I Walked Away Seven Years Too Late But Right on Time novel Chapter 5

This was the second time Sophie sat waiting outside the procedure room.

The last time she was here, she had watched women walk out with tears streaming down their faces, looking completely shattered.

She had lost her nerve and backed out.

This time, Sarah stayed right by her side, holding her hand in a tight grip.

Sophie's hands were freezing, but her mother's were just as cold.

As they waited, she finally gathered the courage to ask, "Mom, did you ever see him again?"

Sophie needed to know if the man she was supposed to call 'Father' even knew she existed. Did he truly have zero emotional attachment to either of them?

"No."

Sarah's voice dropped to a hoarse whisper. It was a wound that had festered inside her for decades.

"Before I went to the hospital, I told your grandmother. Your grandfather said I brought shame to the family name and refused to let me through the front door. Only your grandmother came to check on me. She couldn't accept it, so she went looking for your dad... and..."

Sarah choked up, unable to continue.

She forced her eyes wide open, blinking back the tears, taking a moment to compose herself before she went on. "Your grandmother never saw him. She only saw his mother. Your grandmother was told that he was already engaged to someone his family picked out. She said I was the one who insisted on having the baby, that they didn't want it and wouldn't acknowledge it. She told us to never disrupt her son's life again."

Her grandmother hadn't told Sarah any of this at the time. She waited until Sarah was through her recovery period to deliver the crushing news.

Along with the message, she handed Sarah an envelope with $5,000—a payoff from Harold's mother.

"She said to take the money and understand that you and your child have absolutely zero ties to the Harper family."

That was the final message from the woman who was supposed to be her mother-in-law. It was the exact sentence that completely obliterated Sarah's pride.

She had clenched her teeth and endured the pregnancy, clinging to a defiant breath of vindication. And with those words, it all evaporated.

What had it all been for?

What was the point of any of it?

She had given birth out of wedlock hoping to prove the sheer depth of her love for Harold.

But in his mother's eyes, she was nothing but a manipulative social climber trying to use a pregnancy to lock down a wealthy heir.

They despised her working-class background, and by extension, despised the child she carried.

Because of this baby, her own parents were gossiped about by neighbors, and her brother's family was dragged through the mud.

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