Chapter 7: The Father I Never Knew
For several seconds, I couldn't hear anything.
The ballroom was full of people, but their voices sounded distant, as if I were standing underwater.
I stared at Thomas Reed.
Then I looked at my father.
“Tell me he's lying.””
Robert Carter didn't move.
His face had lost all its color. Vanessa stood beside him, gripping his arm so tightly that her fingernails pressed into his skin.
“Maya,” Dad began, “this isn't something we should discuss here.””
I laughed, but it came out broken.
“You've spent my entire life telling me you were my father.””
“I raised you.””
“That isn't what I asked!””
The security guards were still approaching Thomas.
Daniel stepped between them.
“Nobody touches him until we've established what's happening here.””
Thomas looked at Daniel.
“Still playing the honorable attorney?””
Daniel's jaw tightened.
“Thomas, you have no idea what you're doing.””
“Oh, I know exactly what I'm doing. Claire spent the last months of her life begging me to tell her daughter the truth.””
I turned toward him.
“What truth?””
Thomas opened his mouth.
My father suddenly grabbed the microphone.
“This man is unstable. He disappeared with company funds, fabricated accusations, and now he's trying to destroy my family.””
Thomas laughed.
“Your family? Robert, you destroyed it yourself.””
Dad pointed toward the ballroom doors.
“Security, remove him.””
Two guards approached Thomas.
Before they could reach him, Thomas placed the envelope on a nearby table.
“Take it,” he said to me.
“Your mother wanted you to have it.””
I moved toward the table.
Vanessa stepped in front of me.
“You are not touching that.””
I stared at her.
“Move.””
“You don't understand what this man is doing.””
“Then explain it.””
She looked at my father.
He wouldn't meet her eyes.
I reached around her and grabbed the envelope.
Inside was a handwritten letter, a laboratory report, and a photograph of a young man standing beside my mother.
I recognized the man immediately.
Thomas Reed.
The photograph had been taken long before I was born.
On the back, my mother had written:
The truth about Maya. Never let Robert decide when she is old enough to know.
My hands trembled.
I opened the laboratory report.
The words were clinical and unmistakable.
PATERNITY TEST RESULTS.
*Probability of paternity: 99.99%.*
Below the result was Thomas Reed's name.
I couldn't breathe.
Thomas was my biological father.
I looked at Robert.
“Is this real?””
He stared at the floor.
“Your mother made a mistake.””
Thomas stepped forward.
“No, Robert. Claire made one mistake. She trusted you.””
Dad's voice rose.
“You knew she was pregnant when we got married! You promised you'd stay away!””
Thomas's expression hardened.
“I stayed away because Claire asked me to. I stayed away because she believed you could love Maya as your own.””
My knees felt weak.
“Why didn't you tell me?””
Thomas looked at me.
“Because every time I tried, someone made sure I couldn't.””
“Who?””
He glanced at Vanessa.
Then at my father.
“Both of them.””
Vanessa suddenly began crying.
Not the quiet, delicate crying she used at family dinners.
This was loud and desperate.
“Maya, sweetheart, please. You don't understand the circumstances.””
I turned toward her.
“Don't call me sweetheart.””
She wiped her cheeks.
“Your mother was very sick. She was confused. Thomas was obsessed with her.””
Thomas shook his head.
“Don't you dare use Claire's illness to rewrite history.””
Dad stepped toward me.
“Listen to me. Whatever that report says, I am the man who raised you. I was there when you learned to walk.
I paid for your school. I held you when your mother died.””
I looked at him.
“And then you threw me out.””
His mouth opened.
I continued.
“You let Vanessa take my house. You knew she was lying when she said I had signed away my inheritance. You watched me beg her to call you.””
“I didn't know she would do that.””
“You told her I was leaving.””
He looked away.
That was enough.
Daniel approached me quietly.
“Maya, we need to leave.””
I clutched the envelope.
“Why?””
“Because Thomas has just introduced evidence that could have significant consequences for the estate proceedings. We need to preserve it.””
Thomas stepped closer.
“Maya, there's something else.””
I looked at him.
“Your mother didn't leave you just the trust.””
He reached into his jacket and produced a small photograph.
It showed a building with a glass exterior and a large sign above the entrance.
*CARTER REED HOLDINGS.*
“My mother never told me about that company.””
“She created it with me. We agreed that it would eventually become yours.””
“What does that have to do with Vanessa?””
Thomas looked toward the stage.
“Everything. Your stepmother isn't trying to steal eighteen million dollars.””
He lowered his voice.
“She's trying to take control of an eighty-million-dollar corporation that your mother deliberately kept separate from your father's business.””
Before I could respond, the ballroom lights flickered.
A man near the entrance shouted.
Then the fire alarm began screaming.
People rushed toward the exits.
Daniel grabbed my arm.
“Move!””
We were pushed into the corridor with dozens of guests.
Thomas disappeared into the crowd.
I turned around.
“Where is he?””
Daniel looked toward the ballroom.
“I don't know.””
Then I saw Robert.
He was standing near the stage, speaking urgently into his phone.
Vanessa was beside him.
She wasn't crying anymore.
She was smiling.
And when she noticed me watching, she mouthed three words.
*You're too late.*
Outside, Daniel helped me into his car.
I held the laboratory report against my chest.
For sixteen years, I had believed I was Robert Carter's daughter.
Now I knew my biological father was the man who had disappeared before my mother died.
But one question mattered more than anything else.
If Thomas Reed was my real father, why had my mother trusted Robert to raise me?
My phone vibrated.
An unknown number.
A photograph appeared.
It showed Thomas sitting in the back of a black SUV, his hands restrained.
Below it was a message.
If you want your real father alive, bring the original trust documents to the old Carter warehouse tomorrow morning.
May you like
Then another message arrived.
Come alone. Your mother made enough mistakes trusting lawyers.
