Chapter 15 - The Blood on the TapeI screamed.
“Ryan!”
Jonathan ran.
Daniel appeared from behind the trees and chased him.
I knelt beside Ryan.
Blood soaked his shirt.
“No, no, no…”
He opened his eyes.
“Emily.”
“Stay with me.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t you dare.”
“I should have told you everything.”
“You’re telling me now.”
He smiled weakly.
“I love you.”
I pressed my hands against the wound.
Police arrived.
An ambulance took Ryan.
I rode beside him.
At the hospital, a surgeon took him away.
I sat in the waiting room covered in his blood.
Then Daniel arrived.
He looked exhausted.
“Jonathan escaped.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who is Ryan’s father?”
Daniel stared at me.
“We found evidence.”
“What evidence?”
He handed me a sealed DNA report.
I opened it.
The result was shocking.
Ryan was not Daniel’s son.
Not Thomas’s.
The only confirmed relation was…
My father.
I stared.
Ryan and I shared a father.
That meant we were siblings.
I dropped the paper.
“No.”
Daniel sat beside me.
“There’s more.”
I could barely hear him.
“Patricia was not Ryan’s biological mother.”
I looked up.
“What?”
“Your father had another child with another woman.”
“Who?”
Daniel whispered:
“Evelyn Shaw.”
My heart stopped.
“That means…”
“Yes.”
Ryan and I were half-siblings.
I stood.
“No.”
Daniel grabbed my arm.
“Emily, listen.”
“This can’t be.”
“Your marriage…”
I shook my head.
“Stop.”
The nurse came out.
“Family of Ryan Hawthorne?”
We both froze.
“Yes.”
“He’s alive.”
Relief hit me so hard I almost collapsed.
“But there’s a complication.”
“What?”
“He has severe blood loss.”
I stepped toward her.
“I’ll donate.”
She looked at my chart.
Then frowned.
“You’re not a match.”
I stared.
“What?”
Daniel went pale.
The nurse continued.
“We need a relative with a different blood type.”
A strange silence filled the hallway.
Then Daniel whispered:
“Patricia.”
I turned toward him.
“She’s not Ryan’s mother.”
“No.”
“But she knows who is.”
I called Patricia.
She answered immediately.
“Is Ryan alive?”
“Yes.”
“I need his biological mother.”
Silence.
Then Patricia started crying.
“You already know.”
“No.”
“You just don’t understand what you’re asking.”
“Tell me.”
She whispered the name.
And my stomach dropped.
Because Ryan’s biological mother was the one person I had trusted most.
May you like
My own mother.
The woman I had spent my entire life calling Mom.
