Love's Betrayal: The Unseen Daughter

r, a renowned surgeon, and my father, the District Attorney, were t

t know. To them, I was just Jane Doe, a

analysis of the torture wounds purely clinical. My father arri

corpse, they discussed th

ther scoffed. "Probably shacked up

avon, and his upcoming championship game. I was the family's prob

hter, while my body lay decomposing at their feet. They were blind, wrapped

hip, a clue registered in my name. A piece of evidence that would not only give me back my iden

pte

clung to the overgrown weeds and seeped into the muddy gro

the morning quiet. He fumbled for his phone, h

y. A girl. Oh

to be. The world had gone hazy, like looking through

cars. Yellow tape went up, creating a neat, official box around the chaos o

A woman stepped out, and a cold sti

mot

her authority like the expensive coat draped over he

d, leading her under the tape. "It's a mess

ipped, efficient. The same voice she us

y into the soft earth. She didn't flinch. She'd seen worse, I knew

chilling detachment. She knelt beside my broken form, her

ID," the det

ies that made my face unrecognizable. "The kille

lence. I watched her hands, the same hands that had once held me as a baby

d clinical. She noted the defensive wounds on my arms, the bro

herself than to anyone else. "But n

was a puzzle solver, and I was the most complicated

and gently brushed a matted strand of hair from my cheek. It was a gesture o

e begging for a touch like tha

h, a strange

Doe. A case. A headline in the making that would be

n life. It seemed I would

ct. Not a single crack. She sto

evere blunt force trauma to the head and face. Evidence of to

t to the detective

she tucked it into her pocket. A flicker of s

weariness. Or maybe, just maybe, a splinter

f her emotions. She had to. But I wondered, as I hove

ally f