Chapter 6 - MY MOTHER'S CONFESSION
I spent my entire childhood believing my mother was incapable of lying.
Then a dead woman destroyed that belief with one envelope.
Elena was brought safely to Ethan’s estate before nightfall.
The moment she saw me, she hugged me.
I stayed stiff.
“You knew.”
“Not everything.”
“You knew enough.”
She cried harder.
“I was trying to protect you.”
I pulled away.
“I’m getting tired of people using that sentence.”
Ethan heard me.
He said nothing.
Elena gave me a small flash drive.
“Mom left this.”
A video appeared on the television.
My mother.
Thin.
Sick.
Recorded months before she died.
Rachel,
If you are seeing this, then I failed to fix something I should never have allowed to happen.
My throat closed.
She explained that Victor Kane had secretly financed experimental fertility work.
He wanted biological links to powerful families.
Not children.
Leverage.
My mother discovered Ethan’s stored genetic material had been transported illegally.
She tried to report it.
Victor threatened both daughters.
Then something unexpected happened.
I arrived at the same clinic for treatment.
My mother saw my name on the schedule.
She panicked.
She feared Victor planned to use another woman entirely.
So she changed one file.
Mine.
I whispered:
“No.”
My mother continued:
I thought if I controlled which patient received the embryo, I could control what happened next. I told myself I could protect you. I was wrong.
Tears blurred the screen.
She had altered my paperwork.
She had chosen me because she believed she could hide me afterward.
But she had not expected Michael Callahan to appear.
Michael had discovered the operation and followed the trail to Los Angeles.
That was how we met.
Not accidentally.
He had come looking for me.
“He knew?” I whispered.
Elena nodded.
The video continued.
Michael promised my mother he would protect me and claim the baby as his.
My entire relationship had begun with a lie.
Yet my mother said one thing that made me ache.
Michael fell in love with you anyway.
The video ended.
Nobody spoke.
Then Ethan’s phone rang.
His security chief listened to someone.
His face changed.
“What?”
He turned toward Ethan.
“We found Michael’s car.”
Ethan went still.
“Where?”
“Storage facility outside Gary.”
“He died seven months ago.”
“Maybe not.”
My heart stopped.
“What?”
The security chief handed him photographs.
Michael’s car had been rented under another name two weeks ago.
And security footage showed a man entering it.
Same height.
Same walk.
Same crooked smile.
May you like
Ethan whispered:
“My brother is alive.”
