Part 2 — The Truth Sonia Never Expected to Hear

“Don’t swear!” Roselene screamed suddenly.

Her voice tore through the room.

Mark stopped moving.

For a moment, nobody spoke.

Then Sonia stepped forward.

“Roselene, you don’t understand what happened.”

Roselene laughed bitterly.

“I understand enough.”

“No, you don’t.”

“Then explain it.”

Sonia opened her mouth.

Nothing came out.

Roselene stared at her mother, waiting.

“Go ahead,” she said. “Tell me how my husband got you pregnant. Tell me how my father ended up in prison for something you did. Tell me how I became the only person in this family who was never allowed to know the truth.”

Sonia’s face collapsed.

Mark looked at her.

“You told me he was innocent?”

Sonia closed her eyes.

Roselene noticed.

And that tiny movement was enough.

“You knew,” Roselene whispered.

Mark stepped back.

“Sonia…”

“I had no choice.”

Roselene froze.

“No choice?”

Sonia’s hands tightened over her stomach.

“That night, everything happened so fast.”

“You killed Favor.”

“It was an accident!”

“You let Dad go to prison!”

“He chose to protect me!”

“And now you’re carrying my husband’s child!”

Sonia began crying.

“Roselene, please…”

But Roselene wasn’t listening anymore.

She walked toward the glass table and picked up the framed photograph sitting there.

It showed the three of them years earlier.

Roselene.

Her father.

Her mother.

A happy family.

She stared at the photograph.

Then she turned it facedown.

“That family doesn’t exist anymore.”

Mark finally spoke.

“There is something you need to know.”

Roselene looked at him.

“What?”

Mark’s face was pale.

“I never knew about Favor.”

Sonia’s head snapped toward him.

“Mark…”

“I didn’t.”

Roselene studied him.

“You expect me to believe that?”

“Yes.”

“Then why did you sleep with my mother?”

Mark looked at Sonia.

His voice dropped.

“Because she told me something.”

“What?”

“She told me your father was dead.”

The room went silent.

Roselene stared at her mother.

“What?”

Sonia shook her head.

“She misunderstood.”

“You told my husband Dad was dead?”

“I thought he would never get out.”

Roselene’s breathing became shallow.

“My father is alive.”

Sonia said nothing.

“In prison,” Roselene whispered.

Still nothing.

Mark looked horrified.

“You told me Roselene had no family left.”

Roselene’s eyes widened.

“You said what?”

Mark looked at her.

“I was told your father died years ago. I believed it.”

Sonia’s tears came harder.

“I needed you to stay.”

“So you lied to everyone?”

“I was afraid!”

Roselene stepped closer.

“What were you afraid of?”

Sonia looked at the door.

Then at the windows.

Then back at Roselene.

“Your father.”

Roselene frowned.

“My father is in prison.”

“He shouldn’t be.”

The words landed like a second explosion.

Mark stared.

“What do you mean?”

Sonia whispered:

“He was never supposed to go to prison.”

Roselene’s lips parted.

“Then why did he?”

Sonia’s knees weakened.

She reached for the couch.

“Because I let him take the blame.”

Twenty minutes later, Roselene was sitting in her car outside the house.

She couldn’t stop shaking.

Her entire childhood suddenly looked different.

The arguments.

The funeral.

The night the police came.

Her father’s final words before they took him away:

“Take care of your mother.”

She had believed he was confessing.

Now she wasn’t sure what to believe anymore.

Her phone rang.

Unknown number.

She almost ignored it.

Then she answered.

“Hello?”

A man’s voice came through.

“Are you Roselene?”

“Yes.”

“My name is Daniel Adeyemi. I’m a lawyer.”

Roselene frowned.

“What do you want?”

“I represent your father.”

Her heart stopped.

“My father?”

“Yes.”

She gripped the steering wheel.

“He asked me to contact you.”

“Why?”

The lawyer hesitated.

“Because he knows Sonia is pregnant.”

Roselene closed her eyes.

“Does he know about Mark?”

“Yes.”

Her breathing stopped.

“How?”

“Your father has been following the case from prison.”

Roselene swallowed.

“He says the man your mother married is not the only secret she has been hiding.”

“What other secret?”

Daniel’s voice became quieter.

“There is evidence that Favor’s death was not an accident.”

Roselene felt cold all over.

“What?”

“Your father has spent years trying to prove that someone else was responsible.”

“Who?”

A pause.

Then Daniel answered:

“Sonia.”

Roselene’s hand flew to her mouth.

“But she said it was an accident.”

“She has said many things.”

“Can you prove it?”

“Yes.”

That word changed everything.

“How?”

Daniel said:

“We found the original police report.”

Roselene’s eyes widened.

“The original?”

“The one that disappeared from the evidence archive.”

Her heartbeat accelerated.

“Where is it?”

“With me.”

“Where?”

“I’m outside your mother’s house.”

Roselene looked at the rearview mirror.

Across the street stood a black sedan.

She hadn’t noticed it before.

A man stepped out.

He was holding a brown envelope.

Daniel.

Roselene got out of her car.

The moment she approached him, he handed her the envelope.

“Your father said you deserve to know the truth.”

Her fingers trembled as she opened it.

Inside was a photograph.

Favor.

Standing in the kitchen.

Alive.

And behind her, reflected faintly in the glass cabinet, was someone else.

Roselene stared.

She recognized the woman immediately.

Her mother.

But that wasn’t the worst part.

The photograph had a date stamped in the corner.

It was taken twenty minutes before Favor died.

Roselene looked at Daniel.

“Where did you get this?”

“From your father’s private files.”

She turned the photograph over.

There was handwriting on the back.

A single sentence.

Favor wasn’t the target. Roselene was.

Roselene’s blood ran cold.

Daniel watched her face change.

“Your father believes the murder was meant to cover up something much bigger.”

“What?”

Daniel looked toward the house.

“Your mother’s pregnancy may not be the real reason she brought Mark into this family.”

Roselene stared at him.

“Then what is?”

Daniel lowered his voice.

“Your inheritance.”

And for the first time that night, Roselene understood that the betrayal inside her family might be much larger than an affair.

Someone had been lying for years.

Someone had been protecting a secret.

And now, with Sonia pregnant and her father still behind bars, that secret was finally beginning to come apart.