Secret Admiration: Finding True Love After Prison

Chapter 6 Raking up the Past

"Yeah, I did time." Meryl's eyes scanned the crowd, finally landing on Lydia.

Lydia reached out to grab her hand. "Meryl, stop saying that. I just spoke without thinking, okay?"

Meryl pulled back, avoiding Lydia's touch, yanking her hand away.

Suddenly, Lydia stepped on the hem of her dress and fell to the ground.

The fall was hard, and shards from a broken glass on the floor hadn't been cleaned up yet.

Dalton immediately rushed over, pushing through the crowd to help Lydia up.

Her hand was a bloody mess, with shards embedded in her skin.

Dalton's eyes blazed with anger as he glared at Meryl. "Meryl, you never learn! I warned you..."

Meryl's heart skipped a beat. She knew Dalton didn't care about her, but seeing him protect another woman still hurt.

"What did I do? I just pulled my hand away. She fell on her own."

Seeing their hands clasped together, Meryl felt a pang of irony. She lowered her gaze, gently touching a spot on her chest where a pendant hung, a gift from someone long ago.

moments of despair, she had clung to that pendant to get

she looked up again, her

bitterly and continued, "Yeah, I was in prison, but I was

face turned pale as Meryl admitted her

past, Bianca also

up, she believed i was just

watched Lydia grow up and couldn't believe she had such

out of hand, Bianca tried to smooth things over. "Meryl, you've had too much

have made her disappear

sharp slap echoed through the

had emerged from his study, his face

this nonsense right now!" he

stung, but

they would have done it when they first grabbed her. Why take her to an abandoned factory?

the room as people glanced at Lydia, who bit her lip, her face

spectacle. His one daughter ended up in prison, and the other was nearly assaulted all because of a bitter feud between sisters. It was the kind of scandal that made for juicy gossip in high society. Tears streamed down Lydia's face, her shoulders trembling as she sobbed

laugh, thinking, "Can't

her own suffering, this was

to teach her a lesson because she had refused to admit her mistake, and they thought she was

Lydia had insisted that being a Stone family member would protect her in prison. They believed this might be the only way to set Meryl straight, fearing she would otherwise go down

had been raised by Camille, who had also raised a gambling, lazy