Chapter 6 - The FatherI slapped the laptop shut.
"That's impossible."
Felix said nothing.
Celeste stood in the doorway.
"Of course it's impossible."
I turned toward her.
"What did you do?"
"Nothing."
"You're lying."
"I didn't create the report."
"Then who did?"
"I don't know."
Felix grabbed the laptop again.
"There's a timestamp."
He zoomed in.
"Yesterday."
My stomach tightened.
"I was never asked for a DNA test."
"Neither was I," Felix said.
Celeste swallowed.
"So someone fabricated it."
"Or someone altered the database."
I looked at her.
"You expect me to believe that?"
"I expect you to realize we're all being manipulated."
A gunshot sounded downstairs.
We froze.
Felix pushed us behind the wall.
Another shot.
Then silence.
A minute later, security alarms erupted.
Felix pulled out his phone.
"My security team is outside."
"Then why aren't they inside?"
He looked at the screen.
"No signal."
The building lights turned red.
An automated announcement played.
LOCKDOWN ACTIVE.
Celeste stared at the ceiling.
"Someone sealed the building."
I looked at the staircase.
"What about Lily?"
"We find her."
We ran.
The basement door was open.
Cold air rushed upward.
At the bottom was an underground archive.
Rows of metal cabinets.
Kingsley records.
Financial files.
Old contracts.
My name appeared everywhere.
Felix opened a cabinet.
Inside was my original ownership agreement.
He held it up.
"You never sold Marlowe House."
"What?"
He handed me the document.
The signature at the bottom looked like mine.
But it wasn't.
I noticed something.
The ink.
"The date."
Felix checked it.
"It was signed after you left."
"So they forged my signature."
"Yes."
Celeste pulled another document from the cabinet.
Then another.
"These are all fake."
Felix looked at her.
"How do you know?"
"I helped create some of them."
I stared at her.
She started crying.
"I didn't know what my mother was planning."
"Your mother?"
Celeste wiped her face.
"My mother worked for Odette."
The room went silent.
"She disappeared seven years ago."
"Why?"
Celeste looked at the floor.
"Because she found out Odette was moving money through shell companies."
Felix opened another cabinet.
A thick black folder fell out.
Across the front:
PROJECT SEVEN
My heart stopped.
"What is Project Seven?"
Celeste backed away.
"I don't know."
Felix opened it.
Inside were photographs.
Me.
Lily.
Felix.
The school.
The hospital.
Every photograph was dated.
Some were taken years ago.
One was taken yesterday.
Another had tomorrow's date.
I stared at it.
"Tomorrow?"
Felix looked closely.
It showed Lily standing in a hospital corridor.
But we were already there today.
My blood turned cold.
"That's not possible."
A printed note was attached.
PHASE TWO BEGINS AFTER THE PATERNITY REVEAL.
Felix looked at me.
"What is Phase Two?"
Before I could answer, the basement lights went out.
A voice came from the darkness.
"Phase Two is where you lose him."
A figure stepped into the emergency light.
Odette.
She was holding a tablet.
And beside her stood a man I had never seen before.
He looked at Felix.
Then at me.
Then smiled.
"Hello, Sarah."
I stared at him.
There was something familiar about his face.
Something terrifying.
He said:
"You were always told I died seven years ago."
Felix went rigid.
"No."
May you like
The stranger smiled.
"Hello, little brother."
