Chapter 10 - Vanessa's SonThe boy's name was Lucas.
Seventeen years old.
Private school.
Perfect grades.
Perfect life.
And apparently the secret second heir to a fortune worth billions.
Vanessa had raised him under another surname.
Noah couldn't believe it.
“My father had another child?”
Evan shook his head.
“No.”
Then he looked at me.
“The boy isn't your father's son.”
I stared.
“Then whose?”
Evan swallowed.
“Mine.”
Silence.
Lucas was Evan's son.
Vanessa had hidden him for seventeen years.
And somehow the Whitaker trust had named him as the secondary beneficiary.
“How?”
Evan explained.
The trust had been designed to protect children born outside the family.
If something happened to Emma, Lucas would inherit.
Someone had planned for both of us to disappear.
Then Vanessa called.
She wanted a meeting.
She asked for me.
Noah refused.
She sent a photograph.
It showed Lucas tied to a chair.
My heart dropped.
“She has him.”
Evan tried to stand.
“Noah…”
“No.”
He restrained him.
“You're not going.”
Evan looked furious.
“My son is in danger.”
Noah stared at me.
“I'll bring him back.”
I knew what I had to do.
“I’m going.”
“No.”
“My daughter is already involved.”
“Exactly.”
“That means I have to know why.”
We met Vanessa in an abandoned theater.
She stood alone on stage.
Lucas was nowhere in sight.
“You came.”
I walked forward.
“Where's the boy?”
She smiled.
“Safe.”
“You're lying.”
“Yes.”
I stopped.
Vanessa laughed.
“You were always smarter than Grant realized.”
“Where is my daughter?”
Her expression changed.
“What?”
“My daughter.”
Vanessa stared at me.
“I don't have her.”
“Then who does?”
She looked toward the balcony.
I heard footsteps.
A man stepped into the light.
Gray hair.
Black suit.
I recognized him from old family photographs.
Noah's uncle.
Marcus Whitaker.
The man everyone believed had died six years ago.
Noah's voice came through my earpiece.
“Emma, get out.”
Marcus smiled.
“Hello, niece.”
Niece.
The word echoed.
Then he raised a gun.
“Your mother stole my inheritance.”
He aimed at me.
“She won't steal it twice.”
A shot rang out.
May you like
But Marcus wasn't the one who fell.
Vanessa collapsed.
