Chapter 6 - The Room Beneath the HouseDaniel opened the office door.

I was gone.

Not through the window.

Through the floor.

Behind the bookshelf, I had found a narrow service hatch leading into the old maintenance tunnels.

I slid through and pulled it shut.

Daniel entered seconds later.

“Search the room.”

I heard two men moving through the office.

I stayed still.

The tunnel smelled of dust and damp stone.

My flashlight revealed old pipes running beneath the manor.

Then something caught my attention.

A second door.

It had no handle.

Only a keyhole shaped like a triangle.

I pulled the child's key from my pocket.

It fit.

The door opened.

Inside was a small bedroom.

A bed.

A desk.

A stuffed rabbit.

Photographs.

Fourteen photographs.

Fourteen children.

Noah was one of them.

Each photograph had a number.

Not names.

Numbers.

I took pictures with my phone.

Then I saw a file on the desk.

TRANSFER RECORDS

I opened it.

The documents were detailed.

Payments.

Medical expenses.

Private schools.

Travel arrangements.

But each child had a corresponding corporate account.

These weren't ordinary custody records.

The Vance family was moving money through children.

I photographed everything.

Then I found another file.

PROJECT HEIR

The first page contained a list of powerful families.

Industrialists.

Politicians.

Judges.

International investors.

Each had a child listed beneath their name.

I felt sick.

The children were leverage.

A long-term insurance policy disguised as family relationships.

I heard footsteps approaching the hidden room.

I grabbed the file.

A voice whispered outside.

“He's down here.”

I froze.

They knew.

Marcus's voice crackled in my earpiece.

“Thomas, where are you?”

I whispered the coordinates.

“Don't move.”

“I think they found me.”

“I'm coming.”

The door opened.

A flashlight swept across the room.

I ducked behind the desk.

Two men entered.

One grabbed the photographs.

The other looked around.

“Where is he?”

I picked up a metal lamp.

Before I could strike, a third man entered.

Daniel.

“Get out.”

The two men left.

Daniel stood alone.

He looked at the photographs.

“You weren't supposed to see this.”

I said nothing.

He smiled.

“You know what your problem is?”

I stepped from the shadows.

“You talk too much.”

His smile disappeared.

He rushed toward me.

I hit him with the lamp.

He fell.

I grabbed the folder and ran.

The tunnel opened into the garage.

Marcus was waiting.

“Move.”

We escaped through the rear gate.

At the safehouse, Marcus examined the documents.

“This is bigger than fraud.”

“I know.”

He looked at the child photographs.

“These families were using their children as collateral.”

“And Noah?”

Marcus turned a page.

Noah's name wasn't there.

I frowned.

“Why isn't he listed?”

Marcus looked at me.

“Because Noah isn't collateral.”

“Then what is he?”

He turned the page.

A second document was attached.

It contained Noah's full legal identity.

Under “parentage,” there was a name.

Not Daniel Vance.

Not an unknown mother.

A different man.

Thomas Carter.

I stared at the page.

“No.”

Marcus looked at me.

The room seemed to shrink.

I read it again.

My name.

My birth date.

My signature.

A declaration of biological parenthood.

“I never signed this.”

“I know.”

“Then why is it here?”

Marcus lowered his voice.

“Because somebody wants you to believe Noah is your son.”

I shook my head.

“I've never met him before three months ago.”

Marcus picked up another document.

“This is dated twenty-eight years ago.”

My heart stopped.

“Twenty-eight?”

He nodded.

“That was before Lily was born.”

Then he turned the page.

May you like

My Family Inherited Millions and Left Me a Ruined House. Four Months Lat...

The lawyer’s office fell silent as my grandmother’s will was read, and I watched my family inherit millions while I received nothi...

A Desperate Mother Begged a Billionaire for a Job to Feed Her Two Childr...

I was stranded on a lonely Arizona highway with two starving children, a pair of ruined suitcases, and no way to reach our destina...

I Saved the Mafia Boss’s Baby from a Dumpster, but He Threw Me in Jail f...

The first thing I noticed when I opened the dumpster behind the Valente mansion was a tiny blue hand sticking out from beneath a f...

And I saw the name of Noah's mother.

My wife's.