Chapter 7 - The DNA Lie
I knew immediately the DNA report was false.
Not because I wanted it to be.
Because six years earlier, during the period Leo was conceived, I had spent five months recovering from surgery after a shooting in Miami.
Rebecca had never been there.
Ethan had.
He visited twice.
Rebecca was manufacturing chaos.
But why?
Ramirez had the report tested.
Forged.
My signature had been copied from old medical paperwork.
Rebecca wanted Ethan to distrust me.
Maybe she had shown him the same document.
That could explain why he hid.
Then we found Ethan's response.
A video file recorded two months before his supposed death.
“I know the DNA report is fake.”
Good.
My brother hadn't been fooled.
“But Rebecca wants Thomas to believe Leo could be his.”
Why?
Ethan explained.
Our father's trust contained an archaic succession clause.
If I died without acknowledged children, controlling family assets passed to Ethan's eldest biological son.
Leo.
The clause controlled legitimate businesses worth hundreds of millions.
Rebecca needed Leo.
Not dead.
Controllable.
Maya was different.
She inherited directly through Ethan.
Two children.
Two separate pools of assets.
Rebecca had married into a financial structure she only understood after Ethan's death.
Except Ethan discovered her research before he died.
He changed something.
“What?” Ramirez asked.
We searched.
Nothing.
Then Dominic found a safe beneath the clinic floor.
Inside were guardianship drafts.
Rebecca planned to have Leo declared medically impaired.
Maya psychologically incompetent later.
She would manage both trusts indefinitely.
I felt sick.
Then we found photographs of the other children.
Rebecca had been learning.
Testing legal strategies on other families.
But someone had taught her.
The clinic belonged to Malcolm Voss.
Where was he?
Security footage answered.
He had left Blackridge four hours earlier.
With Rebecca.
Ethan.
And Ava.
All entered the same SUV.
Ethan appeared restrained.
Ava did not.
She walked beside Rebecca holding her hand.
Caroline stared at the footage.
“No.”
Her daughter didn't look frightened.
She looked familiar with Rebecca.
Too familiar.
Then Leo woke at the hospital and asked for me.
I returned immediately.
He looked better.
Still frightened.
“Uncle Thomas?”
“Yes?”
“Did you find Daddy?”
My throat tightened.
“I think he's alive.”
Leo started crying.
I held him.
Then he whispered:
“Rebecca said Daddy was bad.”
“She lied.”
Leo shook his head.
“No.”
He looked terrified.
“She said Daddy took Ava because Ava belongs to him.”
I froze.
“What?”
Leo continued.
“Ava called Daddy…”
He swallowed.
“Dad.”
Caroline was standing behind me.
She heard everything.
Her face collapsed.
Because Ava was nine years old.
May you like
And Ethan had known Caroline for eleven months.
Unless that was another lie.
