ lives turned into a mess.

At first, Laurinda suspected Aiken and his wife. But eventually, she figured out the Austin family had died never knowing her parents weren’t the original Abbott and Florrie. She crossed them off her list.

Then, just a few days before the New Year, she had this strange dream. She saw Aileen sneaking around outside her parents’ bedroom.

She woke up in a cold sweat and started looking into Aileen’s past.

Everything lined up a little too perfectly. The day Laurinda’s identity was exposed, Aileen opened her underground casino. That was the day Aileen’s luck started to turn.

“Yeah. Aiken was the only person who could give me news about your parents. Sure, it wasn’t one hundred percent, but it was close enough. Most of the time, he was right.”

“Don’t try to pin this on me. If you want to blame someone, blame your own parents. They were way too careless. They knew people were after them, but they didn’t even try to cover their tracks. They trusted Aiken completely.”

“And do you really think Aiken had nothing to do with this? He’s not stupid. Of course he knew why I kept asking about his brother’s whereabouts.”

Aileen was still trying to shift the blame, but Laurinda just let out a cold laugh.

“Come on, Aileen. I’m not an idiot. You think I’ll just believe whatever you say? You know Aiken better than anyone. If he’d known who my father really was, he would have worshipped him, begged to be taken under his wing, and prayed every day for his long life. That’s just who he is.”