CHAPTER 11: THE MOTHER I NEVER KNEW
The woman in the photograph looked ordinary.
That was the first thing that confused me.
After everything I had discovered, I expected someone connected to all these secrets to look dangerous.
Powerful.
Unreachable.
Someone who carried the weight of the past on their shoulders.
But the woman standing outside that small house looked like someone who had spent years trying to disappear.
Gray hair.
Simple clothes.
A tired expression.
A person who had lived quietly while the rest of us were trapped in a storm she started.
Or perhaps...
A storm she was running from.
"How do you know her?"
I looked at Evelyn.
She didn't answer.
Not immediately.
That alone told me enough.
"Evelyn."
She looked at the photograph again.
"I met her once."
"When?"
"Nine years ago."
My heart tightened.
"Nine years ago?"
She nodded.
"You found her?"
"No."
"Then how?"
Evelyn looked away.
"She found me."
The room became silent.
"She contacted you?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
Evelyn hesitated.
"Because she wanted to know if you were safe."
I laughed bitterly.
"Everyone wants to know if I'm safe."
I looked between my mother and Evelyn.
"But nobody wants to tell me why I'm in danger."
Nobody answered.
Because they couldn't.
Or because they wouldn't.
At this point, I didn't know which possibility was worse.
I drove to the address alone.
Evelyn wanted to come.
I refused.
Not because I didn't trust her.
Because I did.
And that was the problem.
For ten years, Evelyn had been the person standing between me and the truth.
Even if she was protecting me...
She was still standing there.
This time, I needed to walk through the door myself.
The house was small.
Almost too small for the amount of history connected to it.
No security.
No cameras.
No signs that anyone important lived there.
Just a quiet house at the edge of a quiet town.
I stood outside for several minutes.
My hand hovered over the door.
I had imagined this moment so many times.
Meeting my biological mother.
Learning why she left.
Finding out if she ever thought about me.
But I never imagined I would feel afraid.
Finally, I knocked.
The door opened.
And time stopped.
I didn't know what I expected.
But the woman standing there...
Had my eyes.
I had seen them every morning in the mirror.
The same shape.
The same expression when confused.
The same sadness hidden behind them.
She looked at me.
And immediately covered her mouth.
"Nathan."
Hearing my name from her lips felt strange.
Not wrong.
Just unfamiliar.
Like hearing a song you somehow remembered but had never heard before.
"How do you know my name?"
Tears filled her eyes.
"Because I have said it every day for twenty-two years."
I didn't move.
She stepped back.
"I'm sorry."
The words were small.
Too small.
For twenty-two years of absence.
"I don't know what to say."
She nodded.
"You don't have to say anything."
"Then why did you leave?"
Her face broke.
"I didn't."
The answer shocked me.
"What?"
"I didn't leave you."
I stared.
"Everyone said you disappeared."
"I was taken."
The world became silent.
"By who?"
She looked at me.
And the fear in her eyes returned.
"Victor."
I felt anger rise.
"Victor Cross?"
She nodded.
"My father."
The words were painful.
"You knew?"
"Yes."
"Then why didn't you escape?"
A tear rolled down her face.
"Because I wasn't the only one trapped."
I froze.
"What does that mean?"
She looked at me.
"It means your father wasn't protecting you from Victor."
A familiar sentence.
Again.
"He was protecting you from the truth about me."
I entered the house.
I needed answers.
Too many years had passed.
Too many secrets.
Amelia made tea.
The gesture was strange.
My mother always made tea when something serious happened.
Now another woman was doing the same thing.
Two mothers.
Two lives.
One son.
"Tell me everything."
Amelia looked down.
"Where do I start?"
"Anywhere."
She smiled sadly.
"You were born into a war you didn't know existed."
She told me about Victor.
Not the businessman everyone knew.
Not the man from old articles.
The father she grew up with.
"He was obsessed with control."
"Control?"
"He believed family was something you owned."
I listened quietly.
"He wanted everything connected to him. His company. His reputation. His children."
"Children?"
She looked at me.
"Yes."
My heart sank.
"You and Evelyn."
I froze.
"What?"
"Victor had two children."
"No."
"Yes."
"That's impossible."
Amelia shook her head.
"Victor never told you?"
"Because Evelyn is his daughter."
"Yes."
I sat back.
The pieces moved.
Not into place.
Into something much worse.
"Evelyn knew?"
"Yes."
"About you?"
"Yes."
"About me being connected to her family?"
"Yes."
I looked away.
Again.
Another secret.
"But she didn't know everything."
"What didn't she know?"
Amelia looked at me.
"The truth about your birth."
My stomach tightened.
"What truth?"
She reached into a drawer.
She pulled out an old envelope.
Not unlike the one my father left.
"This was supposed to be given to you when you were old enough."
"By who?"
"Your father."
I stared.
"My father?"
She nodded.
"He asked me to keep it."
My hands shook as I opened it.
Inside was a document.
A birth certificate.
I read the name.
Then froze.
Because the father's name was not Thomas Reed.
Not my father's name.
Not anyone I expected.
It was:
Victor Cross.
I couldn't breathe.
"No."
Amelia looked at me with tears in her eyes.
"I'm sorry."
"No."
I stood.
"This isn't true."
"It is."
"You are saying Victor Cross is my biological father?"
She nodded.
The room spun.
"No."
My entire identity collapsed.
Evelyn's father.
The man who destroyed my family.
The man who my father spent years fighting against.
Was my father.
My phone rang.
Evelyn.
I answered.
"Nathan?"
I couldn't speak.
She heard my silence.
"What happened?"
I looked at Amelia.
Then at the document.
Then out the window.
"Evelyn..."
My voice broke.
"Was he your father too?"
Silence.
A long, painful silence.
"Who told you?"
I closed my eyes.
"Answer me."
Finally:
"Yes."
I felt empty.
"Then what are we?"
Evelyn didn't answer.
Because there was no easy answer.
We weren't just friends.
We weren't just two people connected by the past.
We were connected by blood.
By the same man who had destroyed both our families.
Then Evelyn whispered something that made my blood freeze.
"Nathan..."
"What?"
"There's something else your mother hasn't told you."
I looked at Amelia.
She looked away.
My heart sank.
"What?"
Evelyn's voice became quiet.
"Victor didn't disappear because he was hiding."
"Then why?"
"He disappeared because someone was trying to kill him."
I frowned.
"Who?"
A pause.
Then:
"The same person who has been trying to erase everyone connected to the truth."
I tightened my grip on the phone.
"Who?"
Evelyn whispered:
"Your mother."
I slowly looked at Amelia.
The woman I had just met.
The woman I had spent my entire life wondering about.
The woman who claimed she was protecting me.
Her face changed.
And I knew.
She had heard.
Because she whispered one sentence.
"I was hoping you would never find out."
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End of Chapter 11
Chapter 12: The Blood That Connects Us sẽ tiếp tục khi Nathan đối mặt với sự thật về Victor Cross, Evelyn và Amelia, đồng thời phát hiện người đang săn đuổi gia đình họ thực sự là ai.**
