Chapter 5 - THE NIGHT CLAIRE WAS BORN
The room became perfectly still.
Claire stared at Rosa.
“You were there?”
Rosa nodded.
Thirty-eight years earlier, she had not been a housekeeper.
She had been a nursing assistant at St. Matthew's Hospital.
One stormy October night, a terrified young woman arrived in labor.
Her name was Evelyn Hart.
The woman in the photograph.
Claire's biological mother.
Evelyn refused to name the father.
But she carried a letter.
A letter addressed to Thomas Bennett—the man Claire had always believed was her biological father.
Thomas arrived before sunrise.
He took one look at the newborn girl and promised Evelyn the child would never be abandoned.
Claire struggled to breathe.
“Why didn't he tell me?”
“Because someone threatened your mother.”
“Who?”
Rosa looked at Daniel.
Daniel shook his head.
“Don't.”
Rosa continued.
“Daniel's father.”
Claire felt as if the floor disappeared beneath her.
Richard Mercer had founded Mercer Holdings with Thomas Bennett.
The two men had built an empire together.
But Richard had also been married.
And according to Rosa, Evelyn Hart had been carrying his child.
Claire.
That meant Claire wasn't simply Thomas Bennett's adopted daughter.
She was Richard Mercer's biological daughter.
Daniel's father.
Claire looked at Daniel.
Her stomach turned.
“No.”
Daniel immediately understood.
“We're not related.”
Claire stared at him.
“What?”
“My father wasn't Richard.”
Another bombshell.
Daniel explained that his mother had become pregnant before marrying Richard Mercer.
Richard raised Daniel as his son but never legally acknowledged the truth publicly.
Daniel and Claire shared no blood.
But Richard's secret daughter—Claire—was the only biological Mercer heir.
If proven, Claire's claim to the company could supersede Daniel's entire position.
Now everything made sense.
The marriage.
The secrecy.
The forged documents.
The staged affair.
Daniel hadn't married Claire only because he loved her.
He had married the woman whose identity could someday destroy his claim to the Mercer fortune.
Claire stared at the man she had shared eleven years with.
“Did you ever love me?”
For the first time, Daniel couldn't hide behind anger.
His eyes dropped.
“Yes.”
Claire's voice broke.
“That wasn't my question.”
Daniel looked up.
She repeated it.
“Did you marry me because you loved me?”
Daniel remained silent.
Claire received her answer.
Then Vanessa's phone vibrated.
She looked at the screen.
Her face drained of color.
“What?”
Vanessa turned the phone toward Claire.
A security notification showed movement downstairs.
Someone had entered the mansion.
Rosa whispered:
“Who?”
Daniel didn't answer.
Footsteps sounded below.
Slow.
Heavy.
Deliberate.
Then a man's voice echoed through the foyer.
“Claire?”
Rosa gripped the desk.
She knew that voice.
Claire looked at her.
“Who is that?”
May you like
Rosa stared toward the door as though she had just seen a ghost.
“Your father.”
