Chapter 249
No one could have guessed just how overwhelmed Hannah was in that moment.
So many years had passed.
She still hadn’t seen her daughter return home.
But she had found Freya.
Hannah clung to Caitlin, her sobs echoing through the sterile room. The tears came fast, raw and unrestrained, as if all the pain and longing she’d harbored for years had finally found a way out.
“Oh, Freya, Freya Hannah wept, her voice trembling. “Nineteen years. Nineteen long years-do you know how desperately your grandmother searched for you? Day after day, night after night, I prayed you would finally come home.” “My poor Freya… All these years, you suffered out there alone p>
No one truly understood what Hannah had endured.
She had a large family, yes.
But what mother could bear to be separated from her own flesh and blood?
Even if she’d had a hundred children, she could never pretend that nothing had happened.
Not a day went by when she didn’t think of her lost daughter or her missing granddaughter.
Hannah kept up with every doctor’s appointment, every health regimen—not for herself, but so she could hold on, just long enough to see her daughter and granddaughter return.
Caitlin stood frozen in Hannah’s embrace, utterly bewildered.
But beneath the confusion, something else was stirring inside her a tightness, an ache she couldn’t quite name.
She didn’t know why, but seeing Hannah break down like this made her own eyes sting, her chest heavy with emotion she couldn’t suppress. She felt dangerously close to tears herself.
It hurt.
For a long moment, the isolation room was plunged into silence.
No one spoke.
Only Hannah’s sobs filled the air.
The entire Richards family watched Hannah, none of them willing to interrupt her grief.
They knew.
She had held it in for too long.
She needed to cry like this.
Watching Hannah weep uncontrollably, the Richards sons and their wives were
visibly shaken, their own eyes brimming with tears.
How they wished this could be true.
If-if Caitlin really was Freya, then what a miracle that would be.
Molly couldn’t help herself; she wrapped her arms around Frederick and whispered through her tears, “Frederick, your mother’s life has been too hard p>
Frederick’s eyes were red and swollen. “I just wish Miss Kensington really was Freya p>
Norris Richards glanced at Theodore and Hedwig, confusion written all over his face as he lowered his voice, “Dad, Mom-does Dr. Kensington really look that much like Aunt Carey p>
He’d only been six or seven when Carey disappeared. He barely remembered his aunt.
There were photos, once, but the family had put them all away, afraid Hannah would be reminded of her loss every time she saw Carey’s face.
Theodore nodded. “She does. She looks so much like her p>
That was why, even though they’d just met Caitlin, they trusted her so instinctively. Freya?
The sound of Hannah’s voice calling Caitlin by that name filled Ann with disdain.
That little nobody, thinking she could suddenly become the golden child?
What a joke.
Besides, Freya was long dead.
Ann remembered what her mother had told her: the accident was gruesome, blood everywhere. Hannah’s failing eyesight was to blame-she couldn’t even recognize her own granddaughter.
Ann shot Caitlin a glare, noticing the pinkness around her eyes. Disgust twisted her features.
Who did she think she was fooling, getting all teary-eyed?
They were practically strangers-Caitlin had only met Hannah once, yet here she was, putting on a show.
Pathetic.
Did Caitlin really think Ann didn’t know what she was up to?
Clearly, she wanted to ride this misunderstanding and, as the family’s so-called savior, worm her way into the Richards clan as their long-lost granddaughter.
Dream on.
A nobody like her, thinking she could join the Richards family?
Ridiculous.
Caitlin forced herself to steady her swirling emotions and finally spoke, her voice gentle but firm. “Hannah, I—I think you’ve made a mistake. I’m not Freya. I’m Caitlin p>