CHAPTER 6 — The DNA That Destroyed Everything
The DNA laboratory worked through the night.
Claire waited silently beside her father.
Richard hadn't spoken much.
He simply held her hand.
At dawn...
The laboratory director walked into the conference room carrying a sealed envelope.
"No mistakes?"
Richard asked.
"None."
The envelope opened.
Claire unfolded the report.
Her hands trembled.
The words blurred.
Then finally came into focus.
Probability of biological relationship with Richard Lawson...
0.00%.
The room became silent.
Richard closed his eyes.
He had known.
All these years...
He had known.
Claire looked at him, tears filling her eyes.
"You knew?"
He nodded.
"Since you were three."
"Then why..."
"You were already my daughter."
Claire broke down crying.
Richard wrapped his arms around her.
"I never cared whose blood you carried."
"I cared who you became."
Across the room...
Daniel quietly wiped away a tear.
Hours later...
Another DNA comparison finished.
Against preserved Sterling family records.
The result stunned everyone.
Probability of biological relationship...
99.99997%.
Claire Lawson...
Was actually Claire Sterling.
The sole surviving heir to one of America's oldest fortunes.
A fortune believed destroyed decades earlier.
Suddenly...
Vivian's journal made perfect sense.
Claire hadn't inherited only Richard's company.
She had unknowingly inherited a hidden trust worth nearly four billion dollars.
Vivian had never wanted two hundred million.
She had wanted everything.
That afternoon...
Claire visited Vivian one final time.
She placed the DNA report on the table.
Vivian read it.
Then slowly smiled.
"I wondered how long it would take."
Claire stared.
"You knew."
"I arranged the baby swap."
"Why?"
Vivian leaned forward.
"Because the Sterling fortune was never meant to belong to a child."
"It belonged..."
"...to me."
Claire looked into Vivian's eyes.
For the first time...
She understood.
The wedding had never been about love.
The murder had never been about Helix Medical.
It had never even been about two hundred million dollars.
It had started...
Twenty-nine years earlier...
With a stolen baby.
And somewhere deep inside a forgotten Swiss vault...
One final secret still waited.
May you like
A secret that would reveal...
Who had truly ordered the plane crash that destroyed the Sterling family.
