“Your mother?” the man repeated, his voice catching as though the words clawed at his chest.
Claire’s hands trembled as she clutched her tray tighter. “Yes. Evelyn Morgan. She was my mother. She… she died three years ago.”
The billionaire’s breath left him in a slow, uneven exhale. For a moment, his composed exterior cracked, revealing something raw, something human. He reached for the photograph, his thumb brushing the worn edge.
“She never told you,” he whispered, almost to himself.
Claire’s pulse thundered in her ears. “Told me what?”
His gaze lifted, heavy with years of regret. “That I am your father.”
The room seemed to vanish. The café noises faded into nothing but the pounding in her chest. Claire staggered back a step, disbelief and anger warring inside her. “That’s impossible… She never—she would have told me!”
He shook his head gently. “Evelyn was protecting you. Our love… it was complicated. I was engaged to another woman, trapped in a family empire where choices were made for me. But Evelyn—she was my heart. And when she found out she was expecting you, she chose silence rather than destroy both our lives.”
Claire’s vision blurred with tears. “So all these years… you knew? You carried her picture, but you never came for me?”
The billionaire’s jaw tightened, pain etched across his face. “I wanted to. God knows I wanted to. But I didn’t want to bring you into the shadows of my world. Now—seeing you here—it feels like fate refused to let me run any longer.”
Her throat tightened, anger and longing colliding. “And what? You expect me to believe you? To forgive you after twenty-four years of absence?”
He leaned forward, eyes pleading. “I don’t expect forgiveness. But I want to know you, Claire. I want to give you what Evelyn wished she could’ve given you—answers, family, a future.”
Silence hung between them, fragile as glass.
Finally, Claire whispered, “Then prove it. Don’t just say the words. Show me.”
The billionaire placed the photo gently on the table, his eyes never leaving hers. “I intend to. Starting now.”
And for the first time in her life, Claire wondered if the missing piece of her heart had just walked into her café.