Chapter 14 - THE LAST ENVELOPE
Adrian stopped breathing.
Victor whispered.
“You idiot.”
Rourke walked slowly toward the table.
The envelope looked ordinary.
Brown paper.
A faded laboratory seal.
Twenty-seven years of secrets inside.
Adrian stared at it like a condemned man watching someone carry the key to his cell.
“Give it to me.”
Rourke ignored him.
He handed it to my father.
Thomas did not open it.
He handed it to me.
The weight surprised me.
It felt too light to contain something capable of destroying a dynasty.
Adrian stepped closer.
“Elena.”
Luka moved between us.
Adrian didn’t even look at him.
His eyes stayed on me.
“Please.”
I remembered the hospital.
Grace only hours old.
Adrian adjusting his cufflinks.
Vanessa waiting outside.
“Call me when you can think clearly.”
I looked at him now.
“I’m thinking very clearly.”
He swallowed.
“If you open that, everything changes.”
“Everything already changed.”
“My mother will lose her home.”
“Your mother helped falsify records.”
“The employees could lose jobs.”
“Your company committed crimes.”
“Elena.”
He took another step.
Then something happened I never expected.
Adrian Vale dropped to his knees.
Right there in front of the board.
In front of Victor.
In front of Luka.
In front of the father he had helped hide from me.
He knelt.
“Please.”
His voice broke.
“Do not open that envelope.”
I stared at him.
Months earlier, I would have rushed toward him.
I would have hated seeing him humiliated.
Now I felt only exhaustion.
“Why?”
“Because Michael Carter is not only my biological father.”
Thomas stiffened.
Adrian looked up.
“He’s alive.”
My father went white.
“What?”
Victor lunged toward Adrian.
Luka intercepted him.
Two security officers restrained Victor.
Thomas stared at Adrian.
“My brother died thirty years ago.”
“No.”
Adrian shook his head.
“Victor paid him to disappear.”
My father looked physically ill.
“Where is he?”
Adrian laughed through tears.
“That’s why I wanted the envelope.”
“WHERE?”
“I needed the DNA result destroyed before Michael came back.”
The boardroom doors opened again.
Federal agents entered.
Mia had called them before the meeting.
Everything happened quickly after that.
Victor was detained for questioning.
Company servers were seized.
Adrian was advised not to leave the state.
But I barely noticed.
I held the envelope.
My uncle might still be alive.
My father had lost thirty years believing his brother was dead.
And Adrian had known.
I tore open the seal.
Inside was the DNA report.
One line had been highlighted.
PATERNITY PROBABILITY: 99.9987%.
Michael Carter was Adrian’s biological father.
Beneath the report was an address.
Handwritten.
Recent.
Thomas stared at it.
“Who wrote that?”
May you like
Rourke answered.
“Michael.”
