CHAPTER 10 — THE MAN WITH NATHAN’S FACE
Grant aimed at Nathan.
“Put it down.”
Nathan held the weapon at his side.
“I am not here to hurt Emily.”
“Then tell us your real name,” Grant ordered.
The man looked at Emily.
For the first time, the warmth disappeared from his familiar eyes.
“My name is Adrian Bennett.”
Emily stared at him.
“I have never heard that name.”
“Your father made sure of it.”
Adrian looked almost exactly like Nathan.
Same height.
Same eyes.
Same scar near the eyebrow.
But now that Emily knew, she saw small differences.
His voice was deeper.
His left hand shook slightly.
Nathan had always been left-handed.
Adrian held the gun in his right.
“Who are you?” Emily asked.
“Charles had an identical twin brother named Henry.”
Claire went still.
“Henry Bennett died before Nathan was born.”
“That is what Charles told everyone.”
Adrian continued.
“Henry lived under another name. I was his son.”
Detective Grant looked at the family tree.
“That explains the DNA. A child of an identical twin can appear genetically similar to a half-sibling.”
Emily felt sick.
“So you are my cousin.”
“Yes.”
“Why did you pretend to be Nathan?”
“Because Charles trained me to.”
The answer was so calm that it frightened her.
Adrian lowered the gun.
“After the boat explosion, Charles needed the board, the trust attorneys, and Preston to believe Nathan might still be alive.”
“Why?”
“To stop the trust from transferring control.”
Emily remembered Preston’s warning.
Ask him what happened to the real Nathan Bennett.
“Is Nathan alive?”
Adrian looked toward Claire.
“I don’t know.”
Claire rushed at him.
“You told me you were my husband.”
Adrian caught her wrists.
“I told you what Charles ordered me to tell you.”
She slapped him.
“You lived in my house. You used his memories.”
“I was given his journals, recordings, letters, and medical records.”
Emily stepped between them.
“Did you know about the embryo?”
Adrian hesitated.
“Yes.”
“Was it Nathan’s?”
“I was told it was.”
“By my father?”
“By Lydia.”
The live feed remained on the screen.
Charles and Lydia watched silently.
Emily moved closer to the camera.
“You used me.”
Charles lowered his gaze.
“I protected the Bennett family.”
“You used my body without permission.”
“I was trying to prevent Preston from taking everything.”
“You decided that made it acceptable?”
Charles said nothing.
Lydia leaned toward the camera.
“We do not have time for emotion.”
Emily looked at her.
“You forged Claire’s consent.”
“I followed Charles’s instructions.”
“Are you the traitor from his legal team?”
Lydia smiled faintly.
“That depends on which side you believe betrayed the family.”
The live feed cut off.
A warning alarm began flashing across the archive.
TEMPERATURE FAILURE — EMBRYO STORAGE
Claire ran toward the frozen-storage chamber.
Someone had remotely shut down the cooling system.
Rows of sealed containers began warming.
Adrian looked at the control panel.
“This archive is being erased.”
Grant called for backup, but there was no signal.
Emily searched through the files.
One box had already been removed.
A label remained on the empty shelf.
SPECIMEN A — NATHAN BENNETT
The container implanted in Emily had been Specimen B.
If Specimen A belonged to Nathan, then the child inside her came from someone else.
Claire found another file hidden beneath the shelf.
She read the donor code and stumbled backward.
“What does it say?” Emily asked.
Claire covered her mouth.
“The biological father listed for Specimen B is Henry Bennett.”
Adrian’s father.
Emily turned toward him.
Adrian shook his head.
“That is impossible. My father died twenty years ago.”
Claire pointed at the date.
“This sample was collected eleven months ago.”
Silence filled the room.
Then a hidden door opened behind the frozen-storage chamber.
An elderly man stepped through.
He had Charles’s face.
The same scar.
The same eyes.
But he did not use a cane.
Adrian dropped the gun.
“Father?”
Henry Bennett looked at Emily’s stomach.
“Charles lied to all of you.”
May you like
Then he smiled.
“The child she is carrying is mine.”
