Chapter 12 - The world seemed to stop.Marcus stared at Daniel.
Daniel stared back.
“No.”
The lawyer placed a folder on the table.
“DNA records were hidden for twenty years.”
Marcus shook his head.
“I never had a child with Evelyn.”
Evelyn whispered:
“You didn't know.”
Marcus looked at her.
“What did you do?”
“I was young.”
“You said you lost the baby.”
“I did.”
Marcus's eyes narrowed.
“Then how is Daniel mine?”
Evelyn broke down.
“Your child was switched at birth.”
Silence.
Claire looked at Daniel.
Daniel looked like someone had pulled the floor from beneath him.
“So my father…”
“Was not your biological father,” Evelyn said.
“Who raised me?”
“A man who loved you.”
Daniel shook his head.
“You all lied to me.”
Evelyn nodded.
“Yes.”
Marcus stepped backward.
“I need proof.”
The lawyer handed him the DNA report.
Marcus read it.
His hands began shaking.
The probability was overwhelming.
He looked at Daniel.
“You're my son.”
Daniel couldn't speak.
Then Marcus said something that changed everything.
“Which means Adrian is your uncle.”
Claire's heart sank.
The family tree had just become even darker.
Adrian wasn't simply an enemy.
He was Daniel's father's brother.
And Daniel's biological uncle.
The lawyer opened another file.
“There is more.”
He pulled out a photograph.
A newborn baby.
A hospital bracelet.
Daniel Hale.
Claire looked at Evelyn.
“Why was he switched?”
Evelyn cried.
“Because Adrian was trying to kill Marcus.”
Marcus stared.
“Why?”
“Because Marcus was the rightful heir.”
Daniel looked stunned.
“The trust?”
“Yes.”
“The trust was supposed to belong to Marcus.”
Marcus shook his head.
“Then why did your husband give it to Emma?”
Evelyn answered:
“Because Marcus disappeared.”
Claire frowned.
“What happened?”
“Adrian tried to kill him.”
Marcus remembered.
A car crash.
A fire.
A body never recovered.
Everyone thought Marcus had died.
Evelyn had hidden the truth.
She had taken the newborn Daniel and raised him under another man's name to keep Adrian from finding him.
Claire stared at Daniel.
“Then your father knew.”
“Yes,” Evelyn whispered.
“He knew Daniel was Marcus's son.”
Marcus looked at the lawyer.
“What happened to my original records?”
“Destroyed.”
“By who?”
The lawyer's expression changed.
“Evelyn.”
Everyone turned.
Evelyn closed her eyes.
“I had no choice.”
Daniel looked at her.
“You always say that.”
“I was protecting you.”
“You erased my identity.”
“I kept you alive.”
Claire stepped between them.
“Enough.”
Everyone went silent.
Claire held up the old tape.
“My memories.”
The lawyer nodded.
“What about them?”
“You said the trust's access code was hidden in my memory.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Your father-in-law trusted you because you were outside the Hale bloodline conflict.”
Claire frowned.
“He told me?”
“Yes.”
“Before the accident?”
“Yes.”
“What did I know?”
The lawyer opened his final file.
Inside was a handwritten message.
Claire recognized the handwriting.
Her own.
I hid the code where no one would think to look.
She stared.
“Where?”
The lawyer smiled sadly.
“You don't know yet.”
“Then who does?”
He pointed toward Emma.
“Your daughter.”
Claire froze.
“What?”
“Emma was born carrying the clue.”
Daniel stared.
“How?”
The lawyer showed them a picture of Emma's silver bracelet.
The engraving wasn't simply C.D.
There was a microscopic sequence beneath it.
Numbers.
A code.
Claire's hands trembled.
“But Emma is four.”
“She was wearing it when she left the hospital.”
Marcus leaned closer.
“That's the access key.”
Claire touched the bracelet.
Then Emma woke up.
“Mom?”
Claire rushed to her.
Emma looked at the bracelet.
“Grandma said never take it off.”
Claire's breath caught.
“Which Grandma?”
Emma pointed toward Evelyn.
Evelyn began crying.
Claire stared.
“Evelyn knew.”
Marcus shook his head.
“Then why didn't she tell us?”
A loud crash came from outside.
The safe house windows shattered.
Men stormed the building.
Daniel grabbed Claire.
Marcus pulled Emma behind him.
Gunfire erupted.
The lawyer was hit.
He fell.
Claire screamed.
Daniel returned fire.
Then a voice echoed from outside.
Adrian.
“Give me the bracelet!”
Emma clutched Claire's dress.
“Mommy.”
Claire held her tighter.
Adrian shouted again.
“You have ten seconds.”
Daniel looked at his mother.
Evelyn was staring at the bracelet.
Then she whispered something nobody expected.
“Break it.”
Daniel froze.
“What?”
“The bracelet.”
“Why?”
“Because the code isn't inside.”
Evelyn looked toward the windows.
“The bracelet is the key to finding what your father really hid.”
Claire stared.
“Where?”
Evelyn's eyes filled with tears.
“Under the house where you spent your honeymoon.”
Daniel went completely still.
The honeymoon house.
The place he and Claire had visited every year.
The place they had always believed belonged to a friend.
Evelyn whispered:
“Your father built a room underneath it.”
Then the front door exploded inward.
May you like
Adrian walked through the smoke.
And beside him stood Helena.
