Chapter 3 - MY BROTHER'S SECRET
I raised my gun.
“Marco.”
No answer.
I could hear breathing.
Close.
Too close.
Grace pulled the girls behind the desk.
I stepped forward.
“Turn the lights on.”
The switch clicked.
Nothing.
Emergency lighting flickered red along the floor.
Then Marco stepped into view.
His hands were raised.
“Dom.”
I aimed directly at his chest.
“Why are you here?”
“I got a call.”
“From who?”
He looked at Grace.
Then at the girls.
“From someone using Isabelle's old number.”
My finger tightened around the trigger.
“What did they say?”
Marco swallowed.
“They said if I didn't come here tonight, the girls would disappear.”
Silence.
I lowered the gun slightly.
“Who sent the message?”
“I don't know.”
“Show me.”
He pulled out his phone.
The message was simple.
He found the key. Finish what Isabelle started.
Below it was a photograph.
My daughters.
Taken that afternoon.
Inside my own mansion.
I stared at it.
The photograph had been taken less than an hour earlier.
The girls were in the kitchen.
Grace was laughing with them.
Nobody outside the house could have taken that picture.
Someone had been watching us.
Right then.
Inside.
I called security.
No answer.
I called again.
Nothing.
Marco looked at me.
“Dom.”
I already knew.
The security team had been compromised.
I ordered Marco to stay with the girls.
Then I walked toward the hidden room.
Isabelle's desk had six drawers.
The top five were empty.
The sixth was locked.
I broke it open.
Inside were passports.
Birth certificates.
Medical records.
And one envelope.
My name again.
I opened it.
A DNA report fell onto the desk.
I read the first page.
Then the second.
Then I stopped breathing.
One of my daughters was not biologically mine.
I looked toward Olivia.
Then Sophie.
Then Nora.
My mind rejected the information.
“No.”
Grace stepped closer.
“Dominic—”
“No.”
I picked up the report.
“Which one?”
Grace's face tightened.
“I don't know.”
“There are three files.”
I opened the first.
Olivia.
My daughter.
The second.
Sophie.
My daughter.
The third.
Nora.
I stared.
The report showed a match.
Not mine.
I couldn't speak.
Nora was sitting on the floor, holding a stuffed rabbit.
She looked at me.
“Daddy?”
That single word shattered whatever anger remained.
I walked toward her.
I knelt.
She climbed into my arms.
I held her.
She smelled like shampoo and cookies.
My daughter.
Regardless of blood.
Regardless of DNA.
My daughter.
Then I noticed something.
A tiny scar behind her left ear.
I remembered it.
She had been born with it.
The doctors had said it was harmless.
I looked at Grace.
“Why would Isabelle hide this?”
Grace's eyes were wet.
“Because she was protecting Nora.”
“From whom?”
Before she could answer, the monitor turned on again.
Isabelle appeared.
This time she wasn't alone.
A man stood behind her.
Older.
Gray-haired.
Wearing a dark suit.
I recognized him immediately.
Not from business.
From family photographs.
He was Isabelle's father.
A man I had been told died before I met her.
I whispered:
“That's impossible.”
Marco stepped forward.
“Who is that?”
“My father-in-law.”
Marco stared.
“But he died twenty years ago.”
The recording continued.
Isabelle looked terrified.
“Dominic, if you're watching this, don't trust the man who tells you he died.”
She turned toward him.
“Tell him.”
The older man looked directly into the camera.
His voice was calm.
“Your daughter is alive because I made a deal.”
I stopped the recording.
“What deal?”
Grace stared at the screen.
“I think Isabelle was trying to expose someone.”
“Who?”
She pointed at the DNA report.
“The person who arranged the murder.”
Before I could answer, a gunshot exploded upstairs.
The girls screamed.
Marco grabbed them.
I ran toward the stairs.
Another shot.
Then another.
Someone was coming down.
I raised my weapon.
A figure appeared at the top step.
I almost fired.
Then the hallway light revealed his face.
Mrs. Donnelly.
My house manager.
She was holding a gun.
May you like
And she was smiling.
“You shouldn't have opened that room, Dominic.”
