Chapter 9: The Daughter Victor Erased
Khloe did not remember standing.
She remembered Julian entering.
She remembered throwing the DNA report at him.
Then she remembered shouting.
“You knew.”
Julian did not deny it.
“You knew Victor was my father.”
“I learned after Helena died.”
“Marcus is my half brother.”
“No.”
Khloe froze.
Miriam lifted a hand.
“The laboratory ran broader kinship analysis. Marcus is Victor’s biological son. Khloe is not Victor’s biological daughter.”
“But the report—”
“The initial result showed a strong first-degree relationship because Victor and Daniel were identical twins.”
Silence.
Khloe looked at Julian.
“My father had a twin?”
“Daniel was born Daniel Thorne,” Julian said. “He changed his name after joining Helena’s family.”
Khloe sat slowly.
Victor and Daniel had been identical twins.
One raised inside the Thorne dynasty.
The other sent to live with relatives after their mother’s death.
They reunited as adults and built the company with Helena.
Victor later erased Daniel from the public history.
“Why did no one tell me?” Khloe asked.
“Daniel hated Victor’s family name,” Julian said. “After the ownership dispute, Helena believed the connection would place you in danger.”
“Then Marcus and I are cousins.”
“Yes.”
The genetic report showed no prohibited degree of relation under state law, though the revelation still shook them.
Marcus looked physically ill.
Victor had not merely arranged a strategic marriage.
He had reunited two branches of the same family to consolidate control.
“He knew,” Khloe said.
“Yes,” Julian replied.
“Did Marcus?”
“No.”
Marcus’s voice was barely audible.
“I swear I didn’t.”
Khloe believed him.
That did not repair the rest.
The altered paragraph in Helena’s letter remained unexplained.
Miriam ordered a forensic review of every page.
The paper had been stored in the trust archive for two decades.
Digital access logs showed one person entering the sealed-document room three months earlier.
Elaine Parker.
The gala coordinator.
Police located Elaine’s apartment.
She was gone.
Her phone lay on the kitchen counter.
The threatening message she claimed to receive had been sent from a prepaid device registered near her own building.
She may have threatened herself.
Security footage showed her carrying a document case into the archive using temporary credentials issued for gala planning.
Elaine had also been the person who led Marcus toward the suite at the exact moment Isabella stood over Khloe.
Nothing about her presence was accidental.
“Who does she work for?” Khloe asked.
Investigators searched her financial history.
Elaine had received monthly transfers from a foundation linked to Evelyn Thorne’s estate.
Marcus’s late mother.
The foundation was controlled by a trustee named Celeste Arden.
Khloe recognized the name.
Celeste had served as Victor’s chief rival on the Thorne Global board until retiring five years earlier.
She was also Marcus’s godmother.
Julian contacted her.
Celeste agreed to meet at her estate outside the city.
Khloe attended by secure video because doctors would not release her.
Celeste was seventy-three, silver-haired, and elegant.
She did not appear surprised when confronted.
“Elaine works for you,” Miriam said.
“Yes.”
“You instructed her to alter Helena’s letter.”
“I instructed her to deliver a truth Marcus would believe.”
“It was false.”
“The parentage was false. The warning was not.”
Marcus leaned toward the screen.
“You wanted me to turn against my father.”
“I wanted you to stop obeying him.”
“So you manipulated my identity.”
Celeste’s expression hardened.
“Victor manipulated your entire life. I gave you one night of uncertainty.”
“You endangered Khloe.”
“I did not know Isabella would attack her.”
“You placed Elaine outside the room.”
“To retrieve the documents Marcus hid.”
Khloe stared at Celeste.
“You knew about the plan.”
“I knew Victor intended to activate the trust through incapacity. I did not know the attack was part of it.”
“Then why not warn me?”
“Because you would have told Marcus.”
“And you did not trust him.”
“No.”
Celeste had spent years attempting to remove Victor from the board.
She believed Marcus would always choose his father when forced.
The false letter was designed to destroy that loyalty.
“You used me to test my husband,” Khloe said.
“I used the only event capable of breaking Victor’s control.”
“My child is not an event.”
Celeste looked away.
Everyone in this war described Khloe and her daughter as necessary pieces.
Victor called them heirs.
Marcus had called their marriage protection.
Celeste called the attack an opportunity.
Even people opposing Victor had learned to treat human lives as strategy.
“Where is Elaine?” Miriam asked.
“I do not know.”
“Do you expect us to believe that?”
“She stopped responding after the gala.”
A member of Celeste’s staff entered and whispered something.
Celeste’s face changed.
“What happened?” Marcus asked.
She turned back toward the screen.
“Elaine’s car was found near the river.”
“Was she inside?”
“No.”
Police discovered blood on the driver’s seat.
The amount suggested injury, not necessarily death.
In the trunk was a hospital access badge belonging to Simon Vale.
The missing doctor.
Beside it lay the original version of Helena’s letter.
The unaltered paragraph did not discuss Marcus’s parentage.
It contained one name.
Elaine Parker.
May you like
Helena had written:
If anything happens to me, find Elaine. She is the child Victor believes died.
