CHAPTER 14: THE FATHER WHO CHOSE ME
The photograph was impossible.
That was the only thought my mind could form.
Not shocking.
Not frightening.
Impossible.
Because the man in that picture was my father.
Thomas Reed.
The man who taught me honesty.
The man who told me a person's choices defined them.
The man who held my hand when I was afraid.
The man who spent his entire life telling me that doing the right thing mattered.
And yet...
There he was.
Standing beside Victor Cross.
Holding a gun.
I looked at Daniel.
"You expect me to believe this?"
Daniel didn't react.
"I expected you to question it."
"Because it's fake."
"Is it?"
"Yes."
The answer came too quickly.
Too desperately.
Daniel leaned back.
"That is exactly why Thomas succeeded."
My eyes narrowed.
"What does that mean?"
"He knew people would believe the version of him he created."
My hands tightened.
"Don't talk about him like that."
Daniel studied me.
"You loved him."
"Yes."
"And that makes this difficult."
I stood.
"You're trying to destroy my family."
Daniel shook his head.
"No."
He pushed the file toward me.
"I'm trying to show you that your family was never what you thought."
I wanted to leave.
Every instinct told me to walk away.
Because Daniel Cross was exactly the type of person my father warned me about.
Powerful.
Connected.
Someone who could manipulate facts until lies looked like truth.
But then I saw something.
Something small.
A detail in the photograph.
The date.
I picked it up.
My fingers froze.
The photograph was taken eleven years ago.
One year after my father's supposed investigation into Victor.
One year after everyone said they became enemies.
That meant one thing.
They had been together.
After everything.
"Why?"
I asked quietly.
Daniel looked at me.
"Because Thomas needed Victor."
"For what?"
"To protect you."
I laughed.
"Again with protection."
Daniel didn't smile.
"Because that was always the reason."
"Then why the gun?"
A pause.
"Because Thomas wasn't meeting Victor as a friend."
"Then as what?"
Daniel looked at the photograph.
"As someone who was willing to do anything."
I flipped through the file.
Bank records.
Documents.
Old messages.
Most of them meant nothing.
Until I found one.
A letter.
Written by my father.
But not addressed to me.
Addressed to Victor.
Victor,
You were right about one thing. The past always returns.
But you were wrong about another. Nathan is not yours. He is not mine. He belongs to himself.
I stopped.
The words felt strange.
Then I read further.
If anything happens to me, protect him. Not because he carries your blood. Because he carries my name.
My chest tightened.
My father had asked Victor to protect me?
That made no sense.
"Why would he trust Victor?"
Daniel answered calmly.
"Because Thomas knew Victor was many things."
He paused.
"But he also knew Victor loved his son."
I looked up.
"My son?"
Daniel nodded.
"You."
I left the restaurant with the file.
Not because I believed Daniel.
Not completely.
But because I had learned one important lesson.
The truth rarely comes from one person.
It comes from pieces.
And I needed all the pieces.
I went to see Evelyn.
She was waiting at her apartment.
She knew immediately something had happened.
"You met Daniel."
I looked at her.
"How do you know?"
"Because you have the same expression your father had when he discovered something painful."
I placed the file on the table.
"Did my father work with Victor after the investigation?"
Evelyn looked at the file.
Then away.
"Yes."
My heart sank.
"Why?"
"Because they were trying to stop something bigger."
"What?"
She hesitated.
"The organization behind everything."
I stared.
"What organization?"
"The people who funded Victor."
"Daniel mentioned them."
Her eyes narrowed.
"What did he tell you?"
"That my father wasn't the victim."
Silence.
That was enough.
"Evelyn."
She sat down.
"Nathan, your father was not innocent."
The words hurt.
Because they came from her.
"You knew?"
"I knew he made mistakes."
"What mistakes?"
"He hurt people."
I looked away.
"How?"
"He believed the only way to defeat dangerous people was to become more dangerous."
The sentence felt like a knife.
Because suddenly I understood.
My father wasn't a perfect man.
He was a man trying to fix a world he had helped damage.
"Then why did he raise me?"
Evelyn looked at me.
"Because you changed him."
"What?"
"Before you were born, Thomas was like Victor."
I froze.
"No."
"Yes."
She continued.
"He cared about winning."
"He cared about power."
"He cared about proving he was right."
She looked down.
"Then you were born."
I said nothing.
"He realized he had created a world where his child could never be safe."
"So he changed?"
"Yes."
"Because of me?"
"Because of love."
For the first time in weeks...
I missed my father.
Not the perfect version.
Not the hero.
The real one.
The flawed one.
The man who made mistakes.
The man who still chose me.
Then Evelyn showed me something.
A recording.
"My father left this for you."
I looked at her.
"Victor?"
She nodded.
"Why?"
"I don't know."
That was becoming a familiar sentence.
She pressed play.
Victor's voice filled the room.
Older.
Tired.
Different.
"Nathan."
I froze.
"If you are hearing this, then everyone has finally failed to keep you away from the truth."
I looked at Evelyn.
She looked uncomfortable.
Victor continued.
"I know what they told you about me."
A pause.
"Some of it is true."
The honesty shocked me.
"I made mistakes."
"You have every reason to hate me."
His voice became quieter.
"But there is one thing they never told you."
The room became still.
"I never abandoned you."
My heart tightened.
"I spent twenty-two years trying to protect you from the people who wanted to use your existence."
I looked at Evelyn.
Victor continued.
"And the person who put you in the most danger..."
A pause.
"The person who started this entire chain of events..."
My breathing stopped.
"It was not me."
The recording ended.
I stared.
"What did he mean?"
Evelyn didn't answer.
Because her phone suddenly rang.
She looked at the screen.
Her face changed.
"What?"
"What is it?"
She answered.
Nobody spoke.
Then she dropped the phone.
"Nathan."
"What?"
Her eyes filled with fear.
"It's your mother."
My stomach tightened.
"What happened?"
Evelyn looked at me.
"She's gone."
I rushed to my parents' house.
The front door was open.
The living room was destroyed.
Drawers pulled out.
Documents scattered.
Someone had searched the entire house.
But they weren't looking for money.
They weren't looking for valuables.
They were looking for something specific.
I found my mother's phone on the floor.
One message remained on the screen.
Sent thirty minutes earlier.
To an unknown number.
I know where Nathan is.
Below it:
I know who his real enemy is.
I looked at Evelyn.
"What does this mean?"
She picked up a piece of paper from the floor.
A handwritten note.
Only one sentence.
She read it.
Then her face went pale.
"What?"
She handed it to me.
The handwriting was familiar.
My mother's.
Nathan, don't trust Evelyn.
She knows why I disappeared twenty-two years ago.
I looked at Evelyn.
She looked at me.
And for the first time...
I wondered if the person who had protected me for ten years...
Was the person who had been hiding the final truth all along.
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End of Chapter 14
Chapter 15: The Last Secret of Evelyn Cross sẽ là chương cuối, nơi Nathan phải đối mặt với sự thật cuối cùng về Evelyn, Victor, Amelia và quyết định ai thực sự là gia đình của anh.**
