Chapter 7 - The Daughter Nobody Was Supposed to Know AboutOne sentence from Daniel changed everything I believed about my twins.Daniel Hart arrived alone.
No bodyguards.
No lawyer.
Just a dark suit and a face that looked exhausted.
He stopped when he saw me.
Then his eyes moved toward the photographs of the twins on my phone.
“Which one?”
I didn't answer.
He looked at Claire.
“She has a right to know.”
Claire nodded.
Daniel sat down.
“I was told my wife lost an embryo.”
I stared at him.
“She didn't.”
“No.”
His voice broke.
“She had a daughter.”
My chest tightened.
“When?”
“Six months ago.”
The room went silent.
“My daughter was born the same week as yours.”
I whispered,
“Does she look like them?”
Daniel pulled out his phone.
There was a photograph of a little girl.
About six months old.
Dark curls.
Big brown eyes.
A pink blanket.
My heart stopped.
She looked exactly like one of my twins.
I turned the phone away.
“No.”
Daniel stared at me.
“I know.”
“Which one?”
“We don't know yet.”
“Then why did you say you did?”
“Because we have the DNA.”
He placed an envelope on the table.
“Yours?”
“No.”
“The babies?”
“No.”
“Then whose?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Your husband.”
I felt a strange chill.
He continued.
“One of your daughters is genetically related to me.”
I stared.
“And Brandon?”
“Not to that daughter.”
My throat closed.
“So one child is Brandon's.”
“Yes.”
“And the other is yours.”
“Yes.”
I looked down.
Two girls.
Two fathers.
One mother.
One terrible secret.
But Daniel wasn't finished.
“There is another problem.”
I looked up.
“What?”
“I didn't come here for my daughter.”
My heart stopped.
“Then why?”
He leaned forward.
“Because the people who arranged the embryo transfer didn't do it for us.”
“For what?”
“For your daughter.”
“What?”
His voice dropped.
“Your husband never wanted to know whether the child was biologically his.”
I couldn't understand.
“He didn't?”
“He wanted the opposite.”
“What?”
“He wanted proof that one of the girls was mine.”
“Why?”
Daniel pushed another document toward me.
It was an insurance policy.
A massive one.
My name was listed.
The twins were listed.
And the beneficiary was Brandon.
I stared at the amount.
Ten million dollars.
My hands went numb.
“Brandon took out a life insurance policy on me?”
Daniel nodded.
“Two months before the girls were born.”
I couldn't breathe.
Claire snatched the document.
“That's impossible.”
“It isn't.”
Daniel looked at me.
“He knew there was a risk one child was mine.”
“And?”
“He believed that if you died unexpectedly, he could control the trust attached to that child.”
I stared at him.
“Why would anyone do that?”
Daniel's expression became grim.
“Because my daughter's inheritance is worth more than twenty million dollars.”
The room went silent.
Then a terrible thought hit me.
“What happened to the other family?”
Daniel looked away.
“They disappeared.”
“When?”
“Four days ago.”
I froze.
The same day Brandon left.
Claire stood.
“Are you saying Brandon's disappearance is connected?”
“I’m saying four days ago, someone attempted to move a child through a private medical facility.”
My heart began racing.
“Which child?”
Daniel looked directly at me.
“Mine.”
I couldn't speak.
“But my daughters are here.”
“Yes.”
“Then who?”
He answered in a whisper.
“The child they were trying to take wasn't yours.”
My skin prickled.
“Then whose?”
Daniel's phone rang.
He listened.
His expression changed.
Then he stood.
“They found her.”
“Who?”
“My daughter.”
“Where?”
May you like
He looked at me.
“In your husband's car.”
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