Chapter 6 - FATHER'S LAST FILEMother survived.
The bullet had passed through her shoulder.
The doctors called it luck.
I called it a warning.
By evening, I had moved her to a secure medical facility.
Isabella stayed beside her.
I returned to the underground control room alone.
I opened every file my father had left.
Most were encrypted.
Some were damaged.
One was marked:
FINAL.
Inside was a single audio recording.
I pressed play.
Father's voice filled the room.
"Caleb, if you hear this, then my plans failed."
Static crackled.
"I need you to understand something. Jasper is dangerous, but he isn't the one you should fear."
A pause.
"Victor Hale is not a man. He's a system."
I frowned.
Father explained that Victor had created a network of people who survived by switching identities.
New names.
New passports.
New companies.
New faces.
Some had been operating for decades.
Then he said something impossible.
"Victor is using our family name as one of his identities."
I froze.
There was a file attached.
Identity record.
Victor Hale.
Born 1978.
Passport issued 1983.
Another.
Victor Hale.
Born 1964.
Passport issued 1971.
Another.
Victor Hale.
Born 1949.
Passport issued 1956.
Same face.
Different names.
Different birth dates.
Different lives.
He wasn't immortal.
He was replacing identities.
My phone rang.
Isabella.
"Caleb, Mom is awake."
"How is she?"
"She's asking for you."
I returned upstairs.
Mother was pale.
She looked at me.
"Did you find it?"
"Find what?"
"The final file."
"Yes."
She closed her eyes.
"I hoped you'd never open it."
"What's inside?"
"The reason your father really died."
I sat beside her.
Mother reached beneath the pillow and removed a small cassette.
Old technology.
Deliberate.
"He recorded this himself."
I inserted it into a player.
Father's voice returned.
This time, he sounded afraid.
"Elena is alive."
Isabella gasped.
Mother began crying.
"Where?"
The recording continued.
"She was never murdered."
My father's breathing became unsteady.
"Victor made everyone believe she died. He used her identity for one of his financial networks."
I looked at the photograph.
Elena.
Isabella.
The resemblance suddenly made sense.
Father continued.
"Elena discovered what Victor was doing. She tried to expose him. He threatened our children."
Then came the sentence that changed the room.
"One of those children is not mine."
Silence.
The recording ended.
I looked at Isabella.
She stared at Mother.
"No."
Mother shook her head.
"No."
"Is Isabella not Dad's daughter?"
Mother started crying.
"No, she is."
I felt relief.
Then I realized.
Father had said one of the children.
But he had not said which.
My blood went cold.
I was the older child.
I was the son.
I stared at Mother.
"Who am I?"
She didn't answer.
Isabella stepped between us.
"Mom."
Mother covered her face.
Then her phone began ringing.
Unknown number.
She answered.
No one spoke.
A voice finally came through.
"You opened the file."
Mother froze.
Victor.
"You should have destroyed it twenty-seven years ago."
I took the phone.
"Victor."
He laughed softly.
"Caleb."
His tone was almost affectionate.
"Now you finally know why your father never told you the truth."
"Where are you?"
"You've been looking for the wrong man."
"Then tell me who I should find."
A pause.
Then Victor said:
"Find yourself."
The call ended.
At that exact moment, every security monitor in the room switched on.
One after another.
Each screen showed me.
My passport.
My school records.
My medical history.
My birth certificate.
And finally...
A document I had never seen.
DNA PATERNITY REPORT.
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The father listed on the original copy was not Montgomery.
It was Victor Hale.
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