Chapter 17 - The Man Who Came Back From the Dead|
Richard Blackwood finally agreed to meet us.
The meeting was arranged in a closed conference room at one of his hotels, with Detective Ruiz monitoring the entrance and officers positioned outside. Ethan insisted on confronting his uncle himself.
Richard arrived wearing a dark suit and the silver ring we had seen in the photographs.
“You look terrible, Ethan,” he said. “I warned you that your private life would destroy you.”
“You arranged the crash.”
Richard gave a small, disappointed smile.
“Prove it.”
“You falsified medical records, manipulated paternity tests, and used my wife’s history to create a succession crisis.”
“Your wife?” Richard glanced at me. “You mean the woman you betrayed while trying to play two sides against each other?”
Ethan's expression tightened, but he did not look away.
“I made my own mistakes. That doesn't make you innocent.”
Richard turned to me.
“Claire, you deserve to know what your father concealed. The child raised by the Bennetts was never supposed to inherit anything. The real heir was meant to be protected until the organization was stable.”
“Which child was the real heir?”
“That's what your father spent his life trying to discover.”
“Then why did you change the records?”
Richard leaned back.
“Because Daniel was going to expose me. I needed the family to believe he had died, and I needed every potential claimant to disappear.”
“You tried to kill a child?”
“I tried to preserve an empire.”
Detective Ruiz stepped forward.
“That confession is enough.”
Richard laughed.
“You think you can arrest me? Half the officials who signed your warrants owe their careers to my family.”
A door opened behind him.
An older man entered, walking with a cane. His face was thinner than in the photographs, but Ethan recognized him immediately.
“My father,” he whispered.
The man looked at Ethan with an expression that was almost tender.
“Hello, son.”
Ethan staggered backward.
“You died fifteen years ago.”
“I needed the world to believe that.”
Richard stood.
“You weren't supposed to come here.”
The older man ignored him and turned to me.
“Claire, your father tried to protect you. But he couldn't protect you from the truth.”
“Who are you?”
“Daniel Blackwood.”
Ethan stared at him.
“You told everyone you were my uncle.”
Daniel shook his head.
“Richard told everyone whatever served him.”
He placed a folder on the table.
Inside was a genetic report showing a biological relationship between Daniel and Ethan.
Then he placed another report beside it.
The second report showed a biological relationship between Daniel and me.
I couldn't breathe.
Ethan looked from the papers to my face.
“If we're both his children—”
Daniel's voice cut through the room.
“You are not both his children.”
May you like
He pointed to the second report.
“One of these tests was deliberately falsified.”
