Chapter 30: The First Daughter
The bullet had struck Eleanor below the collarbone.
Grace pressed a cloth against the wound while Daniel called emergency services.
Eleanor remained conscious.
“Margaret took the sample,” she whispered.
Leah knelt beside her.
“Why did you say Julian’s identity was false?”
Eleanor closed her eyes.
“Because the man calling himself Julian Ashford is not the man I married.”
Adrian’s voice came through the phone on the floor.
“Mother, what are you saying?”
Eleanor tried to sit up.
Leah stopped her.
“The real Julian died before the Hawthorne fire,” Eleanor said.
Silence filled the office.
“Who replaced him?” Daniel asked.
“His younger brother.”
“No records show a brother,” Adrian said.
“The council removed them.”
Eleanor explained that the real Julian Ashford had discovered the Second Family Initiative and threatened to expose it.
He died in what the board described as a hunting accident.
His younger brother, Samuel, had undergone reconstructive surgery after a car crash months earlier.
The council used the opportunity to replace Julian.
Only a few people knew.
Eleanor learned the truth after her marriage.
“Then Adrian…” Leah began.
Eleanor looked toward the phone.
“Adrian is Samuel’s son.”
Adrian did not speak.
“And me?” Leah asked.
Eleanor’s eyes moved toward Margaret’s empty chair.
“Margaret believed you were Julian’s daughter.”
“But?”
“I never believed her.”
“Why not?”
“Because Margaret was already pregnant when she met Julian.”
Leah felt as though every answer only created another identity.
“Who was my father?”
Eleanor reached weakly toward the desk.
“The lower drawer.”
Daniel opened it.
Inside was a photograph showing Margaret beside a young man in a military uniform.
The man’s face had been torn away.
On the back, Eleanor had written a name.
Peter Vale.
The same man Mara claimed had died before the ballroom gala.
Daniel turned the photograph over.
“There’s something beneath the frame.”
He removed the backing.
A thin document had been hidden inside.
It was not a birth certificate.
It was an adoption order.
The child’s original name had been sealed.
The adoptive parents were listed as Julian and Eleanor Ashford.
The order had never been completed.
Leah read the date.
It was signed two days before the Hawthorne fire.
“You were going to adopt me,” she said.
Eleanor’s breathing became weaker.
“I was going to remove you from the council.”
“Why?”
“Because Peter Vale told me what you were.”
“What was I?”
Sirens approached the estate.
Eleanor looked at Leah with tears in her eyes.
“The first daughter of the Vale bloodline.”
Mara stepped forward.
“My father was Peter Vale.”
Everyone turned toward her.
“You said he was an accountant.”
“That’s what he told people.”
Grace looked at the photograph.
“Peter Vale was Celia’s husband.”
Celia lowered her eyes.
Leah stood slowly.
“Then Mara and I…”
A sound came from the hallway.
The hidden library door opened.
Peter Vale entered the room.
He was very much alive.
Beside him stood Margaret, holding the stolen silver case.
Behind them was Julian—or Samuel—Ashford.
Peter looked at Mara first.
Then he looked at Leah.
“My daughters,” he said.
Mara moved backward.
Leah stared at him.
“What did you just call us?”
Peter placed a second DNA report on the desk.
“You were told there were two girls at Hawthorne House.”
He opened the report.
“There were four.”
The estate’s security system activated.
Metal shutters closed over every window.
The library doors locked.
Samuel Ashford drew a weapon.
Margaret held up the silver case.
Peter Vale looked toward Eleanor bleeding on the floor.
“No one leaves until we decide which daughter inherits the company.”
Then a child’s voice came through the estate’s intercom.
“Leah?”
Everyone froze.
The voice continued.
“My name is Evelyn.”
May you like
Leah looked toward the ceiling speaker.
“I think I’m your sister.”
