Chapter 12 - The Crash Daniel Caused
“You cut the brake line?”
My voice sounded unfamiliar inside the abandoned theater.
Daniel looked at me through pain and shame.
“I thought Charles would be driving.”
Charles laughed softly.
“That is the lie he tells himself.”
Daniel strained against the ropes.
“You changed vehicles.”
“I adapted.”
Evelyn had driven the car instead.
Pregnant with Isabelle.
Carrying evidence that could have destroyed the Legacy Project.
Daniel had tried to kill Charles and nearly killed the woman he loved.
“Why didn’t you warn her?” I asked.
“I tried.”
“How?”
“I called the clinic. Bell intercepted the message.”
Bell stirred on the floor.
Charles kicked him lightly.
“Wake up, Doctor. Your work is being discussed.”
Bell opened his eyes.
Blood marked his temple.
He looked at Daniel.
“You always needed someone else to blame.”
Daniel lunged against the chair.
“You held us prisoner.”
“Yes.”
“You killed Evelyn.”
Bell’s expression did not change.
“She was already dying.”
Isabelle’s mother had survived four months after the crash.
Four months inside this building.
Four months Daniel had hidden from the world.
“What happened during those months?” I asked.
Daniel looked away.
Bell answered.
“Evelyn gave birth prematurely.”
My stomach tightened.
“Isabelle was born here?”
“Yes.”
“Who took her?”
“Her legal father.”
“The man she thought was her biological father?”
Bell nodded.
“He agreed to raise her in exchange for silence.”
Charles walked toward Hunter.
“My son was never supposed to involve Isabelle.”
Hunter looked up.
“You told me to get close to her.”
“I told you to monitor her.”
“You said she could access the embryo archive.”
“She could.”
“Then why did you let Bell implant Kylie’s embryo in her?”
Charles turned toward Bell.
“I didn’t.”
Bell smiled weakly.
There were too many betrayals even for Charles to control.
Bell had his own plan.
Hunter stared at him.
“You told me my child would inherit the trust.”
“I needed your cooperation.”
“Is the baby Daniel’s?”
Bell said nothing.
I looked at the laboratory report in my mind.
My egg.
Daniel’s genetic sample.
Biologically impossible as a natural child.
But scientifically, perhaps the file had been manipulated.
“What embryo is Isabelle carrying?” I asked.
Bell’s smile deepened.
“The only one capable of unlocking the entire archive.”
“An embryo cannot unlock money.”
“No,” he said. “But its DNA can unlock records.”
The Legacy Project’s encrypted database had been built around genetic authentication.
A living descendant carrying specific markers could activate access.
Charles needed a Rhodes heir.
Bell had created one.
Hunter had been used to place that child inside Isabelle.
“What happens when the baby is born?” I asked.
Bell’s eyes gleamed.
“The archive recognizes the child as the combined continuation of Daniel Rhodes and Kylie Rhodes.”
My skin crawled.
“You created an embryo from siblings?”
“No.”
He sounded almost offended.
“The file was altered to appear that way.”
“Then who is the biological mother?”
Bell looked toward Charles.
Charles’s jaw tightened.
For the first time, I saw fear in him.
Not anger.
Fear.
Bell enjoyed it.
“The egg belonged to Evelyn Laurent.”
Daniel stopped breathing.
Charles pointed the gun at Bell.
“Enough.”
Bell laughed.
“And the sperm?”
Charles fired.
The bullet struck the floor beside Bell’s head.
Dust exploded across the tiles.
“Next one won’t miss,” Charles said.
Hunter stared at his father.
“You know who the father is.”
Charles ignored him.
I looked at Daniel.
“If Evelyn’s egg was stored, the child is Isabelle’s biological sibling.”
Daniel’s face twisted.
“Unless the father was me.”
Bell shook his head.
“No.”
Charles raised the gun again.
I stepped between them.
“Shoot him, and the truth dies with him.”
Charles studied me.
“You’re finally thinking like your father.”
“I’m thinking like someone who knows you’re afraid.”
His mouth tightened.
“What are you afraid the DNA will reveal?”
The theater doors slammed shut behind me.
Margaret had locked Samuel out.
Charles came closer.
“The child inside Isabelle is the final legal claimant to the Legacy assets.”
“Because of its father?”
“Yes.”
“Who is he?”
A voice came through the theater’s old speaker system.
Samuel.
He had accessed the building intercom.
“Kylie, we found the donor records.”
Charles spun toward the ceiling speaker.
Samuel continued.
“The biological father is Arthur Rhodes.”
My father.
The unborn child inside Isabelle had been created from her mother’s egg and my father’s genetic material.
That made the baby my half-sibling.
And Daniel’s half-sibling.
Not an heir beneath us.
An equal claimant.
Charles smiled again.
May you like
“Now you understand why your father hid the envelope.”
👉 Kylie had believed her father built the trust to protect her, but the child created with his DNA threatened to prove that he had secretly continued the project he claimed to destroy.
