Chapter 3 - THE TRUTH ABOUT MY BIRTH
I couldn't hear anything after that.
Not the traffic outside.
Not Ethan breathing.
Not Rachel moving papers across the table.
Only those three words.
Not me.
I looked at my father.
“You're not my biological father?”
He shook his head.
“No.”
I felt like the floor had disappeared.
“Then why did you raise me?”
“Because your mother asked me to.”
“Who is my father?”
He looked away.
“I don't know.”
“You don't know?”
“I knew his name.”
“Who?”
“Thomas Carter.”
My husband's surname.
Carter.
I stared at him.
“Carter Technologies?”
“Yes.”
My father's voice was quiet.
“Your biological father founded the company.”
I couldn't breathe.
“So I'm…”
“The original Carter heir.”
Rachel opened another folder.
The documents confirmed it.
Thomas Carter had created Carter Technologies decades ago.
Before his death, he had established a private family trust.
His only biological child was supposed to inherit control.
That child was me.
But Thomas had never publicly acknowledged me.
Why?
Because my mother had been married to my father when I was born.
The truth had been hidden.
My grandmother had helped conceal it.
She feared scandal.
She also feared that Thomas's family would take me.
So my father raised me as his own.
I sat down.
“My whole life was a lie.”
My father shook his head.
“No.”
“You lied to me.”
“I protected you.”
“From what?”
“From the Carter family.”
Rachel explained that Thomas's relatives had fought over the company after his death.
Some believed the heir had died.
Others knew there had been a child.
But nobody knew where I was.
My father had kept my identity secret.
Then years later, Daniel entered my life.
He knew enough to suspect I was connected to the Carter family.
But he didn't know exactly how.
So he married me.
I stared at the documents.
“Daniel knew?”
“Yes.”
“From the beginning?”
“Probably.”
My father looked devastated.
“That is why I investigated him.”
“And you never told me.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
I stood.
“I don't know what to believe anymore.”
My father stepped toward me.
“Believe this.”
He touched my shoulder.
“I loved you before I knew what you were worth.”
Tears filled my eyes.
I believed him.
That was the one thing I was certain of.
The board meeting began at ten.
Every director was waiting.
Daniel arrived with his attorney.
Madison sat behind him.
They looked confident.
Until I entered.
The room became silent.
Daniel stood.
“Emily.”
I walked to the head of the table.
He laughed nervously.
“You don't belong there.”
I looked at him.
“I own the chair.”
His smile disappeared.
The company secretary stood.
“According to the shareholder register, Ms. Emily Carter-Hayes controls fifty-one percent of voting shares.”
Daniel shook his head.
“That isn't possible.”
I placed the trust documents on the table.
“It is.”
Madison stood.
“You forged those.”
My father entered behind me.
“No.”
He placed the original contracts on the table.
“Daniel signed them himself.”
Daniel looked around.
Nobody supported him.
The chairman stood.
“Mr. Hayes, your voting authority has been suspended pending investigation.”
Daniel's face turned red.
“You can't do this.”
I looked at him.
“You did this.”
I slid a document across the table.
“Your resignation.”
He stared.
“You want me to resign?”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“I want you removed.”
The board voted.
Every director raised their hand.
Daniel was removed as CEO.
Madison was escorted out.
The room finally became quiet.
I looked around the table.
Four years ago, this company had nearly collapsed.
I had saved it.
And the man who called me a parasite had spent seven years living inside the life I built.
But I wasn't finished.
Rachel placed another folder in front of me.
“There is still the question of the crash.”
“What about it?”
“We found the person who actually caused it.”
I opened the folder.
Inside was a bank account.
The recipient had received millions immediately before the stock collapse.
The account holder was not Daniel.
Not Madison.
Not Ethan.
I looked at the name.
My hands went cold.
It belonged to someone from my own family.
My father's older brother.
A man I had never met.
My father stared at the page.
“No.”
Rachel looked at him.
“He's alive.”
My father stood frozen.
“Where?”
Rachel pointed toward the window.
“He's been sitting in the lobby for the last twenty minutes.”
I turned.
Through the glass doors downstairs, an elderly man stood beside the reception desk.
He looked directly at me.
Then he smiled.
And I knew immediately.
May you like
He had been waiting for me.
Mình tiếp tục liền từ Chapter 4 đến Chapter 15, khép lại toàn bộ câu chuyện.
