Chapter 4 - THE SECRET IN THE FAMILY BIBLEThe words destroyed the room.
Emily stared at Margaret.
Daniel stopped breathing.
Robert simply stood there.
For a man who had survived combat, political scandals, and military investigations, nothing had prepared him for the possibility that the daughter he had raised was not biologically his.
“No.”
Margaret's tears continued.
“I wanted to tell you.”
“When?”
“I was going to.”
“When?”
She couldn't answer.
Robert's voice cracked.
“You had twenty-eight years.”
Emily looked at him.
“Dad, please.”
Robert turned toward her.
“You are my daughter.”
“I know.”
“I don't care about blood.”
Margaret cried harder.
“But the people hunting you do.”
Jonathan appeared at the end of the corridor.
“They care very much.”
Robert turned.
“Stay away from her.”
Jonathan's eyes remained on Emily.
“Her biological father left something behind.”
“What?”
“A key.”
Emily frowned.
“What key?”
Jonathan smiled.
“Ask your mother about Fort Liberty.”
Margaret shook her head.
“No.”
Robert looked at her.
“Tell me.”
“There was an operation.”
“What operation?”
“Operation Black River.”
Robert's expression hardened.
Black River had officially never existed.
It was a classified intelligence operation involving military contractors, private intelligence firms, and missing federal funds.
Robert had believed the entire program was destroyed.
Jonathan stepped closer.
“It wasn't.”
Daniel suddenly spoke.
“They're using Emily's DNA.”
Robert turned.
“For what?”
Daniel looked terrified.
“They need a genetic match.”
Emily whispered, “For what?”
Nobody answered.
Then Jonathan said it.
“For a man who is still alive.”
Robert's blood ran cold.
“The commander?”
Jonathan nodded.
“Your old commander.”
Robert remembered the classified files.
A military officer believed killed in an explosion.
A man with access to nuclear communications.
A man who vanished without a body.
Robert whispered the name.
“General Adrian Cole.”
May you like
Jonathan smiled.
“Exactly.”
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