Chapter 5 - Someone Had Been Filtering Daniel’s Messages
Daniel checked his phone.
No messages from Claire.
His assistant’s archived system told a different story.
Three messages had arrived through the household emergency channel.
All were marked resolved by Victoria.
Daniel had given his wife administrative access months earlier because she complained that household problems interrupted his meetings.
She had used that access to filter warnings.
Claire’s first message said Noah was frightened of David.
The second reported Victoria taking hair from Noah’s brush.
The third requested a private meeting with Daniel.
Victoria closed all three.
Daniel felt ashamed.
He had created the gate.
Victoria had abused it.
Both facts mattered.
Claire said she considered quitting.
She stayed because Noah begged her not to leave.
That decision had placed her in danger too.
Daniel told her:
“You should never have had to choose between your safety and his.”
Claire did not answer.
Investigators then found something unexpected in Victoria’s deleted email.
A laboratory report.
It was not Noah’s DNA.
It was David Mercer’s.
The test compared David with a stored genetic profile belonging to Henry Cole.
Probability of biological paternity:
99.98 percent.
David was Daniel’s half-brother.
Henry had fathered him during an affair with Evelyn Mercer.
But another email showed Victoria had known for more than a year.
She did not discover David accidentally.
Someone introduced them.
May you like
The sender was Margaret Cole.
Daniel’s mother.
Related Stories
