PART 9
I couldn't move.
My mother's words kept echoing in my head.
“Harrison isn't your biological father.”
For thirty-two years, I had believed I knew who I was.
Now, in less than five minutes, everything had become uncertain.
I looked at Daniel.
He was staring at me with the same shock I felt.
“Emily,” he whispered, “we need to think.”
“My daughter is being held by our mother.”
“I know.”
“And she's telling me Harrison isn't my father.”
“I know.”
I shook my head.
“This can't be real.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“It is.”
I looked at him.
“How do you know?”
“Because when I was a child, I heard them arguing about you.”
My heart stopped.
“What did you hear?”
He hesitated.
“Dad said you could never know.”
“Know what?”
“That you weren't his daughter.”
I felt as though the ground had disappeared beneath me.
“So you knew?”
“No.”
Daniel shook his head quickly.
“I was four. I didn't understand what they were talking about.”
He looked toward the abandoned facility.
“But I remember one thing.”
“What?”
“They said the name Michael.”
I stared at him.
“Michael who?”
“I don't know.”
* * *
We arrived at the old medical facility less than ten minutes later.
The police had not yet reached us.
Every second felt like an eternity.
Daniel and I entered through the side entrance.
The hallway was dark.
Dust covered the floor.
Old medical posters hung from the walls.
Then Daniel stopped.
“Wait.”
He pointed toward a door.
There were faded letters above it.
ARCHIVE — PATIENT RECORDS
I looked at him.
“This place kept records?”
“Probably.”
We pushed the door open.
Inside were hundreds of boxes.
Old patient files.
Medical reports.
Invoices.
Everything my parents had spent years pretending didn't exist.
Daniel started searching.
I grabbed a flashlight from the shelf.
“Look for anything with my name.”
Minutes passed.
Nothing.
Then Daniel suddenly stopped.
“I found something.”
He held up a thin brown folder.
My name was written across the front.
EMILY ROSE CARTER — CONFIDENTIAL
My heart began pounding.
I opened it.
The first document was a birth record.
My date of birth.
My mother's name.
But the father's name had been blacked out.
I turned the page.
There was a handwritten note.
“Father: M.R.”
I looked at Daniel.
“Michael Reed?”
He nodded.
“Probably.”
My hands trembled.
Then another document fell from the folder.
A photograph.
A young man standing beside my mother.
I stared at him.
Something about his face felt strangely familiar.
Daniel took the photograph.
“That's him.”
“Michael?”
He nodded.
“I remember seeing him when I was little.”
I looked at the date.
The photograph had been taken just months before I was born.
But there was something else.
Written on the back were six words:
“If anything happens to me, run.”
I swallowed.
“Why would he write that?”
Daniel didn't answer.
* * *
Suddenly, footsteps echoed through the hallway.
We froze.
Someone was coming.
Daniel grabbed my arm.
“Hide.”
We slipped behind a row of cabinets.
The door opened.
Two men entered.
One of them was carrying a black briefcase.
I recognized the other immediately.
My father's lawyer.
Richard Cole.
The same man who had sent me threatening letters years earlier.
He looked around.
“Eleanor said they might come here.”
The other man shook his head.
“Then we need to move everything.”
“Especially the Reed file.”
My heart stopped.
Daniel looked at me.
The Reed file.
They knew about Michael.
They had been hiding information about him all along.
Richard opened the briefcase.
Inside were documents.
Bank statements.
Photographs.
A passport.
And something else.
A small envelope marked:
M.R. — DECEASED
The second man picked it up.
“Is he really dead?”
Richard looked at him.
“He was supposed to be.”
My heart nearly stopped.
Supposed to be?
Daniel covered his mouth.
The men continued talking.
“Harrison made sure the accident looked convincing.”
I felt my blood run cold.
An accident.
They had mentioned an accident.
But my mother had said Michael disappeared.
Could he have been murdered?
Richard lowered his voice.
“The problem is the daughter.”
“Emily?”
“Yes.”
“She found the trust.”
“And she found Daniel.”
The man cursed.
“If those two reunite, the trust activates.”
I looked at Daniel.
That explained everything.
Our separation had never been random.
It had been deliberate.
They needed us apart.
Because together, we could unlock the inheritance.
But Richard continued.
“There is one more problem.”
“What?”
“Michael left evidence.”
My heart stopped.
“Where?”
Richard closed the briefcase.
“No one knows.”
* * *
The men left.
We waited until their footsteps disappeared.
Then Daniel came out from behind the cabinets.
His face was pale.
“They're afraid of Michael.”
I nodded.
“But why?”
We searched the room again.
This time, we found a locked metal drawer.
Daniel used an old key from one of the boxes.
It opened.
Inside was a small digital recorder.
I pressed the button.
Static filled the room.
Then a man's voice.
Weak.
Frightened.
But clear.
“My name is Michael Reed. If you're hearing this, they failed to kill me.”
I covered my mouth.
Daniel froze.
The recording continued.
“Emily is my daughter. Daniel is my son. Harrison knows the truth. Eleanor knows the truth.”
A pause.
Then Michael whispered:
“But there is one person they are all afraid of.”
The recording crackled.
I leaned closer.
“Who?”
Michael answered:
“Evelyn.”
My grandmother.
Then his voice became barely audible.
“Your grandmother is not the victim they want you to believe she was.”
The recording suddenly stopped.
I stared at Daniel.
Neither of us spoke.
Then my phone rang.
It was the police.
I answered.
“Emily, where are you?”
“At the old medical facility.”
There was silence.
Then the officer said:
“We found something at the Carter house.”
“What?”
“A hidden room.”
My heart began racing.
“What was inside?”
The officer hesitated.
“Photographs of you and Daniel.”
“Anything else?”
“Yes.”
His voice became serious.
“A photograph of your grandmother.”
I waited.
“And she wasn't alone.”
“Who was with her?”
The officer said:
“Michael Reed.”
My entire body went cold.
Then he added:
“And according to the date on the photograph…”
“Michael was alive twenty years after your parents said he died.”
