Chapter 7
Samuel Carter was rushed to the hospital.
DNA testing confirmed his identity.
Khloe sat beside Ethan’s incubator when Detective Torres told her.
“My father is alive?”
“He is weak and confused, but yes.”
Khloe gripped the edge of her chair.
She had mourned him most of her life.
She remembered standing beside an empty grave because the accident had burned his body beyond recognition.
“Who was buried?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Samuel had scars on his wrists and ankles.
Doctors found signs of years of sedation.
Evelyn had not only stolen his company.
She had stolen his life.
Khloe asked to see him.
When Samuel was wheeled into her room, he looked older than his seventy years.
His silver hair was thin.
His hands trembled.
But his eyes were the same eyes Khloe remembered.
“My little star,” he whispered.
Khloe broke.
She wrapped her arms around him and sobbed against his shoulder.
“I thought you left me.”
“Never.”
“Why didn’t you come home?”
“Evelyn staged the accident. She kept me alive because she needed my passwords and signatures.”
Daniel stood outside the room.
Samuel noticed him.
“Let him in.”
Khloe shook her head.
“He betrayed you.”
Samuel’s expression softened.
“He made a terrible mistake. Then he spent eighteen years trying to correct it.”
Daniel entered.
He could barely meet his brother’s eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
Samuel reached for his hand.
“You were frightened.”
“I told her where you were.”
“And later, you helped hide Khloe’s inheritance.”
Khloe looked between them.
“What does that mean?”
Daniel removed a document from his coat.
“Your mother and I placed your father’s remaining shares in a protected trust. Evelyn could not touch them unless you willingly transferred ownership.”
“Then the company belongs partly to me.”
“More than partly,” Samuel said. “Your shares have grown. You now own fifty-one percent.”
Khloe stared at him.
Evelyn had tried to control Ethan to gain the company.
But she had never understood that Khloe already held the deciding vote.
Detective Torres entered with urgent news.
“Evelyn made bail.”
“How?” Daniel demanded.
“Her attorneys challenged the evidence from the storage unit. The judge ordered electronic monitoring, but she disappeared before the device was secured.”
Khloe immediately looked at Ethan.
“Lock down the neonatal unit.”
Security sealed the floor.
Marcus was released after investigators confirmed the message had been fabricated.
He came directly to the hospital.
Khloe saw him outside the nursery doors.
For a moment, neither moved.
“Can I see him?” Marcus asked.
“You may look through the glass.”
He approached the window.
When he saw Ethan, his knees nearly gave out.
“That’s my son.”
“He almost died because of your family.”
“I know.”
“And because you were too weak to tell me the truth.”
“I know that too.”
Before Khloe could respond, the fire alarm sounded.
Red lights flashed.
Smoke poured from a supply room.
Nurses began moving infants toward emergency exits.
Marcus grabbed a fire extinguisher.
Daniel helped evacuate Samuel.
Khloe refused to leave without Ethan.
A nurse disconnected the incubator from the wall and switched it to battery power.
Then the lights went out.
In the darkness, someone shoved Khloe aside.
She heard the incubator wheels moving.
“Stop!”
Emergency lights flickered on.
A figure in medical scrubs was pushing Ethan toward the stairwell.
Khloe ran after them.
The person looked back.
It was Evelyn.
May you like
She held a syringe in one hand.
“If you follow me,” she shouted, “I will stop his heart.”
