CHAPTER 3: THE DNA TEST THAT DESTROYED THE ASHFORD EMPIRE
Richard Ashford had only one order.
"Find her... before sunrise."
Within minutes, black SUVs poured out of the mansion gates.
Security teams searched bus stations, hotels, train terminals, and every road leading out of town.
But Emma had vanished.
Hidden inside an abandoned church nearly twenty miles away, Emma stared at the birth certificate for the hundredth time.
Her hands still trembled.
It had to be fake.
It had to be.
Her mother would never have lied about something this important.
Unless...
She had been protecting someone.
Or hiding from someone.
As dawn broke, Emma unfolded another envelope from the secret box she had taken.
Inside was an old hospital receipt and a sealed DNA sample request dated twenty-five years earlier.
At the bottom was one handwritten sentence.
"If anything happens to me... finish the test."
Signed:
Margaret.
Emma's heart nearly stopped.
She walked into a private laboratory across the state.
"I need an emergency DNA test."
The receptionist looked surprised.
"Do you have samples from both people?"
Emma slowly placed the birth certificate on the counter.
Then she reached into her pocket.
Earlier that night, while hiding behind the bookshelf, she had watched Richard drink whiskey.
When he left...
He had forgotten the glass.
Emma had wrapped it carefully in a napkin before escaping.
The receptionist smiled politely.
"The results will take twenty-four hours."
Meanwhile...
Back at the Ashford mansion...
Richard hadn't slept for a single second.
He stood in front of the hidden room while dozens of files burned inside the fireplace.
Every photograph.
Every document.
Every trace of Margaret.
Gone forever.
Or so he believed.
His attorney rushed inside.
"Sir... we have another problem."
Richard didn't even turn around.
"What now?"
"The media."
"What about them?"
"They received an anonymous package."
Richard slowly faced him.
Inside the envelope was one photograph.
Taken twenty-five years ago.
Richard...
Holding a newborn baby.
The same baby wrapped in a pink blanket.
Across the bottom, someone had written in red ink:
"WHY DID YOU ABANDON YOUR OWN DAUGHTER?"
Richard's face lost all color.
"Who sent it?"
"We don't know."
"But every major news network has already received a copy."
Across the country...
Television screens exploded.
BREAKING NEWS
Billionaire Richard Ashford accused of hiding a secret daughter for twenty-five years.
Social media erupted within minutes.
#AshfordScandal
#SecretDaughter
#JusticeForEmma
Millions of comments flooded the internet.
Ashford Corporation shares began to collapse.
In only three hours...
Richard Ashford lost nearly $1.8 billion.
That evening...
Emma returned to the laboratory.
The technician walked toward her carrying a sealed envelope.
His expression was unusually serious.
"Miss... before you open this..."
"You should know..."
"I've worked here for seventeen years."
"I've never seen results like these."
Emma's breathing became shallow.
With trembling fingers, she tore open the envelope.
Her eyes scanned the final line.
Then everything around her seemed to disappear.
Probability of paternity: 0.00%.
Richard Ashford...
Was NOT her biological father.
Emma froze.
"If he's not my father..."
"Then why did someone spend twenty-five years trying to convince the world that he was?"
At that exact moment...
Her phone rang.
An unknown number.
She answered.
A weak, elderly woman's voice whispered only one sentence before the call disconnected.
"Don't trust Richard... but never trust the man who raised you."
Emma stood frozen.
The phone slipped from her hand.
Because the man who had raised her...
Had died fifteen years ago.
Or at least...
May you like
She thought he had.
TO BE CONTINUED...
