---- Chapter 28 Two days later, | took Vanessa to a beautiful, quiet place. It was a private garden mausoleum, serene and filled with white roses. Inside, behind a simple marble plaque, were the ashes of my parents. "Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad," | whispered, placing a small bouquet of fresh flowers before the plaque. "I'm sorry it's been so long." Vanessa stood beside me, holding my hand, her expression solemn. "Are these my grandpa and grandma?" she asked. "Yes, sweetie," | said, my voice thick. "They would have loved you so much." As | stood there, lost in thought, a voice behind me made me jump. "Ava." | turned. It was George Kane. He looked much older than | remembered, his shoulders stooped, his face etched with a deep sadness. His eyes were filled with tears. "| knew you'd be here," he said, his voice trembling. "I've had my men watching every private cemetery in a hundred-mile radius for five years, hoping you'd come back to them." | stiffened, pulling Vanessa behind me. "What do you want, ---- George?" "| want to apologize," he said, taking a hesitant step forward. "On behalf of my family. On behalf of my grandson. What he did to you... it was unforgivable. | am so, so sorry, my dear." He looked at me with such genuine remorse that, for a moment, the wall around my heart cracked. He had always been kind to me, in his own way. "He's a broken man, Ava," George continued, his voice pleading. "He's been half-dead for five years. Finding you... it's the only thing that's kept him going. Please, give him another chance. Forgive him. The Kane fortune, the company... it's all yours if you'll just come back." | looked at the old man, at his desperate offer of wealth and power. Five years ago, that might have meant something. Now, it was just dust. "It's not about money, George," | said quietly. "It never was." | took a deep breath. It was time for the final truth. "There's something you don't know. Something Liam doesn't know." | reached into my purse and pulled out a folded piece of paper. It was a copy of a medical report. | handed it to him. He unfolded it, his old eyes scanning the page. It was the teport from my miscarriage. But there was another page stapled to it. It was the pathology report from the D&C. ---- It confirmed the miscarriage. And it confirmed something else. The gender of the baby. A boy. At that moment, the door to the mausoleum opened. Liam stood there, pale and gaunt from his hospital stay, leaning on his friend Mark for support. He had followed his grandfather. His eyes, full of a desperate, pleading hope, found mine. George looked up from the paper, his face ashen. He looked at Liam, then back at me, his eyes wide with a fresh, dawning horror. Liam saw the look on his grandfather's face. "What is it?" he asked, his voice weak. "What does it say?" George couldn't speak. He just held out the paper. Liam stumbled forward and took it. He read the words, his eyes tracing the clinical, black-and-white text. "Fetal demise... male fetus..." He looked up at me, his face crumbling. The final, devastating truth hit him. The child he never knew he had, the child he had lost... it was a son. The heir he and his grandfather had always wanted. The legacy he had thrown away. He fell to his knees, a raw, animal sound of pure agony tearing from his lungs. "No," he wept, the sound echoing off the cold marble walls. "No... a son..." He crawled toward me, grabbing the hem of my dress, his face streaked with tears. "Ava... ---- please... forgive me... please..."