Chapter 2 - The Erased Past
The underground security room was freezing cold and smelled heavily of ozone.
Clara sat nervously on a metal chair, her hands shaking violently in her lap.
Edward stood silently by the locked steel door, staring at her as if she were a ghost.
Noah had been forcibly taken to a secure suite upstairs, screaming for his mother the entire way.
"Who exactly hired you to do this?" Edward demanded, his voice dangerously low.
Clara looked up, hot tears spilling over her dark lashes.
"Nobody hired me to do anything."
"I just needed a catering job to pay my overdue medical bills."
Edward stepped closer, aggressively slamming his hands down on the metal table between them.
"You expect me to believe my dead wife magically appeared at my engagement party to serve champagne?"
Clara flinched, pulling her arms tightly around her trembling body.
"I woke up in a charity hospital exactly one year ago with severe burns and zero memories."
"The doctors and nurses simply called me Jane Doe."
"I only chose the name Clara because it was engraved on a charred locket they found in my pocket."
Edward froze, his breath hitching painfully in his chest.
He frantically reached into his tailored suit jacket and pulled out his phone.
He swiped through his personal photos and held the glowing screen directly in front of her face.
It was a picture of a smiling woman wearing a very distinct, custom-made gold locket.
"Is this the exact locket you found?" Edward asked, his voice trembling with raw emotion.
Clara gasped, reaching into her uniform apron to pull out the exact same piece of jewelry.
Edward stared at the charred metal, the undeniable proof resting right in her scarred hands.
The heavy steel door suddenly swung open with a loud crash.
Vivian stormed into the room, flanked by two aggressive police officers.
"Arrest this woman immediately for trespassing and corporate espionage," Vivian ordered sharply.
Edward turned around, his dark eyes flashing with pure fury.
"Call your men off right now, Vivian."
"This woman is actually Clara."
Vivian let out a cold, deeply mocking laugh that chilled the room.
"Even if she is your precious wife, she has absolutely no legal rights to you or that boy anymore."
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Vivian pulled a folded legal document from her designer purse and threw it on the metal table.
"Because your sweet Clara officially signed away her parental rights the very night before she supposedly died."
