PART 2
Gabriel stared at me as though I’d stopped his heart.
“You did.”
Those five words hung between us.
“I never touched you,” he whispered.
“Not with your hands.”
I slowly lowered my sweater.
“Eight months ago, Daniel came to my apartment with three men wearing your crest.”
Gabriel’s expression changed.
“He said you discovered I was pregnant.”
My voice shook.
“He told me you couldn’t afford an heir your enemies could use against you.”
“That is a lie.”
“I know that now.”
I explained what happened after they took me.
They demanded passwords to Gabriel’s accounts.
Shipping schedules.
Names.
I refused.
So they created evidence instead.
My hospital badge was stolen.
My phone was cloned.
Money was transferred through an account bearing my name.
Then they left me injured, believing neither my baby nor I would survive.
A stranger found me.
She hid me until I recovered enough to disappear.
Gabriel backed toward the wall.
“Why didn’t you contact me?”
“Because Daniel showed me your messages.”
“What messages?”
I handed him an old phone.
One text supposedly from Gabriel read:
FIND HER BEFORE THE BABY IS BORN.
Another:
NO WITNESSES.
His hands began trembling.
“I never sent these.”
“I wanted to believe that.”
Then the apartment floor creaked outside.
Gabriel immediately reached for his gun.
Too late.
Daniel’s voice came through the door.
“Boss?”
Gabriel looked at me.
Neither of us breathed.
Daniel had followed him.
Gabriel quietly picked up his pistol, then placed one finger against his lips.
“Stay behind me.”
But before he reached the door, I grabbed his sleeve.
“There is something else.”
From beneath my mattress, I removed a sealed medical envelope.
Inside was a DNA report.
Gabriel stared at the result.
99.99% probability of paternity.
His eyes filled with something I had never seen before.
Fear.
Not for himself.
For us.
Then someone kicked the apartment door.
Gabriel raised his weapon.
But Daniel didn’t enter.
Instead, his footsteps raced downstairs.
Gabriel’s phone immediately rang.
His security chief shouted through the speaker.
“Boss, get Clara out now.”
“Why?”
“We searched Daniel’s vehicle.”
A pause.
“There are hospital admission papers inside.”
“For Clara.”
“Scheduled for tomorrow.”
My blood turned cold.
Gabriel looked at the documents.
Then his security chief delivered the final blow.
“They already chose a name for the baby.”
“And listed Daniel Shaw as the father.”
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