Chapter 10 - The Blood TestMy father was alive, but he looked like a man who had been buried without being allowed to die.
Daniel was thinner than the man in the photograph.
Much thinner.
His hair had turned almost completely gray.
A scar ran from his temple down the side of his neck.
But his eyes were the same.
I knew those eyes.
I had seen them in my dreams.
"Ruby."
I couldn't move.
My mother covered her mouth.
Nathaniel walked toward him.
"You let me think you were dead."
Daniel nodded.
"I know."
"For twelve years."
"I know."
Nathaniel's fist tightened.
"You watched me bury you."
Daniel looked away.
"I wasn't trying to punish you."
"You abandoned your daughter."
Daniel closed his eyes.
"To save her."
I stepped closer.
"You were really there?"
Daniel looked at me.
"Every year."
"Why didn't you come home?"
"Because the people watching you would have followed me."
I didn't understand.
Then he reached into his jacket.
He pulled out a small silver pendant.
My mother gasped.
It was the necklace from my childhood memory.
"Your father gave this to me the day you were born."
He handed it to me.
I opened it.
Inside was a tiny photograph.
Me as a baby.
And another line of text:
When the archive opens, trust blood.
Nathaniel looked at Daniel.
"What archive?"
Daniel shook his head.
"I don't know."
"You're the one who built the trust."
"Yes."
"Then why don't you know?"
"Because the archive wasn't mine."
Daniel looked at him.
"It belonged to Father."
Nathaniel stared.
Then Daniel gave him a strange look.
"There's another problem."
"What?"
"The DNA records were altered."
Nathaniel froze.
Daniel nodded toward me.
"Ruby needs an independent blood test."
"Why?"
"Because someone has been trying to rewrite who she is."
Dr. Cole took blood samples immediately.
While we waited, Daniel told us what had happened twelve years ago.
He had discovered the Orchard files.
He had planned to expose his father.
Leonard Vale found out.
The crash was staged.
Daniel survived.
His wife Mara did not.
The family was told their daughter had died.
Daniel escaped with me.
But someone had found us.
So he disappeared again.
For years he watched from a distance.
He built the trust.
He hid the records.
Then someone reopened Bellamy Court.
That was when he knew the final phase had begun.
"What happens now?" I asked.
Daniel looked at me.
"Now they come for you."
The doctor entered.
Nathaniel stood.
"Results?"
Dr. Cole looked uncomfortable.
"Yes."
Daniel frowned.
"What is it?"
The doctor handed him the envelope.
Daniel opened it.
His hands trembled.
He read the first page.
Then the second.
Then he looked at me.
"You are Daniel's daughter."
Nathaniel exhaled.
"I knew it."
Dr. Cole shook his head.
"There's more."
Everyone looked at him.
Dr. Cole placed a second document on the table.
"Ruby isn't just genetically related to the Graves family."
Nathaniel frowned.
"What does that mean?"
Dr. Cole pointed at the sequence.
"The bloodline has a rare hereditary marker."
Daniel stared.
"That marker triggers the trust's biometric system."
Marcus looked confused.
"So?"
Dr. Cole answered:
"So whoever controls the trust cannot access the archive without her."
The room went silent.
I looked at my father.
"Then that's why they're after me."
Daniel nodded.
"Yes."
Nathaniel stepped toward the window.
"And where is the archive?"
Daniel whispered:
"Under Graves Tower."
At that exact moment, every phone in the room buzzed.
A message appeared simultaneously.
MIDNIGHT. BRING THE GIRL TO THE ROOFTOP.
Then another message arrived.
OR WE RELEASE THE NAMES OF EVERY CHILD IN THE ORCHARD FILE.
Daniel stared at the screen.
"They're bluffing."
Nathaniel looked at him.
"No."
Daniel shook his head.
"They wouldn't expose themselves."
May you like
Nathaniel turned to me.
"Unless they've already won."
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