Chapter 8 - The Lie I Was Born IntoI couldn't breathe.
Elias Grant.
My mother's old photograph.
The altered birth certificate.
The password.
Everything suddenly existed in the same nightmare.
“No.”
I said it aloud.
“No.”
Dylan looked at me.
“Daniel…”
“My father is Victor.”
“I know.”
“He's my father.”
Dylan didn't answer.
That silence told me more than words could.
I opened the folder again.
More records appeared.
Medical records.
Private correspondence.
A DNA report.
I clicked it.
The screen displayed a result.
Biological relationship probability: 99.98%.
Elias Grant.
My biological father.
I stared at the report until the letters blurred.
All my life, I had believed Victor was the man who never thought I was good enough.
Now I learned he wasn't even my biological father.
But then another question hit me.
Why had Victor raised me?
Why had he hated me?
Why had he protected Dylan?
The archive contained the answer.
A recording.
My mother's voice.
I had never heard it before.
“Victor promised he would protect Daniel.”
Her voice trembled.
“But Elias wants the company.”
A man's voice answered.
Elias.
“He isn't your son.”
My mother's voice replied:
“That doesn't make him expendable.”
Elias said:
“He knows too much.”
The recording ended.
I looked at Dylan.
“You knew?”
“No.”
“Did Dad know?”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“His entire life.”
The betrayal felt almost physical.
Victor hadn't merely preferred Dylan.
He had raised Dylan as the son he chose.
I was the son he had been forced to keep.
Then the archive revealed something worse.
A file marked:
CONTINGENCY SUBJECT
My name.
I opened it.
There were pages about my education.
My career.
My promotions.
My access rights.
Someone had been tracking me since childhood.
Every achievement.
Every professional move.
Every relationship.
Every security clearance.
I whispered:
“They planned my life.”
Rachel stared at the screen.
“Why?”
I scrolled.
At the bottom was one sentence.
When Daniel reaches executive clearance, Blackline can be activated.
My heart hammered.
The promotion wasn't the reason they wanted me.
It was the trigger.
They had needed me in a position where I could access something.
But what?
I opened another document.
BLACKLINE PURPOSE: INSURANCE AGAINST ELIAS.
I stared.
The program wasn't designed to enrich Elias.
It was designed to control him.
Victor had built evidence capable of destroying Elias if necessary.
And somehow I was the key to activating it.
My promotion had triggered the mechanism.
The attack had been an attempt to stop me before I realized it.
Then my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
Nobody spoke.
I heard breathing.
Then a man's voice.
Elias.
“You finally know who you are.”
My blood froze.
“How are you calling me?”
“You've always been the difficult one.”
“I will expose you.”
A quiet laugh.
“You think Blackline belongs to you?”
“It belongs to me now.”
“No.”
His voice became colder.
“Blackline belongs to whoever survives.”
The call ended.
Seconds later, the underground lights shut off.
Dylan whispered:
“We're not alone.”
A metal door slammed somewhere down the corridor.
Then another.
And another.
Someone was locking the bunker from the outside.
I ran toward the exit.
The keypad was dead.
Rachel screamed.
“Daniel!”
I turned.
On the main screen, a new message appeared.
ACTIVATION SEQUENCE STARTED.
A countdown began.
10:00.
09:59.
09:58.
Dylan stared at me.
“What happens when it reaches zero?”
I didn't know.
Then another line appeared.
ALL EVIDENCE WILL BE RELEASED.
Rachel's face drained of color.
“And everyone connected to Blackline will know who activated it.”
The countdown continued.
I looked at my brother.
Then the door.
Then the timer.
We had ten minutes to escape.
But someone outside had another plan.
May you like
Because the final line appeared beneath the countdown.
DANIEL CARTER WILL BE THE FIRST NAME RELEASED.
