CHAPTER 4: The DNA Test That Changed Everything
Darkness swallowed the arena.
The only sound was Noah's frightened voice echoing through the speakers.
"Emma... please don't believe him..."
Then the lights flashed back on.
A massive screen descended from the ceiling.
Noah appeared, tied to a chair inside what looked like an abandoned laboratory. His face was pale, but there was one thing Emma noticed immediately.
He wasn't connected to any dialysis machine.
Her heart skipped a beat.
Richard was telling the truth.
Noah had never needed one.
"You monsters!" Emma shouted.
Richard calmly folded his hands behind his back.
"I gave your mother a choice years ago."
"What choice?"
"Protect one child... or lose both."
Emma's anger slowly turned into confusion.
Before she could speak again, another figure walked into the light.
It was her mother, Helen Carter.
Her eyes were swollen from crying.
"I'm sorry..." she whispered.
Emma couldn't hold back anymore.
"You poisoned Noah!"
Helen shook her head violently.
"No!"
"I gave him harmless medication."
"Then why was he getting weaker?"
Helen reached into her purse with trembling hands and pulled out a sealed envelope.
Inside was a DNA report.
Emma stared at the paper.
Relationship Test: Emma Carter and Noah Carter... 0% Biological Match.
Her knees nearly gave out.
"No..."
"This isn't possible..."
Helen burst into tears.
"I wanted to tell you every single day."
Richard interrupted her.
"Tell her the rest."
Helen closed her eyes.
"Eighteen years ago..."
"There was a fire at the maternity hospital."
"Two newborn babies were accidentally switched."
Emma's breathing stopped.
"You aren't my biological daughter."
The arena erupted with gasps.
Every gambler...
Every fighter...
Every guard...
stood frozen.
Richard slowly revealed another photograph.
A young woman stood beside a little girl who looked exactly like Emma.
"They're your real family."
Emma reached for the picture with shaking hands.
Before her fingers could touch it—
BOOM!!
A deafening explosion ripped through the arena wall.
Concrete rained from the ceiling.
Masked gunmen stormed inside, firing into the air.
Their leader removed his mask.
Richard's face lost all color.
For the first time that night...
The man everyone feared looked terrified.
He whispered only two words.
"She's here..."
A woman dressed entirely in black stepped through the smoke.
She looked directly at Emma...
smiled...
and said,
"Hello, daughter."
Emma froze.
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Because the woman wasn't talking about the baby-switch.
She was claiming Emma had been her daughter all along.
