Chapter 5: The Secret in Ethan's Blood
Ethan stared at the photograph.
His father stood in the center of the charity gala, smiling beneath a chandelier that looked almost identical to the one hanging in Ethan's mansion.
Beside him stood Celeste.
Richard was in the background.
And Emily...
Emily was standing only a few feet away.
But that wasn't what terrified Ethan.
It was the date.
Fifteen years ago.
Emily had been twenty-one.
Ethan had been twenty-three.
They hadn't even met yet.
Yet she had already been standing beside the people who would eventually destroy his family.
"What did she mean?" Ethan whispered.
Celeste didn't answer.
Ethan turned toward her.
"What did Emily mean when she said neither of us is Sophie's father?"
Celeste looked at the cellar door.
"We need to leave."
"No."
"Ethan..."
"No more running."
His voice echoed through the underground room.
"For six years, everyone has been lying to me."
He pointed at the photograph.
"My father."
Then toward Celeste.
"You."
Then toward the door.
"Richard."
"And apparently my own wife."
He looked down at Sophie.
"She deserves the truth."
Celeste's expression softened.
"You don't want the truth."
"Try me."
A voice suddenly came through the speaker above them.
"Ethan."
Everyone froze.
It was Emily.
"Listen to Celeste."
Ethan stepped toward the speaker.
"Where are you?"
"I can't tell you."
"Why?"
"Because they're listening."
Ethan looked around.
"Who?"
Emily's voice became quieter.
"Meridian."
A burst of static interrupted the transmission.
Then she spoke again.
"Your father wasn't just involved with Meridian."
"He created it."
Ethan stared at Celeste.
She nodded slowly.
Emily continued.
"And he used it to control families, businesses, politicians..."
Her voice cracked.
"...and hospitals."
Ethan felt sick.
"Why?"
"Because people with enough money don't need to obey the law."
A pause.
"They can buy the people who enforce it."
Ethan clenched his fists.
"And Sophie?"
Emily took a breath.
"Your father discovered something about Sophie before she was born."
"What?"
"He discovered that she carried a genetic marker connected to a family Meridian had been protecting for generations."
Ethan frowned.
"That doesn't make sense."
"It will."
Emily continued.
"The family owned a pharmaceutical empire."
"They were worth billions."
"And they had only one heir."
Ethan's eyes narrowed.
"The other baby."
"Yes."
Emily's voice trembled.
"The girl born twenty minutes before Sophie."
Ethan looked at the DNA report.
"Then why switch them?"
"Because the heir was sick."
Ethan stared.
"How sick?"
"Terminal."
Silence.
"Her doctors believed she wouldn't survive childhood."
Emily continued.
"Meridian had another plan."
"They found a healthy newborn girl."
"Sophie."
Ethan's stomach turned.
"They wanted to replace the dying heir with Sophie."
"But why?"
"Because the inheritance was locked behind a genetic trust."
Ethan understood.
"If the heir died, the fortune would go to charity."
Emily's voice dropped.
"Exactly."
The room fell silent.
Ethan looked at Sophie.
She was six years old.
Six years of birthday parties.
Six years of school.
Six years of bedtime stories.
All of it had been built around a secret she had never understood.
"Where is the other girl now?"
Emily didn't answer.
Ethan looked at the speaker.
"Where?"
Finally, Emily whispered:
"She's living under Sophie's name."
Ethan's blood ran cold.
"What?"
"They didn't just switch the babies."
Emily's voice broke.
"They switched their identities."
Ethan slowly shook his head.
"Then who is my daughter?"
"Sophie."
"Then who is the other girl?"
A long pause.
"Her name is Lily."
Ethan's heart stopped.
"Lily?"
Celeste suddenly looked away.
Ethan noticed.
"You know that name."
Celeste said nothing.
"You know her."
Celeste whispered:
"Yes."
"Where is she?"
Celeste closed her eyes.
"At your mansion."
Ethan stared at her.
"What?"
Celeste looked directly at Sophie.
"She has been there for six years."
Ethan couldn't process it.
"No."
"Yes."
"You're saying another child has been living in my house?"
Celeste nodded.
Ethan suddenly remembered.
The locked guest wing.
The room Celeste had always said was being renovated.
The strange noises Sophie sometimes claimed she heard at night.
The toys that occasionally appeared in places no one could explain.
He had assumed Sophie had an imaginary friend.
His skin prickled.
"Where?"
Celeste pointed upward.
"Behind your wife's bedroom."
Ethan's eyes widened.
The hidden room.
The photographs.
The secret passage.
Everything connected.
He turned toward the cellar door.
"We're going back."
Celeste grabbed him.
"You can't."
"Why?"
"Because Meridian knows where she is."
Ethan pulled free.
"Then they'll have to go through me."
Suddenly, the speaker crackled.
Emily's voice returned.
"No, Ethan."
He stopped.
"Please."
Her voice sounded terrified.
"If you go back to the mansion, you'll walk into a trap."
"Then tell me where to go."
Silence.
Then:
"The old train station."
Ethan frowned.
"Which one?"
"The one your father owned."
Ethan's heart sank.
There was only one.
A private abandoned station on the edge of town.
It had been sealed after his father's death.
Emily continued.
"Under the platform is a room."
"What room?"
"The room where your father kept the original records."
Ethan's pulse quickened.
"Records of what?"
"Everything."
"Every payment."
"Every identity."
"Every child."
The transmission suddenly became distorted.
Emily's voice faded.
"Ethan..."
"I'm here."
"You need to know something before you go."
"What?"
"Michael lied to you."
Ethan froze.
"About what?"
A sharp noise interrupted the transmission.
Then Emily whispered:
"He wasn't taken eight years ago."
Ethan's eyes widened.
"He volunteered."
The speaker went silent.
Celeste stared at him.
Ethan slowly turned.
"What does that mean?"
Celeste's face was pale.
"It means Michael joined Meridian."
Ethan shook his head.
"No."
"He did."
"Why?"
"To protect you."
Ethan laughed bitterly.
"Everyone keeps saying they're protecting me."
He looked at the ceiling.
"Emily!"
No response.
"Emily!"
Nothing.
Then another sound came through the speaker.
A man's voice.
Calm.
Almost amused.
"She's gone."
Ethan froze.
Celeste whispered:
"Who is that?"
The voice continued.
"Ethan, you have been asking the wrong questions."
Ethan stepped closer to the speaker.
"Who are you?"
The man laughed softly.
"You've known me your entire life."
Ethan's blood ran cold.
The voice continued.
"Your father trusted me."
"Your mother feared me."
"Your wife tried to expose me."
"And your brother betrayed me."
Ethan stared at Celeste.
"Who?"
The man answered.
"Me."
Then the speaker went dead.
Celeste suddenly grabbed Ethan.
"We have to leave."
They rushed toward the exit.
But before Ethan reached the door, he noticed something carved into the wall.
A symbol.
A circle divided by three lines.
He had seen it before.
On his father's watch.
On Richard's cufflinks.
On the corner of his wife's old medical records.
And now...
On the photograph Sophie was still holding.
Ethan took it from her.
He turned it over.
The handwriting on the back had changed.
There was a second message beneath the first.
He hadn't noticed it earlier because the ink was nearly invisible.
He held it beneath the emergency light.
Words slowly appeared.
ETHAN,
IF THEY TELL YOU SOPHIE IS THE HEIR, THEY ARE LYING.
IF THEY TELL YOU LILY IS THE HEIR, THEY ARE ALSO LYING.
THE CHILD THEY ARE REALLY LOOKING FOR...
IS YOU.
Ethan's face went completely pale.
He read the final sentence.
YOU ARE THE LAST PERSON WHO CARRIES YOUR FATHER'S BLOODLINE.
And beneath it was one final warning.
THEY DON'T WANT YOUR DAUGHTER.
THEY WANT YOUR DNA.
Suddenly, footsteps echoed above the cellar.
Not one person.
Several.
Celeste grabbed Sophie.
"Ethan."
He looked up.
"They found us."
A heavy metallic door began opening overhead.
Light poured into the cellar.
A silhouette appeared.
Ethan reached for the nearest weapon.
Then the figure stepped into view.
It was Michael.
His clothes were covered in blood.
He looked directly at Ethan.
"Run."
Ethan stared.
"What happened?"
Michael's voice was barely audible.
"They have Sophie."
Ethan's heart stopped.
"What?"
Michael looked at Celeste.
Then back at Ethan.
"The girl they took isn't Sophie."
Ethan froze.
Michael whispered:
"They took Lily."
May you like
And somewhere above them, a little girl began screaming.
"Daddy!"
