Chapter 11 - THE LIE INSIDE THE DNA
Rachel backed away from Estelle.
“No.”
Estelle remained handcuffed.
“You always were stubborn.”
“No.”
Rachel shook her head.
“My mother died when I was born.”
“That is what Samuel told you.”
Rachel looked at Malcolm.
He couldn’t meet her eyes.
“Tell me she’s lying.”
Malcolm remained silent.
Rachel’s voice broke.
“Tell me.”
Malcolm whispered.
“She gave birth to you.”
Rachel nearly collapsed.
Christopher caught her.
She pulled away.
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
Emma watched the adults.
Confused.
Christopher immediately knelt beside her.
“Sweetheart, go with Detective Torres.”
Emma looked frightened.
“No.”
Christopher softened his voice.
“Just into the next room.”
“Are you coming?”
“In one minute.”
Rachel forced herself upright.
“I’ll go.”
Emma grabbed her.
Rachel took her into the side chamber.
Christopher turned toward Estelle.
“If Rachel is your daughter, Adrian cannot be Emma’s father.”
Estelle smiled.
“Finally.”
Christopher froze.
“The DNA report.”
“Manipulated.”
Adrian stepped forward.
“You stole my DNA.”
“Yes.”
“And matched it to Emma.”
“No.”
Adrian frowned.
Estelle’s eyes moved to Christopher.
“I matched Emma to someone else.”
Christopher felt dread.
“Who?”
Estelle said nothing.
Malcolm suddenly understood.
“No.”
Estelle looked pleased.
Malcolm stepped forward.
“You didn’t.”
“What?”
Christopher demanded.
Malcolm stared at Estelle.
“Tell him.”
Estelle smiled.
“Why spoil every surprise at once?”
Christopher grabbed the table.
“Who is Emma’s biological father?”
Rachel returned without Emma.
Torres stayed with the child.
Rachel looked exhausted.
Estelle studied her daughter.
“You always wondered why I kept you alive.”
Rachel’s face hardened.
“For the archive.”
“Partly.”
“Then what?”
“Because you were useful.”
Christopher felt disgust.
Rachel whispered.
“What did you do?”
Estelle looked at her.
“Do you remember the fertility clinic?”
Rachel froze.
Christopher turned.
“What fertility clinic?”
Rachel looked at him.
“After Emma was born.”
“No.”
“Before.”
She corrected herself.
“Before I knew I was pregnant.”
Christopher frowned.
Rachel explained.
“I had a procedure after an ovarian cyst.”
Christopher remembered.
He was overseas.
Rachel stayed in Boston for several weeks.
“What happened?”
Rachel stared at Estelle.
“They said tissue was removed.”
Estelle smiled.
“Some was.”
Rachel began shaking.
Christopher understood before he wanted to.
“You took her eggs.”
Estelle said nothing.
Rachel covered her mouth.
Adrian looked sick.
Christopher stepped forward.
“Emma wasn’t conceived naturally?”
Rachel turned.
“I thought she was.”
Christopher looked at Estelle.
“What did you do?”
Estelle finally answered.
“I needed an heir compatible with the Sloan biometric architecture.”
Malcolm stared.
“You created Emma.”
Estelle tilted her head.
“I ensured a pregnancy.”
Rachel’s legs weakened.
Christopher caught her.
She didn’t push him away this time.
“Whose sperm?”
Christopher demanded.
Estelle smiled.
“Samuel’s system required Sloan blood.”
“Rachel already had Sloan blood.”
“Exactly.”
“Then why manipulate the father?”
“Because the Pierce trust required Pierce paternity.”
Christopher stared.
“You needed both bloodlines.”
“Yes.”
“Who was the father?”
Estelle looked toward Malcolm.
His face went white.
Rachel saw it.
“No.”
Malcolm stepped backward.
Rachel whispered.
“No.”
Christopher’s stomach turned.
Estelle laughed quietly.
“Not Malcolm.”
Everyone exhaled.
Then she continued.
“His frozen genetic material.”
Malcolm stared.
“What?”
Christopher looked between them.
Estelle explained.
“Malcolm banked samples during cancer treatment years before his supposed death.”
Rachel began shaking.
Christopher felt nauseated.
“You used Dad’s sample with Rachel’s eggs.”
“Yes.”
Malcolm shouted.
“You’re insane.”
Estelle looked bored.
“Science rarely asks permission from morality.”
Christopher nearly lunged at her.
Torres stepped between them.
“Don’t.”
Christopher turned away.
He had to breathe.
He had to think.
If Malcolm was Emma’s biological father, Emma was Christopher’s half-sister.
Not his daughter biologically.
Yet he had raised her.
Loved her.
Protected her.
None of those things changed.
Emma was still Emma.
But the inheritance implications were enormous.
Malcolm looked destroyed.
“I never consented.”
Rachel stared.
“Neither did I.”
Estelle’s face remained cold.
“Consent is a luxury created by people who do not understand legacy.”
Rachel walked toward her.
Then stopped inches away.
“You had me attacked.”
“Yes.”
“You stole six years from my daughter.”
“Yes.”
“You used my body without my knowledge.”
“Yes.”
Rachel’s hand trembled.
“You are not my mother.”
For the first time, Estelle’s expression changed.
Rachel saw it.
“You gave birth to me.”
“That is biology.”
“Motherhood is what happened afterward.”
She looked toward the room where Emma waited.
“You taught me nothing about that.”
Estelle’s eyes hardened.
Rachel walked away.
Christopher watched her.
Something had shifted.
Estelle could tolerate hatred.
Rejection hurt her.
Malcolm sat down.
Christopher looked at him.
“Did you know?”
“No.”
“About the fertility procedure?”
“No.”
“About Rachel being Samuel’s daughter?”
“Yes.”
Christopher clenched his jaw.
“Why hide it?”
“Samuel asked me to.”
“Why?”
“Because Estelle had already abandoned Rachel.”
Christopher frowned.
“Samuel raised her?”
“No.”
“He placed her with the Monroe family.”
Rachel overheard.
“They were my parents.”
Malcolm nodded.
“They loved you.”
“Then Samuel?”
“He watched from a distance.”
Rachel wiped her eyes.
“Yvette never knew?”
“No.”
Christopher thought about Yvette.
The woman who spent years protecting Emma.
She had unknowingly protected her husband’s granddaughter.
Christopher wondered whether coincidence still existed anywhere inside this family.
Torres approached.
“We need to evacuate.”
“Why?”
“We intercepted communications.”
“Estelle’s remaining security is withdrawing.”
“That sounds good.”
“It isn’t.”
Torres looked toward the archive.
“They activated demolition charges beneath the island.”
Malcolm stood.
“What?”
Estelle smiled.
Christopher turned toward her.
“You planned this too?”
“I plan alternatives.”
“How long?”
Torres checked her watch.
“Twelve minutes.”
Everyone moved.
Federal agents began evacuating evidence.
Annalise grabbed storage drives.
Malcolm tried copying the archive.
Adrian helped Rachel retrieve Emma.
Christopher remained near Estelle.
“You’re coming with us.”
She laughed.
“No.”
“You don’t get to choose.”
“I am seventy-one years old.”
“I have watched this family lie for half a century.”
“If Blackwater disappears with me, perhaps that is fitting.”
Christopher grabbed her arm.
“You don’t get an easy ending.”
Estelle looked at him.
“You think prison frightens me?”
“No.”
“Then why save me?”
Christopher leaned closer.
“Because Emma deserves to watch you lose.”
For the first time, Estelle had no response.
They evacuated through the eastern tunnel.
A helicopter landed near the cliffs.
Emma climbed aboard with Rachel.
Christopher looked back toward the house.
Annalise was missing.
“Where is she?”
Malcolm looked around.
“She was behind us.”
Christopher ran back.
Torres grabbed him.
“You have four minutes.”
“I’m not leaving her.”
“She kidnapped your brother.”
“She’s still family.”
Torres cursed.
Then followed.
They found Annalise inside the archive.
She was copying one final file.
Christopher shouted.
“Move!”
She shook her head.
“This proves who my mother was.”
“Take the drive.”
“It isn’t finished.”
“You’ll die.”
“I spent forty years not knowing who I was.”
Christopher looked at the screen.
68 percent.
“You will not learn anything if you’re dead.”
Annalise stared.
Christopher stepped closer.
“Come with me.”
She looked toward him.
For the first time, not as an enemy.
The copy completed.
100 percent.
She grabbed the drive.
They ran.
The first explosion hit before they reached the tunnel exit.
Rock collapsed behind them.
Torres shoved Annalise forward.
Christopher barely cleared the passage.
They reached the helicopter.
Malcolm pulled Christopher aboard.
The aircraft lifted.
Blackwater Island disappeared beneath them.
Seconds later, a massive explosion tore through the eastern house.
Emma screamed.
Christopher held her.
Rachel wrapped her arms around both of them.
The island burned below.
Annalise clutched the drive.
Malcolm looked devastated.
Years of evidence had disappeared.
Or so Estelle believed.
Christopher had Samuel’s ledger.
Rachel had her memories.
Annalise had one recovered drive.
And federal agents had removed several archive servers.
Estelle watched the fire through the window.
Then she smiled.
Christopher noticed.
“Why are you smiling?”
Estelle looked at him.
“Because you still don’t know what Annalise copied.”
Annalise stared at the drive.
Her face changed.
“What?”
Estelle leaned back.
“That file is not about your mother.”
Annalise went pale.
Christopher looked between them.
“What is it?”
Estelle answered.
“It is the original video from the night Samuel Sloan died.”
Yvette’s husband.
Rachel’s biological father.
Annalise looked down at the drive.
Estelle smiled.
“And when you watch it, Christopher…”
She looked toward Malcolm.
May you like
“You will finally understand why your father had to fake his death.”
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