The Contract Bride of Mr. Reid-Chapter 247: The revelation of long-held truth

As soon as the call was ended, Selena turned to the man in the wheelchair. She stared at him for a little longer than normal. She had imagined many things about this man but had never thought of seeing him like this.

"Is she coming?" Alan asked, pushing the wheelchair a bit toward her. His voice brought Selena back to reality.

She looked away from him. "Yes, she is coming."

Alan’s lips curled into a small smile, but his demeanor betrayed his nervousness. He was excited with the prospect of meeting his daughter but at the same time, he was anxious to face her. Could he be able to make her understand?

"I-I’ll bring some coffee for you." Selena turned and walked toward the kitchen. But before she could take a few steps, she felt a warm hand clasping her wrist. Her breathing caught in her throat.

"I don’t need coffee," Alan said slowly. "Talk to me. I want to hear you."

"I-I have nothing to say," she stuttered. Selena wasn’t lying. Her mind was in a tangled mess of bitter memories of the past and the reality that Alan had told her a while ago. She was yet to process the truth that Alan hadn’t deceived her back then.

All those years, she had blamed him, cursed him, and loathed him for leaving her for another woman. But the truth was far from what she had known.

Alan had refused to marry the woman his father had chosen for him. After cutting all his ties with the Walton family, he had been on his way to Selena. But an unfortunate accident had led him into a coma for a year.

When he finally woke up, he found himself crippled. It wasn’t the only blow he had received that day. His father had told him that Selena had died in childbirth and handed him a baby girl.

Selena was yet to recover from the shocking revelation. She didn’t know what to say. On the other hand, her lack of interest in conversing with him made Alan anxious.

"Are you still upset with me?" he asked. "I know I made a blunder. I should have looked for you sooner. You wouldn’t have suffered for all those years if I had come to find you. But I was so broken at the time. I was crippled. And the news of your demise tore me apart completely. I started hurting myself."

He thought about all the times he had tried to kill himself, but death didn’t seem to want him. Every time, he had attempted suicide, he had been saved somehow.

Selena said nothing. She stood there, motionless, with her head bowed, listening to him silently. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

"I thought you were waiting for me," he continued, "waiting to hold me in your arms. I just wanted to go to you. But Hailey helped me a lot in recovering from the depression."

Selena took a look at him and caught the warmth spreading in his eyes when he spoke about Hailey. She felt a strange tug in her heart that she had not felt for ages. She fidgeted with her fingers, wondering if he still had feelings for his dead wife. After all, Hailey was his son’s mother.

"I met Hailey for the first time at the hospital," he continued. "She was so nice to her patients – always listening to them carefully as if their problems were her own. At first, she was just a psychiatrist, but we soon became friends. She brought hope in my life again – told me to live for my daughter."

He paused, the memories flooding his mind. "Her words motivated me to see life from a different perspective. I realized I couldn’t ignore the child you left for me." He looked down at his hands, his voice shaking with emotions. "When I took Rose for the first time in my arms, I knew I had to live for her. But now..." He choked with emotions. "I am still alive, but she is not."

Selena also couldn’t stop her tears from flowing down as he mentioned Rose. "She was just born when she was snatched away from me," she crocked. "I thought she had been enjoying a good life with her father, unlike Bella – suffering every day. I never knew she would die at such a young age."

"I am sorry, Selena," he apologized, holding her hands. "I wasn’t a good father. I couldn’t protect her." He cried. "Please forgive me."

Selena took her hands out of his grasp, making her face stern. "I no longer have any grudge with you now," she said flatly. "I learned the truth. You were not at fault. But why couldn’t you keep our daughter safe? She was supposed to live a happy life."

He felt terrible in his heart. "I am sorry," he could only apologize. "It was my mistake. I should have stopped her from seeing that man from the start. She fell for that guy so badly and wanted to marry her. But that baster..." He gritted his teeth. "He cheated on her. On their engagement night, Rose caught him with another woman. She was furious and heartbroken. She called me, telling me about his infidelity."

Alan couldn’t continue as sobs wracked his body. His sobs grew louder as he added, "She was on her way home when that accident happened, killing her."

Selena closed her eyes, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"I thought I lost everything," Alan started, gathering his thoughts. "I lost the woman I adored, a best friend, and my beloved daughter. I again lost hope and didn’t want to live. But then I got the pendant I gave you back then."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the sapphire pendant. Selena glanced at it through her blurry eyes. She had remembered Bella saying that the pendant had been auctioned. She wondered where he had found it.

"A friend bought it from an auction," he said before Selena could ask anything. "He recognized it was a Walton family heirloom and gave it to me." He held it out and added, "It gave me hope again – For the first time in many years, I knew you were still alive and I started looking for you. I finally found you."

He held her hand and put the pendant on her palm. "This belongs to you, Selena. You are the only woman I have ever loved in my life. You are the true mistress of the Walton family."

But Selena didn’t take it. She returned the pendant. "I don’t need it anymore."