CHAPTER 3: The Child They Could Never Erase
Emily sprinted toward the mansion gates before anyone could stop her.
"Catch her!" Daniel roared.
Security guards rushed after her, but she had already jumped into her car, tires screaming across the driveway.
Daniel barely noticed.
His hands were shaking as he unfolded the final letter written by his mother twenty-five years earlier.
The faded ink read:
"If you're reading this, then I failed to protect your daughter. They discovered that the Ashford inheritance can only pass to a direct blood heir. Emily's family planned everything long before she married you. They intended to replace your real child with another baby and make you raise a stranger."
Daniel's heart pounded.
The room spun around him.
He looked at Lily.
She was quietly staring into the darkness beneath the mansion.
Then she whispered,
"The lady says... keep reading."
Daniel swallowed hard and unfolded the last page.
"But they made one terrible mistake..."
"The baby they tried to bury... survived."
Before Daniel could finish, his phone rang.
It was the police.
"Mr. Ashford, we've stopped Mrs. Ashford's vehicle."
Daniel closed his eyes with relief.
Then the officer continued.
"But she wasn't alone."
"What do you mean?"
"There was another little girl in the back seat."
Daniel froze.
"What girl?"
"We believe she's about four years old."
His blood turned cold.
Emily had been hiding a child.
He raced to the police station.
Inside, Emily sat in an interrogation room, refusing to speak.
Across the hall, a frightened little girl hugged an old teddy bear.
The moment Lily saw her...
She ran toward the child.
Without hesitation, the two little girls embraced as though they had known each other forever.
The officers exchanged confused looks.
Then the younger girl looked at Daniel with tear-filled eyes.
"Are you... my daddy?"
Daniel couldn't breathe.
A DNA test was ordered immediately.
The results arrived hours later.
Everyone gathered in stunned silence as the investigator opened the sealed envelope.
He looked first at Daniel.
Then at Emily.
Finally, he read the conclusion aloud.
"Lily Ashford is Daniel Ashford's biological daughter."
Emily lowered her head.
"But..."
The investigator continued.
"The second child is also biologically related to Daniel Ashford."
The room exploded with confusion.
Daniel stared at the report.
"That's impossible."
The investigator slowly placed another document on the table.
"It would be impossible..."
"...unless someone had been running an illegal fertility program using your frozen embryos for years."
Emily burst into tears.
"I never wanted it to go this far..."
Daniel stepped backward in horror.
His mother's disappearance.
The hidden hatch.
The letters.
The secret child.
None of it had been the real nightmare.
Someone had stolen his family's future long before Lily was even born.
And somewhere out there...
There could be more children carrying the Ashford name.
Daniel looked down at the two frightened girls holding each other's hands.
He made a silent promise.
"I'll find every truth they buried."
Because the greatest secret of the Ashford family had only just begun.
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END OF CHAPTER 3...
To Be Continued...
