Chapter 5 — The Secret Brother
I couldn't speak.
Someone had been paying money in my name before Lily was born.
Someone had been planning something before I even knew I was pregnant.
Michael stared at me.
“What did she say?”
I put the phone on speaker.
Detective Bennett repeated everything.
The payments had been made through a private account.
The beneficiary wasn't actually me.
It was a shell company using my name.
And every payment had one description:
MORRIS CHILD PROJECT.
Michael looked at me.
“The Morris family.”
Detective Bennett said:
“We traced the account.”
“Where?”
“To a private foundation.”
“What foundation?”
She gave us the name.
The Bennett Legacy Foundation.
Michael went silent.
“That foundation belongs to my family.”
I stared at him.
“Then your family has been searching for the missing girl for decades.”
“No.”
He looked at me.
“They weren't searching for her.”
“What?”
“They were searching for her blood.”
That was the beginning.
Over the next twenty-four hours, everything changed.
The Bennett Foundation wasn't simply a charity.
It controlled trusts.
Hospitals.
Private clinics.
Adoption agencies.
Research facilities.
And hidden accounts.
At the center was a document called:
THE MORRIS SUCCESSION CLAUSE.
It stated that if a surviving descendant of Daniel Morris could be identified, the Morris inheritance would transfer to that descendant.
Diane didn't want Lily dead because she hated her.
She wanted Lily gone because Lily was proof.
Proof that the Morris bloodline had survived.
But there was still one question.
Why had Diane believed Lily wasn't Michael's daughter?
The answer came from the DNA laboratory.
The report arrived at 8:03 that evening.
I opened it.
My hands shook.
The first result:
Emma Bennett — Biological Mother: 99.9999%.
The second:
Michael Bennett — Biological Father: 0.00%.
I couldn't breathe.
Michael took the paper.
He read it twice.
Then again.
His face collapsed.
Lily was not his biological daughter.
Diane had been telling the truth.
But that wasn't the worst part.
The laboratory had tested Lily against another sample.
The result was:
Biological relationship: 99.9998%.
The man's identity was hidden.
But the sample number was visible.
I knew it immediately.
It belonged to the hospital record.
The same record containing the blood type.
The same number Diane had tried to destroy.
Michael looked at me.
“Who is he?”
I shook my head.
“I don't know.”
Then Detective Bennett walked into the room.
She held a photograph.
“We do.”
She placed it on the table.
A young man.
Dark hair.
Sharp eyes.
Standing beside Diane.
Michael stared at him.
Then whispered:
“Matthew.”
Detective Bennett nodded.
“Your dead brother.”
Michael shook his head.
“Impossible.”
“No.”
She pointed at the DNA report.
“The biological father of Lily is Matthew Bennett.”
I looked at the photograph.
My heart shattered.
Matthew had supposedly died thirty-seven years ago.
Yet his DNA was the father of my daughter.
Then Detective Bennett said the sentence that changed everything.
“Matthew Bennett never died.”
And somewhere in Phoenix—
May you like
the man who had been dead for thirty-seven years
was alive.
