Chapter 18 - The Real HeirThe phrase haunted me.
The real heir is already inside the family.
I read it again.
And again.
Daniel was injured but alive.
Richard arrived with the police.
Peter had escaped.
My mother refused to leave.
We gathered in the study.
The legal documents spread across the table.
Richard read the note.
“We need to know who wrote this.”
I looked at the handwriting.
It looked like my father's.
But something felt wrong.
I compared it to the letter.
The strokes were almost identical.
Almost.
Then I noticed one difference.
My father always crossed his T's high.
This writer crossed them low.
“It's fake.”
Richard looked at me.
“What?”
“The handwriting is an imitation.”
Victor took the page.
“You're right.”
“Then who forged it?”
No one knew.
Until Chloe entered.
She was carrying a box.
“I do.”
She put it on the table.
Inside were letters.
Pictures.
And a birth certificate.
She placed the birth certificate in front of me.
The mother's name was Margaret.
The father's name was Marcus.
The child's name was Chloe Reed Collins.
I looked at her.
“You really are Marcus's daughter.”
She nodded.
“But that's not all.”
She pulled out another document.
A DNA report.
I read it.
Then my body went cold.
The test showed that Chloe was not related to Richard.
She was not related to Peter.
And she was not related to Marcus.
Daniel looked confused.
“Then whose daughter is she?”
Chloe looked at me.
“Thomas.”
Silence.
My world stopped.
“My father?”
She nodded.
“Marcus was never my biological father.”
I couldn't speak.
Chloe cried.
“Margaret lied.”
Richard stared at the report.
“That means…”
“Yes.”
Chloe's voice broke.
“Emily and I are half-sisters.”
I sat down.
Everything had become impossible.
My father had secretly fathered Chloe.
Margaret had hidden it.
My mother had known.
Peter had used it.
And Daniel had been trapped inside the whole mess.
I looked at Chloe.
“Why didn't my father tell me?”
“Because he didn't know.”
“How do you know?”
She handed me another letter.
This one from Margaret to Thomas.
I read it.
She had threatened to expose the affair.
Thomas refused to leave my mother.
Margaret became obsessed with revenge.
The house had been the weapon.
The inheritance had been the battlefield.
And my marriage had been the final prison.
Then Chloe whispered:
“There is one more thing.”
“What?”
“Thomas left me something too.”
She pulled out a key.
It matched the key from the basement.
I stared at it.
“What does it open?”
“The old train station.”
My heart jumped.
The place my mother had mentioned.
The place where my father had hidden the original proof.
We drove there that night.
The station had been abandoned for decades.
The waiting room smelled of dust and rust.
My mother walked to an old bench.
She touched the wooden underside.
Then she whispered:
“This is where I met Thomas.”
She pulled out a knife.
Cut through the wood.
A metal box dropped onto the floor.
Inside was a single tape.
A photograph.
And a letter.
I picked up the letter.
The first line said:
Emily, your mother has been protecting you from the wrong person.
My blood froze.
The next line:
The greatest danger is the person you have trusted most.
I looked at Daniel.
He looked back at me.
Then the tape began playing.
My father's voice filled the abandoned station.
May you like
“Emily, if you're hearing this, then Daniel has already betrayed you.”
Daniel went completely pale.
