Chapter 13 - My Father’s Other Heir
The sealed envelope sat six feet away.
My father’s confession waited inside.
Charles guarded it with a gun.
Hunter and Daniel remained tied to their chairs.
Bell lay on the floor smiling like the only man who understood the whole game.
I looked at Charles.
“My father gave Bell permission to use his genetic material.”
“That is what Bell claims.”
Bell laughed.
“You signed the consent as a witness.”
Charles’s face hardened.
“Under false pretenses.”
“You thought Arthur was creating a backup heir for Kylie.”
Hunter looked at his father.
“You knew all of this?”
Charles ignored him.
Hunter’s voice rose.
“You designed my marriage. You pushed me toward Kylie. You told me her trust would become ours.”
“I gave you an opportunity.”
“You used me.”
Charles finally looked at him.
“And you failed.”
The words struck Hunter harder than any blow.
For all his arrogance, he had spent his life trying to earn that man’s approval.
Charles regarded him with contempt.
“You allowed jealousy to make you careless. You forged documents before the trust deadline. You involved a woman you could not control. You drugged the wrong glass.”
Hunter stared at the floor.
“You told me Kylie was weak.”
“She was supposed to be.”
I felt something inside me become very still.
“Supposed to be?”
Charles smiled.
“Arthur raised you away from the business. He kept you ignorant for your safety.”
“No. He taught me privately.”
Charles’s expression shifted.
I continued.
“He made me study every trust structure, every acquisition clause, and every voting agreement.”
Hunter looked up.
He had never known.
“Why did you hide that?” he asked.
“Because you stopped listening whenever I sounded intelligent.”
Silence.
Then Daniel laughed.
Painfully, but genuinely.
“That’s my sister.”
Charles struck him across the face with the gun.
I did not flinch.
“Agent Morris is listening,” I said.
Charles froze.
“Your federal friend?”
“She has the video from my father’s ring.”
Charles looked toward Margaret behind the observation window.
She checked a signal monitor.
“No transmission is leaving the building.”
I touched my earring.
“The transmitter stopped before I entered.”
Charles smiled.
“Then you lied.”
“Yes.”
His smile faded.
I had wanted him thinking about surveillance.
People became careless when they believed evidence already existed.
“Open the envelope,” I said.
“No.”
“You need me to sign something.”
Charles studied me.
“Why do you think that?”
“Because if the unborn child automatically controlled the assets, you wouldn’t need me alive.”
Daniel looked at me.
He understood.
Charles had ordered me here instead of killing me because the trust required my action.
“The child is a claimant,” I continued. “But I am the current beneficiary.”
Bell nodded approvingly.
Charles glared at him.
I kept going.
“You need me to acknowledge the child.”
“Or renounce your claim.”
“There it is.”
Margaret entered the theater carrying a legal folder.
Inside were transfer documents.
She placed them beside the envelope.
Samuel appeared behind the locked glass.
He pounded on the door.
“Margaret, stop!”
She did not look at him.
Charles laid the gun against the back of Daniel’s neck.
“You will sign the renunciation.”
“No.”
“Then your brother dies.”
Daniel met my eyes.
“Don’t.”
Charles shifted the gun toward Hunter.
“Perhaps your husband?”
Hunter laughed bitterly.
“She won’t trade six hundred million dollars for me.”
“You’re right,” I said.
His face tightened.
“But not for the reason you think.”
I looked at Charles.
“Killing either man destroys the trust.”
Charles’s eyes narrowed.
“The trigger clause requires preservation of all living witnesses to fraud involving the beneficiary.”
Samuel had mentioned witness protections years ago.
I had never understood why my father insisted on them.
Now I did.
Hunter was not only my betrayer.
He was legal evidence.
Daniel was evidence too.
If Charles killed them, the Legacy assets would transfer into federal receivership.
He could never control them.
Bell began laughing again.
“She read Arthur’s clauses.”
Charles struck him with the gun.
Bell fell silent.
I stepped toward the table.
“You cannot kill them.”
“I can hurt them.”
“Yes.”
My voice shook, but I kept moving.
“And that is why I will read the confession before signing anything.”
Charles considered it.
Then he picked up the envelope.
He cut the seal with a surgical blade.
Inside was a handwritten letter and a small brass key.
He unfolded the letter.
His eyes moved across the first line.
Then his face changed.
“What does it say?” I asked.
Charles tried to tear it.
Daniel kicked the steel tray beside him.
It crashed into Charles’s legs.
The gun fired into the ceiling.
I lunged for the letter.
Hunter threw his chair sideways, knocking Charles off balance.
Bell grabbed the gun from the floor.
For one second, everyone froze.
Bell pointed it at Charles.
“Read it aloud,” he said.
I held the letter.
My father’s handwriting blurred through my tears.
“My dear Kylie,” I began. “The greatest lie in our family is not Daniel’s death.”
I turned the page.
The next sentence made my heart stop.
May you like
“It is the identity of the man who raised you.”
👉 Arthur Rhodes’s confession was about to reveal that Kylie’s father was not who she believed—and Charles was willing to kill everyone to keep that truth buried.
