Chapter 10 - THE SECRET OF RYAN’S BIRTH
Ryan did not speak for almost a minute.
“What does that mean?”
Victor looked through the interview-room glass.
“I never saw the DNA results.”
“But I transported them.”
“From Northstar to Charles.”
“When?”
“Twenty-seven years ago.”
Ryan was thirty-eight.
The timeline made no sense.
“Why test me when I was eleven?”
Victor shook his head.
“They weren’t testing you.”
“They were confirming you.”
The Northstar vault answered the rest.
Julia obtained a federal preservation order before anyone entered.
Inside were decades of medical records.
One file contained Ryan’s childhood photographs.
Another contained records from the hospital where he was born.
His original birth certificate had been replaced.
The original listed a different father.
Arthur Harrison Jr.
Charles’s older brother.
Ryan stared at the page.
“My uncle.”
Arthur Jr. had died in a boating accident before Ryan turned one.
Charles had legally adopted Ryan afterward.
Then changed the records so thoroughly that Ryan grew up believing Charles was his biological father.
“Why?”
I asked.
Julia found the answer in the trust.
Arthur Jr. had inherited controlling rights to Harrison Global.
Upon his death, those rights should have passed to his child.
Ryan.
Charles could act as guardian.
But he could never own them permanently.
Unless Ryan believed they belonged to Charles.
Ryan sat down.
“My entire life.”
His voice was barely audible.
“He made me think I owed him everything.”
Julia continued searching.
Then she found something even worse.
Arthur’s death had been investigated.
The original report said accidental drowning.
A private Northstar memo suggested mechanical sabotage on his boat.
No criminal conclusion.
No proof.
But Charles had paid Victor’s predecessor forty thousand dollars two days later.
Ryan looked at me.
“If he killed my father—”
“We don’t know that.”
“Not yet.”
He stood.
For the first time, his anger frightened me.
I touched his arm.
“Ryan.”
He stopped.
Five years ago, he would have pulled away.
This time he looked at my hand.
Then at me.
“You’re right.”
“What?”
“I need evidence.”
The change was small.
But I noticed it.
He had finally learned the difference between suspicion and proof.
That evening, he told the boys he had to leave for two days.
Mason hugged him.
Liam demanded a souvenir.
Noah remained quiet.
Then, just before Ryan reached the door, Noah ran after him.
“Dad.”
Ryan froze.
It was the first time any of them had called him that.
Noah handed him a tiny plastic astronaut.
“So you don’t get lost.”
Ryan took it with shaking fingers.
“I won’t.”
But later that night, Ryan received a message from an unknown number.
A photograph of Noah leaving preschool.
May you like
Beneath it were six words.
DROP THE INVESTIGATION OR LOSE HIM AGAIN.
