CHAPTER 5 – The Man She Called Dad Was Hiding an Even Bigger Lie
Emma's hands trembled as the FBI agent slid the sealed adoption file across the table.
She had expected answers.
Instead...
She found another mystery.
The document listed her birth name as Grace Monroe, not Emma Lawson.
Her date of birth matched.
Her fingerprints matched.
But the names of her biological parents had been blacked out with thick government ink.
Only one line remained visible.
"Protected under Project ORACLE."
"What is Project ORACLE?" Emma whispered.
The agents exchanged uneasy glances.
No one answered.
One elderly investigator finally leaned forward.
"You shouldn't even know that name."
Emma's stomach tightened.
"My father..."
The investigator interrupted.
"The man who raised you wasn't your biological father."
"I know that now."
"No..."
The old agent said quietly.
"He wasn't even supposed to raise you."
Silence swallowed the room.
Then he revealed the impossible.
Twenty-eight years earlier...
A hospital fire had supposedly killed a newborn baby.
That baby...
Was Emma.
Except she had never died.
Someone had secretly taken her before the fire reached the maternity ward.
For decades, powerful people believed she was dead.
Until Daniel found her.
Emma suddenly remembered something from her childhood.
A strange silver birthmark behind her left shoulder.
Her father had always insisted she keep it covered.
She never understood why.
The investigator slowly placed an old photograph on the table.
Emma froze.
The baby in the picture had the exact same birthmark.
Only...
The woman holding the child wasn't the mother listed in any document.
She was standing beside a man wearing a military uniform with no name tag.
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On the back of the photograph, someone had handwritten six chilling words.
"Protect the child at all costs."
