Chapter 12 - The Real HeirThe room fell silent.
David looked from Arthur to the girl.
“Who is her father?”
Arthur didn't answer.
The girl did.
“My father is you.”
David froze.
“No.”
She stepped closer.
“My mother told me.”
Evelyn stared at her.
“That isn't true.”
The girl smiled.
“You know it is.”
David looked at Evelyn.
“What is she talking about?”
Evelyn's face collapsed.
“She isn't your daughter.”
David's heart sank.
“Then who is she?”
Evelyn looked at Karen.
Karen whispered one name.
“Michael.”
David recognized it.
His father's younger brother.
A man who had disappeared before David was born.
The girl nodded.
“Michael was my father.”
Arthur said, “He was the original architect of the trust.”
David frowned.
“Then why all this?”
“Because Michael discovered something.”
“What?”
“That the Carrow bloodline had been altered.”
David stared.
“Altered?”
Arthur pointed to the ledger.
“Children were being switched for inheritance purposes.”
David understood.
“The family has been replacing heirs.”
“For generations.”
Evelyn stepped forward.
“Your father discovered the system and tried to expose it.”
David asked, “And Michael?”
“Killed.”
David looked at the girl.
“So she is Michael's daughter.”
“Yes.”
“Then why pretend she was Lily?”
“Because she carried proof.”
David stared.
“What proof?”
Evelyn pulled a tiny pendant from her neck.
Inside it was a microfilm strip.
“The original trust.”
Arthur's expression changed.
“For thirty years I protected that evidence.”
David said, “By manipulating everyone.”
“Yes.”
“You destroyed our family.”
“I preserved it.”
“No.”
David shook his head.
“You destroyed people.”
Arthur looked toward Benjamin.
“I kept him alive.”
“You stole him from me.”
“To keep him alive.”
“You stole my son.”
Arthur's jaw tightened.
“And what would you have done if the truth had come out?”
David had no answer.
Arthur stepped closer.
“You would have trusted the wrong people.”
He pointed to Karen.
“You nearly did.”
Then to Evelyn.
“You married her.”
Then to the lawyer.
“You hired him.”
David looked at the lawyer.
“What did you do to Lily?”
The lawyer smiled.
“Nothing.”
A distant alarm began ringing.
Arthur looked toward the ceiling.
“The police are coming.”
David stared.
“Who called them?”
Evelyn looked at him.
“I did.”
Suddenly the chamber doors opened.
Security officers flooded in.
The lawyer lifted his gun.
Gunfire exploded.
David tackled Benjamin.
Evelyn grabbed Lily.
Arthur disappeared into the smoke.
Karen fell to the floor.
David crawled toward her.
“Karen!”
She opened her eyes.
“He took the pendant.”
“Who?”
She pointed toward the tunnel.
“The real enemy.”
David looked up.
A shadow moved through the smoke.
A woman walked away carrying the pendant.
David recognized her from the oldest photograph.
The woman beside his grandfather.
The woman holding the first baby.
She turned.
For one second, David saw her face.
His blood froze.
May you like
She was still alive.
And she was Lily's grandmother.
