Chapter 9 - Two Babies, One HeirThe emergency lights flashed red.
Adrian moved toward his mother.
“Where is the second baby?”
She shook her head.
“I don't know.”
“You're lying.”
“No.”
“What happened at the hospital?”
She looked at him.
“The doctors told Natalie she had one child.”
“But there were two.”
“Yes.”
“Who took the second?”
My mother began to tremble.
“Your father.”
Adrian's jaw tightened.
“Why?”
“Because one child was healthy.”
“And the other?”
“We were told the second was weak.”
Adrian remembered the photographs.
The hidden crib.
The medical equipment.
He suddenly understood.
“That's why someone was kept beneath the house.”
His mother nodded.
“The weaker baby.”
“Why?”
“To see whether he would survive.”
Adrian's stomach turned.
“Who was taking care of him?”
His mother whispered:
“Julian.”
Adrian froze.
“Julian survived long enough to raise him?”
“No.”
She looked away.
“Julian died before he could get him out.”
“Then where is the child?”
A voice came from behind them.
“Here.”
Adrian turned.
Ethan stood in the doorway.
And in his arms was a baby.
Owen.
Alive.
Adrian almost collapsed.
He rushed forward.
Ethan raised one hand.
“Don't.”
Adrian stopped.
“Give me my son.”
“He's not your son.”
Adrian stared at him.
“I know.”
Ethan looked down at the baby.
“He's mine.”
“Then why did you let him disappear?”
“Because they would have killed him.”
“Who?”
Ethan's eyes hardened.
“Everyone.”
He walked closer.
“For twenty-six years, the Vale family has been fighting over a child.”
Adrian frowned.
“What child?”
“The heir.”
“The trust?”
Ethan nodded.
“My father built the trust.”
“Your father?”
“Our father.”
Adrian stared at him.
“You're saying my father and your father aren't the same?”
Ethan smiled bitterly.
“No.”
He reached into his pocket.
Pulled out an old photograph.
Two men.
One was Adrian's father.
The other was a stranger.
But the resemblance was unmistakable.
Ethan pointed.
“That's our biological father.”
Adrian felt the world disappear.
“My father raised us.”
“Yes.”
“But…”
“He raised you because you were his legitimate heir.”
“And Julian?”
“Julian knew.”
Adrian stared.
“Who was our biological father?”
Ethan looked toward the door.
“Doctor Elias Vane.”
Adrian had heard the name.
A geneticist.
A man rumored to have worked with the Vale family decades ago.
Dead.
Or so everyone believed.
Ethan continued:
“The trust was created using Elias's genetic succession clause.”
Adrian looked at Owen.
“So Owen…”
“Matches Elias's bloodline.”
A strange noise came from the hallway.
Maisie.
She had followed them.
She pointed at Ethan.
“I know him.”
Ethan looked at her.
“You saw me?”
“At the airport.”
Adrian turned.
“What airport?”
Maisie whispered:
“The day my mom disappeared.”
Ethan's expression changed.
“Your mother didn't disappear.”
Maisie shook her head.
“She was taken.”
“By whom?”
Maisie looked at the ceiling.
“The woman with the red gloves.”
Adrian remembered Natalie.
His mother.
And someone else.
A figure in every photograph they had found.
Red gloves.
He pulled out his phone.
Opened the hospital image.
Zoomed the corner.
There.
A woman standing behind his father.
Red gloves.
Adrian looked at Ethan.
“Who is she?”
Ethan's face went completely white.
“Our sister.”
Adrian's blood froze.
“What sister?”
Ethan whispered:
“The third child.”
May you like
The lights came back.
And a gunshot came from upstairs.
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