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A woman named Faith Severn looks back on her family’s past, a story that has haunted her for years. Her aunt Vera Hilliard was once a proud and graceful woman, admired in their small English town. But she was also the woman who was hanged for killing her own sister, Eden. The memory of that tragedy still lingers in Faith’s mind, and when a journalist approaches her years later, asking to write about Vera, Faith begins to piece together the story she had only partly understood as a child.
Long ago, Vera was a strong-willed woman who lived with her family in a large house called the Longley place. She was devoted to her family’s reputation and took great pride in order, beauty, and control. When her younger sister Eden gave birth to an illegitimate child, Jamie, it was Vera who stepped in to take charge. She claimed the baby as her own to protect the family’s name. Everyone in town believed that Jamie was Vera’s son, and the truth was kept secret from almost everyone.
Eden was a beautiful but selfish woman, who often acted as if rules did not apply to her. Though she let Vera raise Jamie, she never truly gave him up in her heart. She would often visit and behave as if she were still the most important person in his life. Vera tried to stay calm, but inside she was torn between love for the boy and resentment toward her sister. The family around them pretended not to notice the tension, hoping it would fade with time.
As Jamie grew older, the lie became harder to maintain. He began to feel confused about his relationship with Vera and Eden. He loved Vera as his mother but sensed that something was not right. Eden, meanwhile, became jealous that Vera had the affection and stability she herself lacked. She married a man, Ivor, but her marriage was unhappy, and she began to visit the house more often, stirring trouble whenever she came.
Faith, who was a little girl at the time, remembered those visits as strange and tense. She often saw Vera standing stiffly while Eden laughed too loudly. The adults spoke in careful tones, hiding sharp emotions under polite words. Faith didn’t understand everything, but she could feel the cracks in their world. She adored her Aunt Vera but could also sense her coldness, as if something inside her had hardened long ago.
Years passed, and Jamie grew into a young man. He began to suspect that Vera might not be his real mother. Rumors reached him, and when he confronted Vera, she refused to tell him the truth. Eden, however, wanted to claim him back openly. The two sisters began to fight more fiercely, each believing she had the right to love and guide him. Their arguments turned bitter, and the tension in the family reached its breaking point.
Then one day, Jamie disappeared. The family searched for him desperately, but he was gone. People whispered that he had run away or perhaps been sent abroad. Vera became quiet and pale, and Eden was restless, as if she knew something terrible had happened. Time passed, and the truth never came out—until one evening, years later, Eden herself vanished. When her body was discovered buried in Vera’s garden, the whole country was shocked.
Vera was arrested and charged with murder. The trial that followed revealed all the family secrets that had been hidden for so long. It came out that Jamie was not Vera’s son but Eden’s, and that Vera had spent her life pretending. Witnesses told how jealous she had become of Eden, how the lies had poisoned their bond. The evidence against her was strong, and despite her calm defense, the jury found her guilty. She was sentenced to death.
Faith remembered visiting Vera before the hanging. Her once-elegant aunt was thin and pale, but still carried herself with dignity. Vera spoke quietly, never begging for forgiveness. She said she had done what she thought was right, but there was a shadow in her eyes that Faith never forgot. When Vera was executed, the family name was ruined, and they all scattered, trying to live normal lives again.
Years later, Faith often wondered what had really happened that day between Vera and Eden. The journalist who came to interview her stirred up old feelings she had buried for decades. He asked questions she didn’t want to answer, but slowly, Faith began to remember things she had tried to forget. She recalled the afternoon before Jamie disappeared—the sound of shouting behind closed doors, the sight of Vera’s face, pale with anger and heartbreak.
It became clear that Jamie’s disappearance had been the turning point. Some believed Vera had killed him in a fit of rage when he tried to leave her. Others thought he had found out the truth and gone away on his own. Eden’s death, years later, seemed connected to that mystery. Faith realized that her aunt might have been driven mad by years of lies and loneliness. Vera had built her life on a falsehood, and when it began to crumble, so did she.
Faith’s memories were like pieces of a puzzle, each revealing a little more of the truth. She remembered Vera’s obsession with control, her desperate need to keep everything perfect. She remembered how Eden would taunt her, hinting that she could take Jamie away whenever she wanted. Vera had sacrificed everything for the boy—her freedom, her reputation, even her heart—and when Eden threatened to destroy that, something inside her finally broke.
The day Eden was killed was stormy. Faith recalled seeing Vera pacing in the garden earlier, her face set and unreadable. That evening, Eden arrived at the house, loud and cheerful as always. They went into the sitting room together, and no one saw Eden leave. Later, Vera said her sister had gone home, but the next morning she was missing. The police found signs of a struggle and, eventually, the grave. Vera never confessed, but everyone knew.
After the execution, Faith’s family tried to erase Vera’s name from memory. The house was sold, and life went on. But for Faith, the past was never gone. She often dreamed of Vera’s face—kind yet distant, loving yet trapped by pride. The journalist’s questions reopened those dreams, making her realize how deeply the story was woven into her own life. She understood that Vera had loved Jamie too much, in the wrong way, and that love had turned into destruction.
In the end, Faith concluded that both sisters were victims of the same lie. Eden’s vanity and recklessness had started it, but Vera’s pride had kept it alive. They were bound together by their love for Jamie, and that bond had ruined them. Jamie himself was the only innocent one, lost between two mothers who both claimed his heart. No one ever discovered what truly became of him, and his absence haunted everyone who knew the family.
Faith finally told the journalist everything she could remember, though she kept some memories locked away. She realized that by speaking about it, she was freeing herself from the weight of silence. The truth, though painful, brought a kind of peace. Vera’s actions could never be excused, but understanding them made Faith see her as human—a woman destroyed by love, jealousy, and loneliness.
As Faith grew older, she sometimes visited the village where the old house once stood. The garden was gone, replaced by new homes, but she could still picture Vera standing by the roses, her face calm and unreadable. The past had buried itself in that soil, yet its shadow lingered. Faith felt both sadness and forgiveness when she thought of her aunt. Time had softened her anger and replaced it with compassion.
Looking back, Faith understood that her family’s tragedy had begun with the simple wish to protect someone they loved. Vera had taken Jamie to save him, but in doing so, she had built a life on deceit. The lie had grown until it consumed them all. What began as love ended in loss, and the story became a warning—a reminder that truth, no matter how painful, is the only thing that can keep love pure.
Faith’s life went on, but sometimes in quiet moments, she could almost hear Vera’s voice in the wind. She imagined her aunt walking through that old garden, hands brushing against the flowers she once cared for, free at last from shame and sorrow. And in her heart, Faith whispered that she understood now—that even in the darkest hearts, there once was love that tried, and failed, to find the light.