Chapter 5 - The Brother Who Couldn’t Be the Father
Daniel died when I was nineteen.
His car went through a guardrail during a storm in Connecticut.
The police found the vehicle at the bottom of a ravine.
They found his wallet.
His watch.
Blood on the driver’s seat.
They never found enough of his body for an open casket.
My father buried an empty coffin.
Now Samuel stood at my dining table holding a laboratory report claiming Daniel was the biological father of an embryo transferred less than four months ago.
“That’s impossible,” I said.
Bell’s expression remained calm.
“Impossible is an emotional word. The correct word is unlikely.”
Hunter slammed both hands on the table.
“Enough riddles. Is Daniel alive?”
Bell looked at him.
“You should worry less about Daniel and more about yourself.”
Hunter moved around the table.
The security guard blocked him.
Bell did not flinch.
Samuel examined the laboratory report.
“This document could be fabricated.”
“It could,” Bell agreed. “But it isn’t.”
“Where did the genetic material come from?”
Bell glanced at the sealed envelope.
“Ask Kylie’s father.”
“My father is dead.”
“So everyone keeps saying.”
A cold silence filled the room.
I stared at him.
“You’re saying my father is alive?”
“No.”
“Then stop speaking like a coward and tell me what happened.”
For the first time, Bell looked almost impressed.
“Your father stored biological material from both of his children.”
I felt sick.
“Why?”
“He believed the Rhodes bloodline was under threat.”
Hunter laughed bitterly.
“This family is insane.”
I looked at him.
“You tried to declare me incompetent and steal forty-eight million dollars.”
His laugh stopped.
Bell continued.
“Your father feared that one of his children would die before producing an heir. Daniel’s samples were stored before his accident.”
Samuel frowned.
“I handled Arthur Rhodes’s estate. There was no record of genetic storage.”
“Because it was not part of the estate.”
“Then where was it held?”
“In a private medical trust.”
Samuel’s face tightened.
“Who controlled it?”
Bell’s eyes moved toward the ring on the envelope.
“The trustee.”
I understood then.
The ring was not just sentimental.
It was a key.
Or a symbol.
Or proof of authority.
“Were you the trustee?” I asked.
Bell smiled faintly.
“No. I was the physician.”
“Then who gave you permission to use Daniel’s sample?”
Bell looked at Isabelle.
“She did.”
Every head turned toward her.
Isabelle’s lips parted.
“I didn’t know whose sample it was.”
“You signed the consent.”
“You told me it was Hunter’s.”
Bell’s expression sharpened.
“I told you the embryo would give you leverage.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
Hunter stared at her with disgust.
“You agreed to carry a stranger’s child for money?”
She looked at him.
“You married Kylie for money.”
He moved toward her, but Victor Shaw stepped between them.
“Don’t touch her.”
Hunter pointed at Isabelle.
“She did this.”
I stood.
“So did you.”
He looked at me.
Something desperate entered his eyes.
“Kylie, I didn’t know about the embryo.”
“But you knew about the forged transfer.”
“I knew Isabelle was helping.”
“You knew about the incompetency petition.”
“I was trying to protect our future.”
“Our future?”
I almost could not believe the phrase.
“You planned to divorce me after taking my inheritance.”
He lowered his voice.
“You never wanted the life I wanted.”
“You wanted my assets.”
“I wanted respect.”
“You had my trust.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
There it was again.
The wound beneath his greed.
Hunter did not merely want wealth.
He wanted the world to believe he had created it.
Being known as Kylie Rhodes’s husband had poisoned him.
Bell stepped toward the table.
“Hunter’s resentment made him useful.”
Hunter glared at him.
“You approached Isabelle.”
“Yes.”
“You gave her the documents.”
“Yes.”
“You told her the child would inherit.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Bell’s gaze shifted to me.
“To force the trust to reveal its controlling beneficiary.”
Samuel’s hand tightened around the report.
“That makes no sense.”
“It will.”
Bell reached for the sealed envelope.
The guard raised his weapon.
“Step back.”
Bell stopped.
“You believe the envelope contains Arthur’s final amendment,” he said to me.
“Doesn’t it?”
“No.”
“What does it contain?”
He smiled.
“A confession.”
My skin prickled.
“Whose?”
Before Bell could answer, every light in the penthouse went out.
The chandeliers died.
The city lights beyond the windows became the only illumination.
Someone screamed.
Glass shattered.
I heard footsteps near the table.
Then a hand closed around my wrist.
I struck blindly and pulled free.
The emergency lights flickered on five seconds later.
Bell was gone.
The elevator doors were closing.
The sealed envelope had disappeared.
But my father’s ring remained on the table.
May you like
And beside it lay a drop of fresh blood.
👉 The envelope was gone, but the blood Bell left behind would soon reveal whether he was connected to Kylie’s dead brother—or to someone even closer.
