Chapter 8 - THE FILEThe video ended.
Nobody spoke.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
Margaret looked at me.
“I don't know.”
“Don't lie to me.”
“I swear.”
Brandon closed the laptop.
“We need to leave.”
“Why?”
“Because if Daniel made that video, someone else knows it exists.”
As if summoned by his words, the hotel fire alarm suddenly screamed.
People began running through the hallway.
I grabbed the twins.
Brandon took the bags.
Margaret followed.
We rushed outside.
Fire trucks arrived within minutes.
But there was no fire.
A maintenance worker had triggered the alarm manually.
He had disappeared.
Lauren arrived twenty minutes later.
She looked at the three of us.
“Why is your mother-in-law here?”
“No time,” I said.
I handed her the flash drive.
“Find someone who can open this securely.”
Her expression changed.
“Where did you get this?”
“From a dead genetic researcher.”
She stared at me.
“Emily…”
“Please.”
That night, we moved to Lauren's guesthouse.
She arranged digital security.
The files were copied onto three encrypted drives.
Then she opened the first folder.
There were medical charts.
Nothing unusual.
Then financial records.
Then emails.
She found a chain between Daniel and someone named B.C.
Brandon looked at it.
“That isn't me.”
Lauren turned toward him.
“How do you know?”
“Because I never used those initials.”
“Someone did.”
She opened the messages.
Daniel had been discussing the twins.
But the sender wasn't Brandon.
It was someone pretending to be him.
The messages included instructions.
Keep Emily unaware.
Move the money quietly.
Guardianship must be ready.
And one sentence repeated several times:
The mother cannot know who the donor is.
I looked at Brandon.
“Who was pretending to be you?”
“I don't know.”
Lauren continued scrolling.
Then she froze.
“Guys…”
“What?”
“There is a recovery email attached to the account.”
She clicked it.
A name appeared.
Megan Carter.
Brandon's younger sister.
I stared at him.
“My sister?”
He shook his head.
“She wouldn't.”
Then another file opened.
A photograph.
Megan standing beside Daniel Reeves.
They were not standing like strangers.
They were holding hands.
Margaret went pale.
“Megan.”
Brandon stared at the screen.
“When did this happen?”
Margaret didn't answer.
“Mom.”
“I didn't know.”
“You knew Daniel was involved, but you didn't know Megan was involved?”
Margaret looked away.
Lauren clicked another file.
A medical report appeared.
The report identified one twin as carrying a genetic marker.
But the patient's name was missing.
Only the sample number remained.
Lauren checked the number.
Then looked at the twins' hospital records.
Her face changed.
“Emily.”
“What?”
“I think we have a problem.”
“What?”
“The sample number doesn't match either twin.”
I frowned.
“Then whose is it?”
Lauren opened another file.
A man's DNA profile.
The name was blacked out.
But the age wasn't.
Male.
Thirty-eight.
Blood type matching mine.
Then she opened the final page.
A note was handwritten across the document.
HE IS NOT THE DONOR.
Underneath was another sentence.
HE IS HER FATHER.
I stared at the page.
“Whose father?”
Lauren slowly looked at me.
“Emily…”
I whispered,
“Me?”
She shook her head.
“No.”
Then she turned the page.
The profile belonged to Daniel Reeves.
May you like
And the note said:
Daniel Reeves was your biological father.
