Chapter 15: The DNA Report
The entrance beneath my childhood home was hidden behind a wall.
A wall I had touched hundreds of times.
Played beside.
Leaned against.
Never knowing what was behind it.
Now it opened.
A staircase descended into darkness.
Sarah stood beside me.
“You're not going alone.”
“I know.”
Robert carried a folder.
Emma stayed with Lily.
I looked at my daughter before leaving.
“Stay with your mother.”
Lily nodded.
“Bring Anna home.”
I kissed her forehead.
“I will.”
Then I descended.
The underground facility was enormous.
Concrete corridors.
Security cameras.
Steel doors.
Medical rooms.
Old computers.
A hospital bed.
And on the wall—
photographs.
Me.
Emma.
Victoria.
Lily.
Anna.
My father.
My grandfather.
I walked past them.
Then stopped.
A photograph showed me at six years old.
Standing in this exact facility.
Beside a man.
My grandfather.
I looked at Sarah.
“I've been here before.”
“Yes.”
“You remembered?”
“No.”
But something inside me did.
A smell.
Antiseptic.
Cold metal.
A buzzing fluorescent light.
Then—
a woman's scream.
I grabbed my head.
“Daniel?”
“I remember.”
Sarah caught my shoulder.
“What?”
“My mother.”
“You saw your mother?”
“No.”
I looked down the corridor.
“I heard her.”
A door opened.
Victoria stepped out.
“You're late.”
“Where is Anna?”
“Safe.”
“Where?”
“Your grandfather has her.”
“Then take me to him.”
She shook her head.
“You're not ready.”
“I've been ready for twenty years.”
Victoria looked at me.
“No.”
She pulled a document from her coat.
“You need to know what you are.”
I took it.
A DNA report.
My name.
DANIEL CARTER.
Below it:
Genetic relationship to Subject A: 99.9998%.
Genetic relationship to Subject B: 99.9998%.
I stared.
“I know they're my daughters.”
Victoria shook her head.
“Read the next line.”
I did.
Genetic anomaly detected.
“What anomaly?”
“Your genetic marker.”
She pointed.
“That's why your grandfather wanted you.”
I looked at the report.
“What does it mean?”
“It means the Project Daughter embryos weren't created from ordinary genetic material.”
“Then what?”
Victoria's voice dropped.
“They were created using your father's cells.”
I looked at her.
“My father?”
“No.”
She pointed to the name.
EDWARD CARTER.
My grandfather.
I stopped breathing.
“What?”
Victoria nodded.
“Your grandfather was the biological donor.”
I shook my head.
“That makes no sense.”
“It does if your father wasn't your biological father.”
Silence.
I stared at her.
“What did you say?”
Victoria looked at me.
“Your father raised you.”
“But he wasn't your biological father.”
I couldn't breathe.
“Then who am I?”
She whispered:
“Edward Carter's biological son.”
I stepped backward.
“No.”
“Your father knew.”
“How?”
“Because Edward told him.”
I looked at the DNA report.
“Then Lily…”
“Is descended from Edward's genetic line.”
“And Anna.”
“Yes.”
“That's why they wanted them.”
“Yes.”
I felt sick.
My entire identity had been built on a lie.
My father wasn't my father.
My grandfather was.
The man I had spent my life fearing wasn't my grandfather.
He was my biological father.
A door opened at the end of the corridor.
An old man stepped out.
White hair.
Thin face.
Walking with a cane.
I had seen him in photographs.
But never alive.
Edward Carter.
My grandfather.
He looked at me.
“Hello, Daniel.”
I couldn't move.
“You're alive.”
“Yes.”
“You killed people.”
His expression didn't change.
“I made difficult choices.”
“You took my daughter.”
“I protected her.”
“You stole my life.”
“No.”
He stepped closer.
“I gave you one.”
I laughed.
“You erased my memories.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you remembered what happened.”
“What happened?”
He looked toward the medical room.
“You were never supposed to know you weren't my son's child.”
I stared.
“Who is my mother?”
He smiled faintly.
“Emma.”
My head spun.
“Then my father?”
“Your biological father is me.”
“Why did my father raise me?”
“Because he loved you.”
“And you?”
“I needed you.”
“For what?”
“To continue the bloodline.”
I looked at him with disgust.
“That's all I was?”
“No.”
His voice softened.
“You were my son.”
“Then why?”
“Because power requires succession.”
I shook my head.
“You destroyed everything.”
He looked at me.
“Everything you built came from me.”
“My company?”
“Yes.”
“My money?”
“Yes.”
“My marriage?”
“No.”
He looked toward Victoria.
“Victoria was your choice.”
I stared at her.
She looked away.
Edward continued.
“Emma was the only person I didn't control.”
“That's why you tried to kill her.”
“I tried to stop her.”
“You failed.”
“Yes.”
“Where is Anna?”
He looked behind me.
“She's with the person who can tell you the truth.”
“Who?”
A voice came from the shadows.
“Me.”
I turned.
Emma.
She was holding Anna.
Alive.
Safe.
I ran toward them.
“Anna!”
She rushed into my arms.
I held her.
My daughter.
My other daughter.
I couldn't stop crying.
Emma stood behind her.
“I brought her back.”
I looked at her.
“How?”
She looked at Edward.
“He helped me.”
I froze.
“What?”
Emma's eyes filled with tears.
“He wasn't the one who took Anna.”
“Then who?”
She pointed toward the corridor.
Rachel stepped into the light.
She was holding a gun.
“Me.”
Everyone froze.
Rachel smiled.
“Hello, Daniel.”
Emma moved in front of Anna.
“You.”
Rachel laughed.
“You always were the sentimental one.”
Sarah raised her weapon.
“Drop it.”
Rachel ignored her.
She looked at me.
“Do you know why your grandfather kept you alive?”
I stared.
“Why?”
“Because you are the key to everything.”
“What everything?”
“The Carter inheritance.”
Rachel lifted her gun.
“But you made one mistake.”
“What?”
“You brought both daughters together.”
She smiled.
“Now the trust can activate.”
Robert looked at the documents.
“No.”
Rachel laughed.
“Too late.”
She pressed a button.
Every screen in the facility came alive.
A legal document appeared.
CARTER SUCCESSION PROTOCOL ACTIVATED.
Beneath it:
TWO BIOLOGICAL HEIRS CONFIRMED.
Then another line appeared.
CONTROL TRANSFER PENDING.
I looked at Edward.
He was smiling.
Not Rachel.
Not Victoria.
Edward.
“You planned this.”
He nodded.
“For thirty years.”
My blood ran cold.
“And what happens now?”
Edward looked at Lily's empty chair.
“Now you choose.”
I stared.
“Choose what?”
He answered quietly:
“Which daughter inherits.”
I shook my head.
“I won't.”
“You must.”
“No.”
“If you refuse, the trust dissolves.”
“So?”
“Then the Vales take everything.”
I looked at my daughters.
Then Emma.
Then the man who had controlled my family for generations.
Edward smiled.
“You see, Daniel?”
“You've spent your entire life believing you were fighting for your family.”
He leaned closer.
“But your family was built to make you choose.”
And somewhere behind us—
a lock clicked.
The facility doors sealed shut.
The lights turned red.
A computerized voice announced:
SUCCESSION TRIAL INITIATED.
I looked at Lily and Anna.
For the first time, I understood.
The final battle had never been about money.
It had been designed around one question.
Which daughter would I sacrifice to save the other?
May you like
And I knew one thing with absolute certainty.
I would destroy the entire Carter empire before I sacrificed either one.
