Chapter 6 - THE CHILDFor several seconds, nobody moved.
Then Mason spoke.
“I have never touched Chloe.”
Julian smiled.
“I know.”
Chloe covered her face.
I looked at her.
“Then why would he say that?”
Julian’s expression changed.
“Because confusion is useful.”
Mason stepped toward Chloe.
“Who is the father?”
Chloe looked at me.
“I don’t know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know?”
“I was told the baby was yours.”
She looked at Mason.
“Your blood was used.”
Mason went still.
“What?”
Julian laughed.
“The fertility clinic records were altered.”
My stomach turned.
“Why?”
“Because the baby belongs to a family with enough power to control this story.”
I stared at him.
“Whose baby is it?”
Julian walked to one of the archive cabinets.
“You’ll find out when we open the ledger.”
Mason lunged.
Two armed men appeared behind the vault door.
They forced him back.
I screamed.
“Stop!”
Julian raised a hand.
The men lowered their weapons.
He looked at me.
“You still don’t understand, Valerie.”
“Then explain it.”
“The ledger doesn’t just contain names.”
“What does it contain?”
“Leverage.”
He opened the archive cabinet.
Inside were birth certificates.
Adoption documents.
DNA reports.
Blackmail photographs.
Court files.
Medical records.
The entire underground machinery of a hidden empire.
Julian pulled one folder.
He handed it to me.
My name was on it.
I opened it.
Inside was a DNA report.
My hands shook.
Mother: Elaine Carter.
Father: Unknown.
I frowned.
“What is this?”
Julian smiled.
“Your father wasn’t the man you think he was.”
I looked at my mother.
She began crying.
“Tell her.”
Elaine whispered:
“Your father was not your father.”
The room fell silent.
Mason stared at her.
“You mean Dad wasn’t biological?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
My mother looked at Julian.
“His father.”
I stopped breathing.
Julian’s smile disappeared.
“Our parents were connected long before you were born.”
I stepped backward.
“You’re saying…”
“You’re my sister,” Chloe whispered.
I turned toward her.
“What?”
She was crying.
“Our fathers were brothers.”
Mason shook his head.
“This makes no sense.”
Julian interrupted.
“It makes perfect sense.”
He pulled out another file.
Inside was an old photograph.
Three men stood together.
My father.
Julian’s father.
And a third man.
A man I had never seen before.
Except I knew the face.
Because I had seen it in my own mirror.
Julian whispered:
“That man is your biological father.”
I stared at the photograph.
Mason stepped closer.
Then his face changed.
He recognized him.
“You know this man.”
Mason swallowed.
“Yes.”
“Who is he?”
He looked at me.
“He was the last person Dad called before he died.”
Before anyone could speak, the vault lights went out.
A gunshot exploded in the darkness.
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And when the emergency lights came on...
My mother was gone.
