Chapter 7 - THE MOTHER'S LAST SECRET
Ethan stared at Daniel.
“My mother?”
Daniel nodded.
“She built the original network.”
Lena shook her head.
“No.”
Daniel looked at her.
“You knew.”
“I knew she was involved.”
“You knew everything.”
Lena's eyes filled with tears.
“I was trying to protect Ethan.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“Everyone keeps saying that.”
Ethan stepped between them.
“Enough.”
He looked at Daniel.
“Tell me everything.”
Daniel opened the folder.
“Your mother discovered an international financial network decades ago.”
“Criminal?”
“Originally, no.”
“What happened?”
“Power.”
Daniel pointed to a photograph.
“Your grandfather expanded it.”
“Then my father?”
“Turned it into a private intelligence empire.”
“And you?”
“I became the next heir.”
Ethan looked confused.
“Then why did you disappear?”
“Because I refused to continue.”
“What did they do?”
“They tried to kill me.”
Ethan looked at the monitor.
“And my daughter?”
“She's the last legal heir.”
Lena suddenly gasped.
“The archive isn't the real target.”
Daniel nodded.
“What is?”
“Her identity.”
Ethan frowned.
Daniel continued.
“If the family can prove she's not Ethan's biological daughter, they can challenge her inheritance.”
Lena whispered:
“That's why they fabricated the DNA report.”
Ethan looked at her.
“So she is mine?”
Daniel smiled.
“Yes.”
“But you said—”
“I said she carries my genetic marker.”
“What does that mean?”
Daniel pointed to the report.
“Our family shares a rare inherited sequence.”
“So she's my daughter.”
“Absolutely.”
Ethan exhaled.
For five years he had lost a child he didn't even know existed.
Now he finally understood.
Lena had never betrayed him.
She had protected him.
Then the warehouse door opened.
A woman walked inside.
Ethan froze.
His mother.
Alive.
Older.
But alive.
Lena began crying.
Daniel whispered:
“Mom.”
Ethan couldn't move.
“You're dead.”
She smiled sadly.
“I needed you to believe that.”
Ethan's voice cracked.
“Why?”
“Because your father was watching you.”
“You knew what he did.”
“Yes.”
“You let me think you were dead.”
“I was trying to keep you alive.”
Ethan laughed through tears.
“Everyone keeps using that excuse.”
His mother walked toward him.
“I know.”
Then she looked at Lena.
“You did the right thing.”
Lena sobbed.
“What happens now?”
His mother looked toward the monitor.
“Now we take our family back.”
Ethan's phone rang.
His father's voice returned.
“You found her.”
Ethan looked at his mother.
“I'm coming for my daughter.”
His father laughed.
“You won't.”
“Why?”
“Because she already opened the archive.”
Ethan froze.
“What?”
His father whispered:
“And now everyone whose name is inside it wants her dead.”
The line went dead.
Ethan looked at the others.
His mother spoke quietly.
“Then we have no choice.”
“What?”
May you like
She looked at Ethan.
“We expose everything.”
