CHAPTER 5 — “Your Father Is Still Alive…”
For a full ten seconds, nobody moved.
The words kept echoing in my head.
"I want my sons back."
Then Lucas whispered:
"He wasn't really our father."
Every eye in the conference room turned toward the twins.
I slowly knelt until we were eye level.
"Lucas..."
"I need you to tell me everything."
The little boy glanced nervously at Noah before speaking.
"Uncle Danny got angry whenever we called him Dad."
My heartbeat quickened.
"What did he say?"
Lucas repeated the sentence word for word, as if he had memorized it years ago.
"I'm only borrowing you."
The room went deathly silent.
"Borrowing?"
Lucas nodded.
"He said our real daddy would come one day."
Noah quietly added,
"But he always got really mad after saying it."
"He'd leave the room and start yelling at somebody."
Margaret's face turned pale.
"He knew..."
I looked at her.
"He always knew they weren't his."
Detective Mercer immediately ordered every word to be recorded.
The twins sat together on the sofa while child psychologists gently asked questions.
No leading questions.
No pressure.
Just memories.
Children remember differently than adults.
Not through timelines.
Through feelings.
Smells.
Songs.
Small details nobody else notices.
The psychologist smiled gently.
"Lucas..."
"What do you remember most about Uncle Danny?"
Lucas answered without hesitation.
"He hated mirrors."
Everyone frowned.
"Hated mirrors?"
"He covered them."
"Every house."
"Every apartment."
"Every hotel."
"He'd put blankets over them."
Noah nodded.
"And he shaved his beard every Sunday."
Mercer looked confused.
"So?"
Lucas frowned.
"But by Monday..."
"...his beard was back."
The adults exchanged puzzled looks.
I wasn't puzzled.
I was terrified.
Someone constantly changing his appearance.
Different hair.
Different beard.
Different glasses.
Different names.
Daniel hadn't been hiding from the police.
He had been hiding from someone much bigger.
Another memory surfaced.
Noah suddenly stood.
"I remember the train."
"What train?"
"The night Mama cried."
Lucas' face immediately darkened.
"I don't like remembering that."
"It's okay," the psychologist said softly.
"You can stop anytime."
But Noah kept going.
"We were little."
"Maybe babies."
"I woke up."
"I heard Mama screaming."
The room became completely silent.
"There were men."
"One man slapped Uncle Danny."
"He said..."
The little boy squeezed his eyes shut.
"What did he say?" Mercer asked.
Noah whispered.
"If Sterling ever finds out, all four of you die."
A chill swept through every person in the room.
Sterling.
Me.
They had been watching me before my sons were even born.
Just then, another member of my cybersecurity team rushed inside.
"Sir..."
He was breathing hard.
"We found something in the company's archives."
He connected a recovered hard drive to the main screen.
"It was hidden behind three layers of deleted backups."
The file name appeared.
PROJECT HORIZON
Creation Date:
Eight Years Ago
The exact week Emily disappeared.
I opened it.
A password request appeared.
Before anyone could react...
Lucas quietly walked toward the keyboard.
"I know this."
Everyone stared.
"You know the password?"
He nodded.
"Uncle Danny typed it every morning."
I froze.
"What is it?"
Lucas slowly pressed the keys.
L
U
C
A
S
N
O
A
H
The computer unlocked instantly.
Every screen in the conference room exploded with hidden documents.
Bank transfers.
Medical reports.
Birth certificates.
Private surveillance.
Fake passports.
Encrypted photographs.
One folder immediately caught my attention.
STERLING FAMILY
I opened it.
Hundreds of photographs appeared.
My parents.
Daniel.
Me.
Emily.
The boys.
Some pictures had clearly been taken without our knowledge.
One image made my blood freeze.
It showed Emily walking beside me outside a restaurant...
Three weeks before she disappeared.
In the background...
A man wearing a baseball cap was watching us.
Mercer zoomed in.
The room collectively gasped.
It was Daniel.
Eight years ago.
Watching us.
Secretly.
Long before anyone believed he had died.
Margaret suddenly pointed toward another folder.
"Alexander..."
"You need to see this."
The folder was titled:
DNA
Inside were dozens of laboratory reports.
One was marked:
CONFIDENTIAL
Patient:
Alexander James Sterling
Collection Date:
Three days after your accident.
I frowned.
"I've never seen this."
Neither had Dr. Carter.
She quickly opened the file.
Her expression changed instantly.
"This..."
She looked horrified.
"This isn't the report I signed."
"What do you mean?"
She compared it with my medical records.
"They altered it."
Every word hit like a hammer.
"The original report says your reproductive system recovered normally."
Silence.
"The version you were given..."
"...was completely fabricated."
I felt the floor disappear beneath me.
For seven years...
I hadn't been infertile.
Someone had made me believe I was.
Someone had stolen not only my children...
But my future.
Before anyone could speak...
The emergency phone on my desk rang again.
Unknown caller.
I answered.
Daniel laughed softly.
"I see you finally opened Horizon."
"You lied to me."
"I lied about many things."
"You forged my medical records."
"No."
Daniel answered calmly.
"I didn't."
"Then who?"
A pause.
When he finally spoke...
His voice no longer sounded confident.
It sounded bitter.
"Ask yourself one question."
"Who benefited most from convincing the Sterling heir he could never have children?"
I searched my mind.
My parents were dead.
Daniel was supposedly dead.
The board?
Shareholders?
No...
None of it fit.
Then Daniel whispered seven words that shattered everything.
"You buried the wrong people, Alex."
My blood ran cold.
"What does that mean?"
No answer.
Only breathing.
Then—
"They're coming."
"Who's coming?"
"You have five minutes."
The line disconnected.
At that exact second, every light inside Sterling Tower went out.
Darkness swallowed forty-two floors.
Emergency alarms screamed.
The backup generators failed.
Security cameras died.
Elevators stopped between floors.
Someone had shut down the entire building.
In the darkness, Lucas grabbed my hand so tightly it hurt.
"Daddy..."
His voice shook.
"They found us."
Before I could answer—
A deafening explosion ripped through the underground parking garage.
The entire tower shook violently.
Concrete dust rained from the ceiling.
People screamed in every hallway.
Then, through the emergency exit doors, we heard footsteps.
Not one person.
Not two.
Dozens.
Slow.
Organized.
Coming upward from the garage.
Mercer drew his weapon.
My security team formed a protective circle around the twins.
And then...
A calm male voice echoed through the building's emergency speakers.
"Good evening, Alexander."
May you like
"We've waited eight years to finish what your father started."
End of Chapter 5...
