CHAPTER 3 — The Woman Everyone Feared
CHAPTER 3 — The Woman Everyone Feared
The black SUVs screeched to a halt.
Within seconds, armed security officers flooded the park.
Parents grabbed their children.
People ran in every direction.
Only Lily stood frozen, clutching the crumpled one-dollar bill her father had given her.
Ethan wrapped both arms around her.
"Stay behind me."
Benjamin's face turned white.
"They found us..."
The elegant elderly woman stepped forward again.
"No one touches my granddaughter."
The men surrounding the park hesitated.
One of them laughed.
"You still think you own this family, Eleanor?"
A tall man in a gray suit emerged from the last SUV.
Perfect smile.
Cold eyes.
Expensive watch.
His name was Adrian Carter.
Benjamin's older brother.
The man who had controlled the Carter empire for the last decade.
He looked at Lily as if she were nothing more than a problem that needed to disappear.
"So..."
"This is the little girl."
Ethan stepped forward.
"You stay away from my daughter."
Adrian smiled.
"Your daughter?"
He slowly opened a leather folder.
Inside were birth records...
Hospital documents...
DNA reports...
Even photographs Ethan had never seen before.
"I think you've spent six years raising a child who belongs to this family."
Ethan's heart nearly stopped.
Benjamin immediately shouted,
"He's lying!"
But Adrian simply tossed another envelope onto the grass.
"Open it."
With trembling hands, Ethan unfolded the documents.
The first page showed his late wife's signature.
The second...
A hospital transfer report.
The third...
A DNA test that listed Ethan's name.
His vision blurred.
According to the report...
He wasn't Lily's biological father.
"No..."
"This can't be real..."
Lily grabbed his hand.
"Daddy?"
"You promised you'll never leave me..."
Tears rolled down Ethan's face.
He dropped to his knees.
"I don't care what those papers say."
"You are my little girl."
"You always will be."
For the first time...
Adrian's smile disappeared.
Because that wasn't the reaction he wanted.
He wanted Ethan to walk away.
Instead...
Ethan stood back up.
Stronger than ever.
"If anyone wants my daughter..."
"They'll have to go through me."
Silence.
Then...
Benjamin slowly tore the DNA report into pieces.
"Fake."
"I watched Adrian forge those documents years ago."
The entire park gasped.
Adrian's eyes turned icy.
He nodded once.
Without saying another word...
One of his men quietly reached inside his jacket.
Metal flashed beneath the sunlight.
A gun.
May you like
And it was pointed directly at Ethan.
TO BE CONTINUED...
