Chapter 3 - The DNA Test Confirmed Sophie Was My Daughter—But It Also Revealed Why Someone Wanted All Three Children Inside My HouseI ordered the DNA test.
Hannah agreed.
Sophie thought it was a game.
She asked whether she could have ice cream afterward.
I promised.
The results arrived two days later.
I didn't open them immediately.
I sat in my office staring at the envelope.
For years, I had told myself I didn't have a family.
That had been easier.
Family created weakness.
Weakness got people killed.
Then I opened the report.
99.99% probability.
Sophie was my daughter.
I stared at her name.
Sophie Carter Whitaker.
My daughter.
The little girl who had offered me $4.63.
The little girl who had trusted me before knowing who I was.
I didn't know what to do with the feeling.
I had spent thirty-seven years becoming a man who needed no one.
Now three children had entered my life.
And suddenly I had everything to lose.
The second report was worse.
Mason and Noah's DNA had markers connecting them to Daniel Mercer.
But there was another shared marker.
A rare one.
The same marker existed in Sophie.
The children were genetically connected.
Which meant Daniel had been involved in the same bloodline project I had unknowingly become part of.
I called my scientist.
He explained the marker.
It was rare.
It had been tracked by certain families for decades.
It was linked to inheritance rights in a private trust.
A trust worth hundreds of millions.
More importantly, the trust contained information that could destroy several criminal organizations.
The children's bloodline was the access key.
I stared at the report.
"So they need all three children."
"Apparently."
I felt a cold wave move through me.
That was why they had been brought into my life.
Not because they needed food.
Not only because Hannah needed help.
Because the children were valuable.
I returned to the kitchen.
Sophie was helping one of the housekeepers bake cookies.
She looked up.
“Daddy!”
The word was still strange.
I nodded.
“Hey.”
She smiled.
“You look sad.”
“I have a lot to think about.”
“Thinking makes you sad.”
“Sometimes.”
She handed me a cookie.
“Eat.”
I did.
It was terrible.
I smiled anyway.
“Delicious.”
She beamed.
Mason started crying.
Noah joined him.
Sophie rolled her eyes.
“Babies.”
I laughed.
Then the alarm sounded.
Security breach.
Everyone froze.
My guards rushed through the hallway.
I grabbed Sophie.
“Stay with me.”
Hannah ran toward the twins.
The security system displayed an image.
A man approaching the gate.
Daniel Mercer.
Alive.
Older.
Scarred.
Smiling.
I stared at the monitor.
He lifted a hand.
Not a weapon.
A message.
Then the camera cut.
My security chief looked at me.
“Boss…”
I didn't answer.
I looked at Sophie.
She was holding my shirt.
“Who is that man?”
I wanted to lie.
Instead I said:
“Someone from your mother's past.”
She nodded.
“Is he bad?”
I looked at the screen.
May you like
“Yes.”
Then the front gate opened by itself.
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