Chapter 6 - THE BETRAYAL
I drove away from the house in a daze. Margaret’s words looped in my head, mixing with my father’s letter, the photograph, the blood report.
If what she said was true… Olivia was my half-sister. Not my daughter.
The thought made me sick. I loved her. I had carried her for nine months. I had given birth to her. I had nursed her, held her, watched her take her first step. She was mine. No matter what any paper said. She was mine.
But Daniel… Daniel had been deceived too. He thought Olivia was his daughter. He had loved her, even if he was distant. And Margaret had let him believe—while whispering lies behind his back.
I needed to speak to him. Alone. Away from her.
I called him. He answered on the first ring.
“Emma? Thank God. Where are you? Mom said you found something. Something terrible. Please… come home. Let’s talk.”
His voice sounded broken. Guilty. Scared.
“I’m not coming home,” I said. “Meet me somewhere. Quiet. Where she won’t hear.”
“The lake house,” he said immediately. “Our place. She never goes there. Please. Emma… I need to know.”
I drove there. The sun was setting, painting the water in streaks of gold and red. Daniel was already there, pacing the porch. He looked up the moment I stepped out of the car.
He looked tired. Pale.
“Emma,” he said, stepping toward me. “What did she tell you? She said you had a letter. From your father. She said—”
“She told me everything,” I cut him off. “About you. About who you really are.”
Daniel froze.
“What?”
“You’re not Margaret’s son. You’re the son of my father’s sister. She adopted you. Hid the truth. Kept it from everyone. Including you.”
Daniel swayed, gripping the porch rail. He stared at me, eyes wide and unblinking.
“That’s… that can’t be true.”
“It is. My father wrote it down. Everything. Margaret couldn’t have children. She took you. Paid your mother to leave. And raised you as her own.”
Daniel sank onto the step, head in his hands. For a long time he said nothing. Just shook.
“All those years,” he whispered finally. “All those years she told me I was her pride. Her blood. Her heir. And I was just… a possession.”
I sat beside him. I wanted to reach out, to hold him. But something stopped me.
“There’s more,” I said quietly.
I pulled out the photograph and the blood report. I handed them to him.
Daniel looked at the picture first. Frowned. Then he read the blood report.
His face went white.
“AB negative,” he whispered. “Olivia is AB negative. You are O positive. I am A positive. That’s impossible.”
“Margaret says…” My voice broke. “She says my father is Olivia’s real father.”
Daniel went still. Dead still. He turned slowly to look at me. His eyes were hollow.
“Is it true?”
“No!” I cried. “I don’t know! I don’t remember! I never suspected! But the blood type… the eyes… everything fits.”
Daniel stood up slowly. He handed the papers back to me. His hands were trembling.
“That’s why,” he said.
“What?”
“That’s why he gave her everything. That’s why he made me sign those papers. That’s why he looked at her sometimes… like he was sorry.” He turned to me, eyes hard and cold. “And you knew. All along.”
“I did NOT know!” I stood too, desperate. “I found out today. The same hour you did. From Margaret. Exactly like you.”
Daniel stared at me. Searching my face. But he didn’t see the woman he had married. He saw a lie. A trap.
“You let me love her,” he said, his voice cracking. “You let me think she was mine. You let me call her my daughter. And all this time… she was your sister. Your father’s child.”
“Daniel, please—”
“Did you know before you married me?” he demanded, stepping back. “Did your father tell you? Did he marry us to keep it quiet? To give his child a name?”
“No!” I reached for him. “I loved you. I married you because I loved you. Whatever my father did… whatever secret he kept… I didn’t know. I swear it.”
Daniel looked at me. For a heartbeat I thought he believed me. Then his face hardened.
“Margaret warned me,” he said quietly. “She told me your father had a secret. That he was using us. That Olivia wasn’t mine. I didn’t want to believe her. I told myself she was just being cruel.” He stepped away. “But the blood type doesn’t lie, Emma. And neither does the face in that photograph.”
“Where are you going?” I asked as he walked toward his car.
“Away from here. Away from all of this.” He paused by the door. “I need time. To think. To understand what kind of family I married into.”
“Daniel, please—”
May you like
“And Emma?” He looked back once more. “If it’s true… if she really is his… then don’t expect me to raise her. I can’t. I won’t. She is not my daughter. And I will not be a father to my own cousin.”
He got in his car and drove away. Leaving me alone by the water as darkness fell.
