Chapter 5 - THE SISTER WHO BELONGED TO ANOTHER FAMILY
For fourteen years, I believed Lily was my mother's daughter from a relationship with a man named Thomas Brooks.
Thomas was a charming disaster.
He appeared when Lily was born.
Disappeared when she needed him.
And returned only after our mother died and left behind a life insurance policy.
Now I was staring at a photograph suggesting Lily's biological father was Charles Cross.
Julian's father.
The man who supposedly died twelve years ago.
I couldn't speak.
Lily sat beside me.
"Elena?"
I folded the photograph.
"We need to verify something."
She frowned.
"What?"
I took her hand.
"Mom may not have told us everything about your father."
Her face changed.
"Thomas?"
"I don't know yet."
I refused to tell her something that might turn out to be false.
Not when her entire future was already uncertain.
The next morning, Rebecca arranged an independent review of the documents.
The photograph's date matched the year Lily was born.
But something was wrong.
Charles Cross supposedly died two years after Lily's birth.
That much was possible.
The legal records, however, listed Thomas Brooks as Lily's father.
And the original birth certificate had been amended when Lily was six months old.
My stomach tightened.
"Who requested the amendment?"
Rebecca checked.
"Daniel Lawrence."
The same man.
Again.
Julian stared at the report.
"Why was my father's attorney controlling her birth certificate?"
Nobody answered.
Not yet.
We spoke with Lily through a child-focused attorney, who helped explain the situation without making promises.
Lily agreed to appropriate identity verification.
The results were unexpected.
Charles Cross wasn't Lily's biological father.
Julian wasn't her brother.
But the photograph was genuine.
And Charles had been involved in protecting Lily shortly after her birth.
Rebecca examined the remaining records.
Then found an old guardianship declaration.
It had never been filed.
Charles Cross had signed it.
The document identified Lily's biological father as a man named Michael Lawrence.
I stared.
"Lawrence?"
Julian's expression darkened.
"Daniel's younger brother."
The room went silent.
Michael Lawrence was supposed to have died seventeen years earlier.
Before Lily was born.
Yet the documents suggested otherwise.
Rebecca turned another page.
A second name appeared.
Vivian Lawrence.
Listed as a witness.
I felt sick.
Vivian had known who Lily was.
She'd known before she tore my dress.
Before she humiliated me.
Before she let Julian see the scar.
Then Julian whispered something I hadn't considered.
"Elena, Vivian didn't tear your dress because she was jealous."
I looked up.
"Then why?"
"Because she wanted me to recognize you."
My breath caught.
May you like
He nodded slowly.
"And the moment I did, her father knew his oldest secret was no longer safe."
