"But Lady Hughes did not have children," her father announced.
Barbara was startled by the announcement. She had assumed that a woman of middle age would have children, so she brought her kids with her. Who would have guessed that the woman was childless?
"From the information I got, Lady Hughes is a widow and didn't have any children," her father added.
"They are not my children, but I have raised them like my own," Barbara said, feigning a hurt expression. "They were my childhood friend's kids. Their parent died when their house collapsed but the kids survived. I took care of them for years and treated them like they were my children. The Marquis had opened a buried scar inside my heart," she said, squeezing her eyes for tears to drop, but not a single one had fallen.
