Chapter 5 - ARIANA'S SECRETNobody moved.
Damian stared at Ariana.
"You were kidnapped."
Ariana gave a bitter smile.
"Yes."
"Who did this?"
She looked at Brianna.
"Do you really want the answer?"
Brianna stepped forward.
"What happened?"
Ariana slowly walked inside.
"They took me three days ago."
"Why?"
"Because I found out too much."
Damian's expression hardened.
"Tell us everything."
Ariana glanced at him.
"I was never supposed to marry you."
Brianna looked away.
"I know."
"No," Ariana said. "You don't."
She sat down.
"The wedding was arranged for a reason. Dad knew about the trust."
Damian frowned.
"The inheritance."
Ariana nodded.
"But there was a condition."
"What condition?"
"The trust could only be transferred after Brianna married a Blackwood heir."
Brianna's face fell.
"So they wanted my marriage."
"Not exactly."
Ariana looked at Damian.
"They wanted Damian's legal claim to merge with the trust."
Damian's eyes narrowed.
"And you?"
"I was supposed to become the wife on paper."
Brianna whispered,
"So why did you run?"
Ariana stared at the floor.
"Because I discovered something."
"What?"
Ariana's eyes filled with tears.
"That your father wasn't my father."
Silence.
Damian looked at Brianna.
"What are you saying?"
Ariana took a breath.
"Our father is not our biological father."
Brianna shook her head.
"No."
"It's true."
Ariana reached into her bag and removed a DNA report.
Brianna stared at it.
The results listed their mother's name.
But the father's section belonged to someone else.
A man Brianna had never heard of.
Ariana whispered,
"Victor Hale."
Damian recognized the name.
His face changed.
"Victor Hale?"
"Who is that?" Brianna asked.
Damian didn't answer immediately.
Victor Hale had been a powerful businessman twenty-five years earlier.
He had vanished after a financial scandal.
He was believed to have died.
But Damian remembered one thing.
Victor Hale had been his father's biggest rival.
Ariana continued.
"Our mother had an affair with him."
Brianna's hands trembled.
"And me?"
"You and I."
Ariana looked directly at her.
"We are both Victor Hale's daughters."
Brianna felt as though the floor had disappeared.
"Then Dad?"
"Our father raised us because he needed us."
"Needed us for what?"
"The trust."
Ariana leaned closer.
"Victor Hale created the trust before he disappeared. His money was hidden inside a legal structure connected to our grandmother."
Damian's eyes widened.
"The Blackwood estate?"
"Exactly."
Brianna stared at the documents.
Everything was beginning to fit.
But one question remained.
"Why did you hate me?"
Ariana looked ashamed.
"Because I thought you had taken everything from me."
Brianna said nothing.
"I thought Dad loved you more."
"Because of the inheritance."
Ariana nodded.
"But then I found out the truth."
"What truth?"
Ariana's expression became frightened.
"Someone wanted you dead."
Brianna's blood ran cold.
"Who?"
Ariana slowly shook her head.
"I don't know."
Damian stepped forward.
"Who kidnapped you?"
"I never saw his face."
"How did you escape?"
Ariana looked at him.
"I didn't."
Damian frowned.
"Then how are you here?"
Ariana smiled faintly.
"They let me go."
"Why?"
She looked at Brianna.
"Because they wanted me to bring you to them."
Brianna's stomach tightened.
Ariana continued:
"They gave me a choice."
"What choice?"
"Bring Brianna."
"And if you refuse?"
Ariana's eyes filled with tears.
"They'll kill our mother."
Brianna stopped breathing.
"Mom is alive?"
Ariana nodded.
"She's being held somewhere."
Damian reached for his phone.
"We're calling the police."
Ariana grabbed his wrist.
"No."
"Why?"
"Because the police are already involved."
Damian froze.
"What?"
Ariana whispered:
"The person helping them is a police officer."
Suddenly a gunshot exploded outside.
Everyone ducked.
Another shot hit the window.
Damian pulled Brianna to the floor.
Marcus ran toward the doorway.
Then his phone rang.
He answered.
His face slowly turned pale.
"What?"
Damian looked at him.
"What happened?"
Marcus swallowed.
"They found our location."
"Who?"
Marcus looked at Brianna.
May you like
"The police."
:::
