Chapter 8 - The Bookstore SecretMy finger tapped the screen. It lit up, asking for a passcode. I knew Savannah’s birthday by heart—I punched it in. Unlocked.
I bypassed her messages and tapped into her photo gallery, scrolling back three years.
There it was. A folder labeled “Project.”
My breath hitched. I clicked open the folder. Inside were dozens of photos of me taken from afar—walking out of my office building, eating lunch at a café, getting into my car. Photos taken months before we ever "accidentally" met at the bookstore.
And right beside those photos was a scanned copy of the Vance family estate dossier, complete with my infant birth records.
The room tilted. The ground felt like it was dropping away beneath my feet.
"Looking for something, Chris?"
A voice cut through the dark bedroom like a razor blade. I spun around. Savannah was sitting upright against the pillows, her soft, innocent persona completely gone. In its place was a cold, calculating gaze I had never seen before.
She wasn't trembling anymore. She wasn't the victim of Bernice's wrath.
"You..." I choked out, the phone trembling in my hand. "You knew who I was all along."
Savannah swung her legs over the side of the bed, smoothing down her pajamas with agonizing slowness. "Of course I did, Chris. Do you honestly think a woman like me just happens to fall in love with a regular office worker who turns out to be the sole heir to a thirty-million-dollar fortune?"
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The betrayal hit me like a physical blow, knocking the wind straight out of my lungs.
"Bernice wasn't lying about that part," Savannah continued smoothly, walking toward me with a chilling composure. "Your mother kidnapped you, yes. But she wasn't the only one hunting for the Vance inheritance. My family lost everything because of your grandfather. I spent five years tracking you down to take back what rightfully belongs to my bloodline."
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