Cornelia built a life with Reginald over three years of marriage, choosing not to have children because of what she survived as a girl. Then a routine pregnancy checkup turns up a document that shouldn't exist: their marriage certificate is a forgery. Reginald has been legally married to Charlotte, the widow of a dead friend, and is raising Charlotte's daughter as his own.
Cornelia forgives him once. When his favoritism toward Charlotte and the girl keeps grinding her down, she stops waiting for him to choose her. She cuts herself out of the family entirely and leaves with a secret of her own. Five years on she comes back with her daughter, and a sincere man named Patrick starts courting them both. Reginald spends the rest of his life chasing a redemption that arrives far too late.
