Chapter 7 - THE HOUSE BENEATH THE HOUSEI stared at the DNA report until the words blurred.
Victor Hale.
Father.
The man who had hunted our family for decades.
The man who had ordered attacks against Isabella.
The man my father feared.
My biological father.
I wanted to tear the screen apart.
Instead, I read the report again.
The sample dates were real.
The signatures were real.
The laboratory existed.
But the report had one problem.
The test had been conducted twelve years after I was born.
Impossible.
I called the laboratory.
The company had been dissolved twenty years earlier.
A shell.
Another dead end.
My father had anticipated this.
Buried inside the control room was another file.
A handwritten note:
THE BLOOD TEST IS A LIE.
I stared at it.
Then I laughed.
My father had planted a false paternity report.
Why?
To protect me.
Or to mislead Victor.
I found the answer underneath.
ELENA'S CHILD.
There was a second DNA test.
This one dated before I was born.
The father was listed as Marcus Montgomery.
Our father's real name.
The biological mother was Elena.
I wasn't Victor's son.
I was Elena's.
But that meant Isabella was not Elena's daughter.
Mother had raised both of us.
One child from Elena.
One child from herself.
I looked at Isabella.
She was staring at me.
"Caleb."
"I'm fine."
"No, you're not."
"I don't know what I am."
She stepped closer.
"You are my brother."
That sentence brought me back.
Whatever our blood said, Isabella was my sister.
That was enough.
Then Mother spoke from behind us.
"There's another problem."
We turned.
She held a sealed letter.
"Elena sent this to me before she disappeared."
The letter contained a location.
A remote property in the mountains.
And one name.
Dr. Adrian Voss.
"Who is he?"
Mother shook her head.
"He helped your father after Elena disappeared."
We left that night.
The property was an old stone house buried between trees.
No electricity.
No neighboring houses.
No road signs.
We entered with flashlights.
The floorboards creaked.
A smell of old paper filled the room.
Then we found a photograph.
Elena.
Holding a baby.
Me.
I stared at the photograph.
On the back was a note.
He will come back for you.
I heard something downstairs.
Footsteps.
Slow.
Measured.
Someone was inside.
I motioned for Isabella to hide.
The footsteps stopped.
Then a voice called from below.
"Caleb Montgomery."
I raised my weapon.
A man stepped into the doorway.
He was in his seventies.
Thin.
Gray-haired.
Holding a cane.
"Dr. Voss?"
He smiled.
"Your father would be furious with me."
"For what?"
"For waiting this long."
Isabella emerged.
"Who are you?"
He looked at her.
His eyes filled with sadness.
"I was there the night your father died."
I lowered my weapon.
"What happened?"
"He wasn't killed."
I frowned.
"What?"
"He chose to die."
Isabella stared.
"Why?"
Dr. Voss walked to an old cabinet.
He opened it.
Inside was a metal box.
"Because he knew Victor was coming for the children."
He handed me a sealed envelope.
"Your father left you one final instruction."
I opened it.
There were only six words.
WHEN JASPER CALLS, DO NOT ANSWER.
My phone rang.
Jasper Blackwood.
Dr. Voss looked at the screen.
"He knows where you are."
The ringing continued.
Then stopped.
May you like
A message appeared.
I HAVE YOUR MOTHER.
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