Chapter 9 - THE MAN BEHIND THE MANVictor Vale looked nothing like the photographs.
He was older.
Scarred.
Thin.
But his eyes were sharp.
He looked at me for nearly a minute.
Then said:
“You have your mother’s eyes.”
I didn’t know whether to hug him or hate him.
“You’re my father.”
“Yes.”
“Why did you disappear?”
“Because disappearing was the only reason you survived.”
Mason stood behind me.
Victor looked at him.
“You did well.”
Mason stiffened.
“You knew I could walk.”
“I knew you would recover.”
“Then why didn’t you come back?”
Victor looked toward the hospital window.
“Because I was hunted.”
“By Julian?”
“By the people above Julian.”
I felt a chill.
“Who?”
Victor answered with one name.
“Mercer.”
Dr. Elias Mercer.
Julian’s doctor.
My doctor.
The man who had signed my birth record.
My stomach twisted.
“What does he want?”
Victor shook his head.
“Not what.”
“Then what does he want?”
“Your blood.”
Silence.
He explained that my birth had been manipulated.
A bloodline connected to an old offshore trust.
A trust created by the founders of the Vale shipping empire.
Only one living heir could access it.
Me.
“That’s why Julian married me.”
“Yes.”
“Why Chloe?”
“She was supposed to control Mason.”
My brother looked at Chloe’s name on a medical file.
“The pregnancy?”
Victor closed his eyes.
“The baby was created through stolen genetic material.”
“Whose?”
He looked at Mason.
“Yours.”
Mason went pale.
“Why?”
“Because the organization needed a second heir.”
I looked at my brother.
“That means the baby is…”
“Part of the succession plan.”
I felt sick.
Victor reached into his coat.
He pulled out a small silver key.
“There is one more file.”
“What file?”
“The one Julian never found.”
He handed it to me.
It was labeled:
VALERIE CARTER: ORIGINAL IDENTITY.
My hands shook.
I opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
A baby.
A hospital bracelet.
And a note.
Born under a different surname.
Changed at birth.
Adoptive parents assigned.
I stared at the final page.
The name written there was not Carter.
It was Vale.
My biological identity had been erased.
My mother entered the room.
She looked at me.
“I wanted to tell you.”
“Then tell me everything.”
She began to cry.
Before she could speak, the lights went out.
A man walked into the room.
Dr. Mercer.
He locked the door.
Then he raised a gun.
“I’m sorry, Valerie.”
May you like
He smiled.
“But your mother has talked long enough.”
