Chapter 5 - The Enemy Everyone Believed Dead Walked Into My Life
I couldn't speak.
Adrian Cross.
The man Victor claimed he had murdered.
The man listed as Damian's biological father.
The man my mother had supposedly hidden us from.
“You said he was dead,” I said.
Victor nodded.
“I believed he was.”
Damian stared at his father.
“You killed him.”
“Yes.”
“Then how is he alive?”
Victor's expression was grim.
“Because I didn't kill him.”
The room went silent.
“You shot him,” Damian said.
“I thought I had.”
“Where?”
“Saint Mercy.”
The burned hospital.
The place where my birth records had been altered.
I looked at Damian.
“What happened there?”
Victor closed his eyes.
“Your mother gave birth to you.”
Damian looked at me.
“And Eleanor gave birth to me.”
Victor nodded.
“They planned to leave the city.”
“But you stopped them.”
“I tried.”
“What happened?”
“Adrian arrived.”
“And?”
“He took Eleanor.”
Damian's jaw tightened.
“Why?”
Victor shook his head.
“Because she had discovered the truth.”
“What truth?”
“That I had been working with Adrian.”
I stared at him.
“You worked with your enemy?”
“For years.”
“Why?”
“Money.”
“That simple?”
“No.”
He looked at Damian.
“Power.”
Damian laughed bitterly.
“You destroyed two families for power.”
Victor said nothing.
Then a gunshot shattered the window.
Victor pushed me down.
Damian fired toward the darkness.
A figure appeared across the street.
He was tall.
Gray-haired.
Wearing a dark coat.
He stood in the rain as though bullets meant nothing.
Then he looked directly at me.
My heart stopped.
He looked like my mother.
Not exactly.
But the same eyes.
The same expression.
The same scar above the eyebrow.
Damian whispered.
“Adrian.”
Victor went pale.
Adrian raised one hand.
“I've been waiting eleven years.”
Police sirens sounded in the distance.
Adrian disappeared.
Victor turned to Damian.
“You have to leave.”
“Why?”
“Because he isn't here for me.”
Damian looked at me.
“He's here for Lena.”
I couldn't understand.
“Why?”
Victor's eyes met mine.
“Because you aren't Eleanor's daughter.”
Everything inside me went silent.
“What?”
Victor continued.
“Your mother raised you.”
“But?”
“But biologically, you are Adrian Cross's daughter.”
Damian looked stunned.
“Then that means—”
Victor nodded.
“She's your half-sister.”
I stared at Damian.
He stared back.
The world seemed to tilt beneath our feet.
All the moments between us.
Every spark.
Every strange feeling.
Every time my heart had raced near him.
I backed away.
“No.”
Damian looked horrified.
“Lena, I didn't know.”
“I need to leave.”
He stepped toward me.
I moved away.
“Don't.”
Tears burned my eyes.
Then Victor said something that made me stop.
“It's not true.”
I turned.
“What?”
“The biological records were altered.”
“Then tell me the truth!”
Victor's face was exhausted.
“Adrian is not your father.”
“Then who is?”
Victor looked at Damian.
“Your father is the reason Adrian disappeared.”
“Who?”
Victor answered.
“Me.”
Damian looked like he had been punched.
I stared at Victor.
“You're my father?”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“I am the man who signed the papers.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means your biological father is someone else.”
The room fell silent.
Victor handed me a final document.
The name on it was crossed out.
But I could still read it.
LUCAS HART.
My father's name.
May you like
I had never seen it before.
Because according to my official records, my father had never existed.
