Please Me Daddy (Gracie) novel Chapter 203

All of you were played from the very beginning

All of you were played from the very beginning

Grace

The director was right.

I was too young back then. At seven years old, I didn’t understand what they were saying, or what those words truly meant. I only knew that someone wanted me, that someone was finally calling herself my mother, and to a child like me, that was more than enough to silence every warning my instincts were trying to scream.

It was only after that dream about Hannah that everything

hame rushing back.

I was still surprised that I could even remember something from so long ago, something buried so deep I didn’t even know it existed. But then again, some memories never stay buried. No matter how hard you try to forget them, no matter how much you want them gone, they will always claw their way back to the surface when the time is right.

And now, standing here, looking at the woman I once called mother, I didn’t even know what I was supposed to feel anymore.

Should I feel hurt? Betrayed? Furious that the two people I loved with all my heart never loved me even a little, and only saw me as something useful? Or should I feel stupid, for believing, for years, that if I just tried harder, behaved better, became more obedient, they would eventually love me?

To be honest, I didn’t really care that the Jones were my real family. I didn’t care that I was an heiress. I didn’t even care that I was switched at birth.

If she had told me the truth, if she had sat me down and confessed what she did, I would have forgiven her. I truly would have. A mother’s love can drive her to do desperate, terrible things, and I would have understood that. I would have tried to understand her. But she never once saw me as her daughter.

She and her husband treated me like a servant, like something that existed only to be ordered around, corrected, and molded. Even after being adopted, I never truly learned what love was supposed to feel like. I was nothing more than a tool they could use whenever they needed something. I forced myself to become what they wanted, silencing my own thoughts, burying my real self so deep that even I forgot who I was supposed to be.

Ah, Grace…you’re such a pitiful woman.

The thought echoed bitterly in my mind.

If I could go back, I would hug my younger self so tightly it hurt. That little girl didn’t deserve to lose herself just to survive. She didn’t deserve to beg for love from people who were never capable of giving it.

Before I could stop myself, a single tear slipped down my cheek.

I inhaled deeply, wiped it away with the back of my hand, and lifted my head to meet her eyes. When I spoke, my voice was hoarse, low, but steady.

“This will be the last time I ever shed a tear for you people.”

She froze. Her body went stiff, as if my words had physically locked her in place. I turned away calmly and sat down in the chair across from her, crossing my legs slowly. When I looked back at her, there was no warmth left in my gaze.

All of you were played from the very beginning

“Choose one,

“I said flatly. “Tell me what you know, or go to jail.”

She swallowed hard, her chest rising and falling rapidly. “W–what I know?” she asked, her voice trembling.

“Yes.” I nodded. “You used to be a maid for the Jones family, didn’t you?”

She looked down, shaking, unable to answer.

“So you knew Mr. Jones, well, since I’m his daughter, that makes him my father. You knew my father. I’m going to ask you a few questions, and I want honest answers.” I leaned back slightly, my eyes never leaving her face.” Your life is in my hands now. The Jones already know I’m their real daughter, if I tell them what really happened back then, and how you and your husband treated me, I doubt the people constantly coming here to demand money will be your biggest problem anymore.”

My mother’s eyes widened in pure fear, her lips trembling as she looked at me like she was staring at something unfamiliar. “G–Grace…”

I ignored her completely.

I tilted my head slightly, studying her the way one would study a fragile object, and spoke calmly. “My first question, did my father really have an affair with Apollo’s mother?”

Before coming here, Eleanor and Wyatt had told me everything in the car. At first, I was shocked, but the more I replayed it in my mind, the more wrong it felt. Everything sounded too neat, and clean, like the pieces of a board game carefully arranged by someone who knew exactly how the players would react. It didn’t feel like a mistake. It felt planned.

I was certain Apollo had noticed it too. He wasn’t foolish. He must have known something didn’t add up.

My mother lowered her head, her throat bobbing as she swallowed hard. “Y–yes he did…”

“Tell me the truth, or I’ll force it out of you.”

She flinched violently at my tone. When she looked up at me again, her eyes widened, and I knew she finally understood something she had ignored for months. I wasn’t that obedient, desperate child she could manipulate anymore.

Her lips trembled. She bit them hard, then looked away, shoulders shaking. “No, your father didn’t have an affair with her.”

I stared at her, unsurprised.

From the moment I heard about my father and Apollo’s mother, I knew I needed to ask this woman. She had always been nosy, always sticking her nose where it didn’t belong, always knowing things other people didn’t. If my father truly had an affair, she would have known long before anyone else.

I slowly uncrossed my legs and leaned forward, closing the distance between us. My voice dropped lower. “Be good, and tell me what really happened. Who planned everything? And what really happened?”

“T–the truth is… your father and Apollo’s mother were working together,” she said, her words rushed and shaky. “Both of them had realized someone was trying to harm their families and their companies. So they decided to investigate quietly, without telling anyone. That’s why they met in secret.”

All of you were played from the very beginning

My fingers curled slightly.

“They went to a hotel room so no one could overhear them,” she continued. “But that person, whoever it was, used that meeting against them. Their pictures were taken on purpose. It was made to look like an affair, and it destroyed both families. And they went along with it because they didn’t want to scare their families with the truth.”

I stared at her as she spoke, watching every expression, and every twitch of her face.

“And how,” I asked slowly, “do you know all of this?”

Her face drained of color instantly. “I… I went into your father’s room, I was trying to steal something. He didn’t see me because I hid. I overheard everything. He was talking to Mr Reed’s wife.”

When she lied, it was always obvious. This time, her fear was real.

I crossed my arms. “Then why didn’t you tell anyone? Even if my father didn’t want it known, you would have told my mother just to get on her good side.”

“I wanted to,” she whispered. “I really did. But then… your father and the Reed woman died together that night. They said it was suicide. But I knew it wasn’t. They already found the person behind everything. But they were killed.”

Her hands clenched tightly in her lap. “I didn’t want to die, so I kept my mouth shut. I acted like I knew nothing.”

I stared at her for a long moment, before nodding.

I leaned back into the chair, straightening my posture.

“She’s telling the truth,” I said loudly. “All of you were played from the very beginning.” (1

The words felt heavy, but once they left my mouth, they couldn’t be taken back.

“The person who killed Hannah,” I continued, my fingers tightening against the armrest, “is the same person who killed Mr. Jones and Mrs. Reed.”

As I said that, I turned around. Standing there were Apollo’s father, my real mother, and my brothers. They had clearly been listening. Shock was written all over their faces, their expressions frozen as if the world had just tilted beneath their feet.

“They didn’t commit suicide. They were killed.”

The hallway felt impossibly quiet after that, then my gaze shifted. Leaning against the wall, slightly away from everyone else, was Apollo. His expression was unreadable, dark eyes fixed on me, but I caught the faintest trace of approval, a subtle hint of pride that he didn’t bother to hide.

I smiled at him, but there was no warmth in it.

“Apollo Reed,” I said slowly, meeting his eyes without flinching. “You knew all along, didn’t you?”