We ran downstairs.
My mother was standing beside Robert.
She had somehow slipped one hand free from the handcuff.
Detective Grant immediately forced it back behind her.
“What happened?” I asked.
Linda stared at me.
“Did you see the screen?”
“Yes.”
“Then you know.”
“I know that Marcus isn't my biological father.”
Marcus flinched.
Rebecca looked at him.
Neither spoke.
Robert whispered, “Nathan found the old report.”
“Is it real?”
Nobody answered.
I turned to Marcus.
“Tell me.”
He looked at Rebecca.
She nodded.
Marcus finally said, “Yes.”
I felt the floor shift beneath me.
“You knew?”
“I knew there was a question about the paternity record.”
“That isn't what I asked.”
“I knew the original report existed.”
“Did you know the result?”
“No.”
“Then why did you look terrified?”
“Because the report was supposed to have been destroyed.”
Linda laughed bitterly.
“Nothing is ever destroyed in this family.”
Detective Grant demanded an explanation.
Rebecca said the DNA test had been performed when I was an infant.
My grandfather had suspected that Daniel was not my father.
He ordered a private test.
The result contradicted the family story.
But Rebecca refused to accept it.
She believed the sample had been switched.
So she ordered another test years later.
The second report disappeared.
“The first one said Daniel wasn't the father,” I said.
“Yes.”
“Who was?”
Rebecca looked at me.
“We never found out.”
Nathan had the answer.
That was why he had shown us the screen.
He wanted us frightened.
He wanted us desperate enough to trade the ledger for the final page.
Detective Grant called the number associated with the video.
Nathan answered.
“You have ten minutes.”
“For what?”
“To decide whether you want the truth.”
Grant put him on speaker.
“Where are you?”
“Close.”
“You shot Robert.”
“No.”
Robert laughed.
“Then who did?”
Nathan paused.
“Someone who works for the people you are investigating.”
Grant asked him to identify the shooter.
Nathan refused.
“I can give you the name.”
“Do it.”
“Not until Emily agrees to meet me.”
I took the phone.
“I'll meet you.”
“No,” Grant said.
Nathan replied before she could stop me.
“Good.”
“Where?”
“The hospital archive.”
“Which one?”
“The one where you were born.”
He ended the call.
Detective Grant looked furious.
“We're not letting you go alone.”
“I know.”
We drove to the abandoned maternity clinic.
The building was empty.
Or appeared empty.
Nathan had disabled the exterior cameras.
Inside, a single light remained on.
We found him in the old records room.
He stood beside a metal cabinet.
No weapon visible.
His hands were raised.
“You came.”
I stayed behind Grant.
“Where's the last page?”
Nathan smiled.
“You're finally asking the right question.”
He opened the cabinet.
Inside were dozens of folders.
Birth records.
Trust documents.
Medical reports.
Adoption paperwork.
Every piece of my childhood seemed to exist in that room.
Nathan pulled out one envelope.
“Your grandfather kept this separate.”
He handed it to Detective Grant.
She opened it.
Inside was a DNA report.
The father listed was not Daniel Mercer.
It was Robert Wilson.
I stared at my supposed father.
He closed his eyes.
“I knew.”
My voice shook.
“You knew?”
Robert nodded.
“When?”
“When you were six.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because by then Linda had already threatened to take you away.”
“So you knew I wasn't your biological daughter.”
“Yes.”
“And you still called yourself my father.”
“I was your father in every way that mattered.”
I couldn't answer.
Then Nathan spoke.
“That report is fake.”
Everyone looked at him.
“What?”
Nathan took another document from the cabinet.
“The original test.”
He handed it to Grant.
The biological father was listed as someone else.
Grant read the name.
Her face changed.
“That's impossible.”
“What?”
She handed me the page.
I read the name.
My grandfather.
Thomas Wilson.
My mother's father.
I stared at it.
Then I laughed.
It was the only response my mind could produce.
“That can't be right.”
Rebecca stepped forward.
“No.”
Nathan nodded.
“Your grandfather was not your biological father.”
“Then why is his name there?”
“Because someone altered the report.”
He showed us the laboratory notation.
The sample number had been changed.
The original report had been manipulated.
The true father remained unknown.
Nathan had built the confusion deliberately.
“Why?”
“Because as long as you don't know who your father is, the people behind the trust can control the narrative.”
Detective Grant studied him.
“You're one of them.”
Nathan smiled.
“I was.”
“Now?”
“Now I want out.”
“Why should we believe you?”
“Because they tried to kill me.”
That was when the lights went out.
A gunshot shattered the glass.
Nathan dropped.
Grant pushed me behind a cabinet.
Officers returned fire.
Rebecca screamed.
Marcus pulled Robert down.
Then silence.
Nathan was bleeding from his arm.
He was alive.
Outside, a car accelerated away.
Grant sent officers after it.
Nathan looked at me.
“They're going to come for the ledger.”
“We have it.”
“No.”
He pointed toward Rebecca.
“She has one.”
Rebecca froze.
Nathan smiled.
“You brought the wrong ledger.”
I looked at Rebecca.
“What does that mean?”
She opened the book.
A hidden compartment had been cut into the back cover.
Inside was a thin stack of pages.
She had never seen them.
The first page contained a list of names.
The second contained dates.
The third contained payments.
The fourth contained a photograph.
I recognized the man immediately.
It was my grandfather.
Standing beside him was Nathan.
They were shaking hands.
The date was twenty years ago.
Nathan wasn't a rogue employee.
He had been part of the network for decades.
He had been trained by my grandfather.
“Why did you help me?” I asked.
Nathan looked at me.
“Because your grandfather eventually turned against the people he created.”
“And you?”
“I tried to survive.”
He said the network had three levels.
The family.
The financial intermediaries.
And the people who controlled the intermediaries.
My grandfather had believed he was at the top.
He wasn't.
The people above him had used him.
Then they used Linda.
Then Robert.
Then Nathan.
And now they were trying to use me.
“What do they want?”
“The trust.”
“Why?”
Nathan laughed.
“Because your grandfather put everything into it.”
“How much?”
“Enough to control the network for another generation.”
I looked at the ledger.
“Where is the money?”
Nathan pointed to the trust certificate.
“Locked behind your identity.”
The room went silent.
“So they need me.”
“Yes.”
“To unlock it.”
“Yes.”
“And then?”
“They eliminate me.”
Nathan's expression became grim.
“They eliminate everyone who knows the truth.”
Detective Grant asked whether he could identify the network's leader.
Nathan shook his head.
“I can identify one person.”
“Who?”
Nathan looked at me.
“Your mother.”
I turned toward Linda.
She was crying.
“That's not true.”
Nathan continued.
“Linda wasn't just a thief.”
He opened another file.
“She became the administrator.”
My mother stared at him.
“You promised.”
“You promised me protection.”
“You broke the agreement.”
“What agreement?”
Linda looked at me.
“Emily, I never wanted this.”
“You've said that before.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
Nathan laughed.
“You were trying to control her.”
Linda screamed at him.
“You don't know what I sacrificed.”
“Neither does she.”
He pointed at me.
“Ask her why she kept Rebecca away.”
I looked at my mother.
“Why?”
Linda said nothing.
“Why?”
Finally she whispered.
“Because Rebecca was going to tell you who your real father was.”
My heart stopped.
“Who?”
Linda looked at Marcus.
Then Robert.
Then Rebecca.
“Someone you already know.”
The room fell silent.
I looked around.
Nathan's expression changed.
Detective Grant lowered her weapon.
Marcus stepped backward.
Rebecca began crying.
And Robert said the name before anyone else could.
“Samuel Pierce.”
The dead accountant.
The man whose identity had been used on a body earlier that night.
But he wasn't dead.
He had been hiding.
And according to the ledger, he was the only person who knew the truth about my birth.
Click here to continue reading: PART 11: The Dead Accountant Was Alive, and His Testimony Connected My Birth to the Fortune My Family Had Spent Years Fighting Over
By the Time the Wedding Toasts Ended, I Discovered My Savings Had Vanished and My Family Already Knew Why
Part 10 of 35
