Never Again Yours (Isadora and Magnus)

Chapter 13

The next day, Isadora went to the nearby mall to replace her lost phone and get a new SIM card.

The moment she turned on her phone, a flood of messages came pouring in.

She barely had time to glance at them before her phone started ringing-Eleanor Vaughan was calling.

Eleanor was Isadora's biological mother, the matriarch of the Vaughan family.

Isadora froze for a split second before answering.

Eleanor's sharp, annoyed voice cut through the line.

"Isadora, what exactly have you been up to these past two days? You haven't answered any of my calls or texts. Am I even your mother in your eyes? Honestly, why can't you be as thoughtful as Pearl?"

Almost without thinking, Isadora replied, "I was kidnapped. That's why I lost my phone-"

laugh. "Kidnapped? That's the best excuse you can come up with? Are you just that desperate to squeeze money out of the Vaughan family? You're exactly like your adoptive mother—unbelievable. Sometimes I can't even believe you're my

familiar, sharp ache twisted in Isadora's

angry at her, she

true heiress

was recognized and brought home, she was known

the elegant wife of the

hospital, a nurse named Carla was also giving birth to her own

born with

desperate and penniless—and saddled with a gambler husband, Jasper Lowry-knew she couldn't afford the care her baby needed. Fearing for her daughter's

she secretly switched her own daughter

of Isadora and Pearl were

showered Pearl with affection-her very name meaning "precious jewel❞—Carla raised Isadora with cold

years ago, after Pearl was in a car accident and a DNA test revealed the truth, that the secret finally

Vaughan family was

go of the daughter they had cherished for twenty years- Pearl-even