Chapter 13 - THE BABY THAT NEVER EXISTEDThe scream belonged to Elena.
She stumbled into the boardroom.
Her face was streaked with tears.
Her hands were shaking.
"Julian took the baby."
I froze.
"Your baby?"
She nodded.
"I was taken to a private clinic last night."
I looked at Julian.
"What did you do?"
He said nothing.
Police moved toward him.
He remained strangely calm.
Then Elena collapsed.
Marcus caught her.
I knelt beside her.
"What happened?"
She struggled to breathe.
"They told me the baby had been born."
"You were seven months."
"I know."
"What happened?"
"They showed me a photograph."
The same photograph Julian had sent.
A newborn.
Hospital bracelet.
"That's impossible."
Elena nodded.
"The baby wasn't mine."
I stared at her.
"Then whose baby?"
"We don't know."
Julian smiled.
"This is why I warned you."
I turned toward him.
"You forged it."
"No."
He looked at me.
"I created it."
The distinction was terrifying.
He had fabricated an entire birth record.
A fake heir.
A fake identity.
A fake medical trail.
All designed to trigger a legal fight over Vanguard.
Marcus suddenly understood.
"He wants to activate the disputed-descendant clause."
Julian laughed.
"Exactly."
He looked around the room.
"Your father wrote a system where competing descendants freeze the trust."
The interim chairman stared at him.
"You're admitting this?"
Julian shrugged.
"I already lost."
He looked at me.
"But you haven't won."
Police moved closer.
He continued.
"Do you know why?"
I said nothing.
"Because your father built Vanguard around one biological truth."
"What truth?"
"That blood matters more than law."
He pointed toward Elena.
"Her child."
Then toward me.
"Your child."
Then toward the photograph.
"The fake child."
Three heirs.
Three claims.
Frozen trust.
Frozen company.
Debt attack.
Castle Holdings waits.
Vanguard collapses.
Julian buys the remains.
I stared.
His entire strategy suddenly made sense.
Even if he went to prison, the system he built would continue.
He had planted the legal bomb long before the escalator.
Marcus pulled a document from his folder.
"There is one way to stop it."
"What?"
"Independent DNA verification."
Julian smiled.
"Do it."
His confidence returned.
"Because when the results come back, you'll discover something you were never told."
My heart pounded.
"What?"
He leaned closer.
"Your father isn't the child's biological grandfather."
I stared.
He had finally found the one sentence capable of breaking me.
Unless...
I looked at Elena.
Then at Anna.
Then at Marcus.
"Run the test."
Marcus nodded.
The samples were collected.
My blood.
Elena's.
Anna's.
Leo's.
The newborn's sample from the supposed hospital.
And mine.
The lab demanded independent chain-of-custody procedures.
We waited.
Six hours.
Then eight.
At 2:17 a.m., the chief forensic specialist entered.
Everyone was waiting.
He placed the report on the table.
"Mr. Vance was right about one thing."
My heart stopped.
"What?"
"The children are genetically linked."
Elena closed her eyes.
I stared at the report.
"To whom?"
The specialist looked at me.
"All of them."
I couldn't breathe.
"How?"
"They share a rare marker."
"From my father?"
He shook his head.
"No."
Silence.
"Then from whom?"
The specialist pointed to the maternal line.
"From Isabella Cross."
I looked at Elena.
She stared back.
Then the specialist continued:
"Your mother also carries the marker."
I froze.
My mother.
"That means..."
The specialist nodded.
"You, Elena, Anna and the children all descend from the same biological line."
Marcus stepped backward.
"The family tree..."
The specialist looked confused.
"What family tree?"
I suddenly understood.
My mother had lied.
My father had lied.
Everyone had lied.
And the real secret wasn't that my father had hidden heirs.
It was that my mother was the descendant of the original bloodline controlling Vanguard.
Julian hadn't discovered my father's secret.
He had discovered my mother's.
Then the specialist said:
"There's another result."
He opened the final page.
"The supposed newborn is genetically unrelated to all of you."
I stared at him.
"A fake baby."
"Yes."
Julian's entire plan depended on a lie.
And now we had proof.
But when I turned toward the police holding him, Julian was smiling.
Because he already knew.
May you like
And he whispered:
"Check the trust."
