Chapter 13 - The Voice on the Line
"Answer it," James said, his voice dropping to a low, protective growl as he stepped closer to me.
I pressed accept and brought the phone slowly to my ear.
"Hello?" I managed to force the word out, my voice shaking with a mixture of terror and unyielding anger.
For a long moment, there was only static and the hollow sound of heavy breathing on the other end. Then, a low, smooth, chillingly unfamiliar voice spoke through the speaker.
“Did you really think Marcus Thorne was the head of the snake, Mrs. Vance? Marcus was just a front man—a useful idiot who took the fall while the real operation remained completely untouched.”
"Who is this?" I demanded, my grip tightening around Maya so hard my knuckles turned white. "If you want money, if you want to threaten us, you're wasting your time. The police and the FBI—"
“The FBI are looking in all the wrong places,” the voice interrupted smoothly, chuckling softly. “They seized Marcus’s public assets, yes. But they didn't find the trust fund. They didn't find the private accounts Elena set up under a pseudonym two years before she died. And most importantly, Mrs. Vance... they don't know that Marcus wasn't the biological father at all.”
My breath hitched. The world seemed to stop spinning.
"What are you talking about?" I whispered, staring blindly out at the dark lawn. "Elena's legal papers... the DNA documentation..."
“Falsified,” the voice purred. “By Elena herself, to protect the child from me. But biology is a stubborn thing, Mrs. Vance. A paternity test doesn't care about forged court documents or social worker affidavits. And when the real biological father comes knocking on your front door with a valid federal court order backed by real power... no amount of suburban grit is going to save your happy little family.”
The line clicked dead. A flat, mechanical dial tone buzzed in my ear.
I lowered the phone slowly, staring at James with wide, terrified eyes.
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"He said... he said Marcus wasn't the real father," I breathed out, the horror dawning with sickening clarity. "He said Elena forged the paternity records to hide the baby from someone even worse."
James stared at the ground for three seconds, then his eyes snapped up with sudden, terrifying realization. "The safe deposit box. There was a second folder at the very bottom that we didn't open. The one marked Confidential - Do Not Open Unless Compromised."
