Amanda’s Revenge – and What Came After
Amanda was only a baby when her father walked out on the family. He left without looking back. No letters. No calls. Nothing.
Her mother, heartbroken and sick, struggled to raise Amanda alone. And when her mother passed away, Amanda was tossed into the foster care system. Every time someone asked about her parents, the anger in her chest burned like fire.
Years later, that fire hadn’t gone out.
One evening, Amanda dragged herself home from a long shift at the restaurant. She was tired—exhausted, actually. Her feet ached, her back hurt, but more than anything, her heart felt heavy.
She opened the gate to the little house she grew up in—the only real home she’d ever had. Her mother’s laughter still echoed in its walls. Her drawings from kindergarten were still in the attic. The smell of old wood, soap, and faint lavender from her mother’s favorite candle always greeted her at the door.
After she turned eighteen and aged out of foster care, Amanda fought hard to get this house back. It had been abandoned and run down, but to her, it was treasure. A piece of her mother. A piece of who she used to be.
As she walked up the steps, she noticed something.
“Oh, I forgot to pick the newspaper,” she said aloud, spotting the folded paper near the front door. She picked it up and placed it on the kitchen counter.
She put the kettle on and made herself a cup of chamomile tea—her mother’s favorite. Then she sat down and opened the newspaper, thinking she’d skim the usual headlines.
But what she saw made her heart stop.
Right there, on the second page, was a photo. A man with greying hair, a confident smile, and his arm around a young, beautiful woman in a white dress.
The headline read: “Business Tycoon Robert Adams to Wed Fashion Designer Clara Reynolds”
Amanda stared at the picture, her hands shaking.
Robert Adams. That was her father.
Her father—the same man who abandoned her and her mother when things got tough, now smiling like he’d never done a single thing wrong in his life. Now marrying someone young enough to be Amanda’s older sister.
She felt her heart clench. All the years of being alone, all the pain her mother went through, all the nights Amanda cried into her pillow—came rushing back.
She reached up and touched the small silver earring in her ear. Her mother had given it to her for her birthday, the last one they spent together. It was simple, but it meant everything.
“Betrayal is nothing new to you,” Amanda whispered to herself, eyes fixed on the newspaper. Her voice was cold. Calculated. “He thinks he can walk away and build a happy life? No way.”
Her hands curled into fists.
She was going to teach him a lesson he’d never forget.
The next morning, Amanda stood hidden behind a large oak tree outside her father’s expensive house. It was beautiful—large windows, clean lawn, shiny cars. A perfect picture.
It made her sick.
She watched from the shadows as the front door opened. Robert stepped out, dressed in a sharp suit. Right behind him was the woman from the photo—Clara.
Clara kissed him goodbye.
“Have a great day, sweetheart,” Clara said sweetly.
Amanda quickly looked away, her stomach churning.
The two got into their separate cars and drove off. That was her chance.
Amanda crept out from her hiding spot and made her way toward the house. She looked around, checking for security cameras.
Her eyes caught something.
“The window!” she whispered, spotting a small open window on the second floor. Her heart raced with excitement. She had climbed enough trees as a kid to know how to get up there.
In a few quick moves, Amanda was inside.
She landed softly on the carpet and looked around. It was her father’s bedroom—neat, expensive, like everything else in his new life. The bed was made perfectly. The room smelled like expensive cologne.
Amanda stepped forward. She reached up and removed one of her silver earrings. Slowly, carefully, she placed it on the center of the bed.
A tiny object.
But it would cause chaos.
With a smirk, she slipped back out the window and returned to her hiding spot.
A little while later, Clara returned. Amanda watched her head inside, humming to herself.
Not long after, Robert pulled up in his car. He looked cheerful. Confident. Like nothing in the world could go wrong.
But Amanda had other plans.
She walked up to the front door and rang the bell.
Clara answered. “Can I help you?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.
Amanda put on a look of confusion. “I’m here to see Robert. Are you… his maid?”
Clara frowned. “No, I’m his fiancée,” she replied, holding up her diamond ring.
“Fiancée? That scoundrel!” Amanda gasped. “He told me I was the only one in his life!”
“What?!” Clara’s face twisted in shock.
At that moment, Robert appeared behind her. “What’s going on?”
“Oh look who it is!” Amanda said, pretending to be heartbroken. “Didn’t expect to see me here, did you? After what we shared just this morning?”
“What is she talking about, Robert?” Clara demanded.
Robert looked horrified. “I don’t know her! She’s lying!”
“Oh really?” Amanda raised an eyebrow. “Then how come my earring is in your bed?”
“I don’t want to cause trouble,” she added sweetly. “I just want my mother’s earring back. It’s precious to me. That’s all.”
Robert shook his head. “You are NOT coming inside.”
But Clara stepped aside. “If she lost something here, she should be allowed to get it.”
Amanda smiled to herself.
She walked up to the bedroom, went straight to the bed, and picked up the earring.
“Oh, here it is!” she said loudly.
Clara’s eyes widened in rage. “I can’t believe this! You cheated on me!”
Robert was stunned. “No! This is crazy! She’s making it up!”
But Clara was already removing her engagement ring. “You betrayed me, and now you lie about it! We’re done!”
She stormed out of the house.
Amanda followed close behind, her expression calm. As she walked back to her car, she let out a deep sigh of relief.
“Finally,” she whispered. “He felt what we felt.”
A week later, Amanda was wiping tables at the diner where she worked.
Two coworkers, Stacey and Sarah, were chatting nearby.
“Oh my God, that wedding was insane!” Sarah said.
“Seriously, they spent millions!” Stacey added.
Amanda looked over. “What wedding?”
“Come on, Amanda!” Stacey laughed. “Don’t you read the news? That businessman—Robert something—just got married! To that designer Clara Reynolds! It was like a royal wedding!”
Amanda froze. Her heart sank.
“What?” she asked, trying to sound casual. “That’s… a lot of money for a wedding.”
But inside, her stomach twisted. Clara hadn’t walked away. They had married after all.
All her effort to break them up—pointless.
She felt like she had failed. Robert had walked away from her and her mother. And now he was living his best life, like none of it ever happened.
Then, suddenly, her mother’s voice echoed in her head:
“Anger is like a heavy stone, Amanda. You carry it with you, and it weighs you down. Sometimes, you have to let it go. Sometimes, forgiveness is the only option.”
She had heard those words every time she came home crying as a child. Her mother always told her to forgive.
Amanda wiped her hands on a towel and closed her eyes. Maybe revenge wasn’t the answer. Maybe it was time to speak the truth.
Later that week, Amanda returned to Robert’s house. She wasn’t hiding this time. She wasn’t pretending. She rang the doorbell and stood tall.
Clara opened the door, frowning. “You again? What do you want now?”
“I need to talk to Robert,” Amanda said. “Not as his fake girlfriend. I lied… I’m his daughter.”
Clara blinked. “What? Is this some kind of joke?”
“It’s not.”
Robert appeared behind her. “Who is it, Clara?”
When he saw Amanda, his face turned pale. “No… it can’t be…”
“It’s me, Dad,” Amanda said, tears brimming in her eyes. “Amanda.”
Robert stepped forward, staring at her face.
“Amanda? My God…” he whispered. “Is it really you?”
She nodded, her voice cracking. “I needed to know why. Why you left. Why you never came back.”
He didn’t answer right away. He opened the door wider. “Come in. Please.”
Amanda sat down in his living room, gripping her mother’s earring in her fist.
“Mom got sick,” she said quietly. “And after you left, everything fell apart. She died. I went into foster care. I felt so… abandoned.”
Robert sat across from her, his face filled with regret. “I didn’t know… I thought someone would take care of you…”
“No one did!” Amanda cried. “We had no one. We needed you.”
Robert looked down at his hands. “There’s no excuse. I was weak. I was scared. When your mom got sick, I couldn’t handle it. I ran. And then… I couldn’t face what I’d done.”
He told her about the years he spent alone, making bad decisions, trying to rebuild his life. He had always wanted to go back, but he was too ashamed.
“I failed you,” he said. “And your mother. Every day, I regret it.”
Amanda listened. Her heart still hurt—but now it hurt for both of them.
“I forgive you,” she whispered. “I don’t know why… but I do. I can’t carry this pain anymore. I’ve been holding it for too long.”
Robert reached out and took her hand.
“Thank you,” he said, his voice shaking. “Thank you for giving me a chance.”
And just like that, for the first time in her life, Amanda felt something she never thought she’d feel with him again.
Peace.
Not because the past was fixed. But because she was no longer its prisoner.
THE END
