Chapter 9 - THE ULTIMATE TWIST"Dr. Harrison?" I choked out from the floor, my tears blurring my vision. "Whose son is he? Who is the biological father?"
Dr. Harrison looked up slowly, staring at Daniel with a look of profound, sickening shock.
"Valeria... Daniel," the doctor whispered, his voice shaking. "According to these genetic markers... the biological father of Mateo... is Daniel's younger brother, Lucas."
The entire room dissolved into absolute, deafening silence.
My jaw dropped open. I turned my head slowly to look at Daniel.
Lucas. Daniel’s estranged younger brother. The golden-haired, charismatic playboy who had mysteriously vanished to Europe five years ago after a bitter falling out with the family over embezzlement and drug debts.
"Lucas?" Daniel breathed, staggering backward until his spine hit the hospital wall. "My brother... Lucas?"
"Yes," Carmen smiled, a wicked, triumphant grin spreading across her bruised face. "Six years ago, before Lucas skipped the country, he donated genetic material to a private fertility clinic in the city during a financial bind. When I realized what I needed to do to secure the Vance bloodline, I accessed that clinic's repository. The baby I swapped into your nursery, Valeria, wasn't a random stranger's child... he was your husband's own nephew. Your brother-in-law's son."
I felt my stomach heave. I scrambled to the wastebasket beside the bed and vomited, the sheer horror of the revelation ripping through my body.
Carmen had orchestrated a sickening, incestuous genetic chess game. She had swapped my newborn baby with my fugitive brother-in-law's child, all to satisfy her toxic obsession with the Vance bloodline—and then, five years later, she had turned around and tried to destroy us because she hated the boy's hair.
"You are a monster," Daniel whispered. His voice was no longer trembling; it was dead, cold, and final. He walked slowly toward his mother, his fists clenched so tight his knuckles were translucent. "You are a sick, evil monster."
Carmen didn't flinch. She stood her ground, sneering. "Go ahead, Daniel. Arrest me. Sue me. But remember—without my legal connections and the trust fund, you can't even afford Sofía’s next round of chemotherapy. You're broke. You're ruined."
"We'll see about that," a cool, authoritative voice echoed from the doorway.
We all turned.
Detective Miller stood in the doorway, flanked by two uniformed police officers and a federal financial crimes investigator. He held up a pair of shiny steel handcuffs.
"Carmen Vance," Detective Miller announced loudly, stepping into the room. "You are under arrest for kidnapping, identity fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit extortion, and the illegal tampering of medical records."
Carmen's triumphant smirk finally shattered. Her face turned chalk white as the two officers stepped forward, grabbing her arms and snapping the handcuffs around her wrists.
"You can't do this!" Carmen shrieked, thrashing against the officers as they hauled her backward toward the door. "I am a Vance! You can't touch me! Daniel! Save me, Daniel!"
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Daniel didn't even blink. He watched his mother being dragged out of the room, her shrill screams fading down the sterile hospital hallway until they were completely gone.
The heavy door clicked shut, leaving us in a profound, suffocating silence.
