Chapter 3 - The Brother Who Took His Future
Daniel didn't speak for nearly a minute.
Ava watched him absorb eight lost years in complete silence.
Finally he asked, "Why?"
Dr. Price lowered his eyes.
"Your father said Adrian needed to marry."
Daniel laughed once.
It held no amusement.
"And I didn't?"
"Adrian was the eldest."
There it was.
Succession.
Legacy.
A family deciding one son's future mattered more than another's.
Ava suddenly understood Daniel in a way she hadn't before.
He, too, had spent years living inside a decision someone else made.
Not a marriage.
A future.
His father had allowed him to believe biological children were impossible because the truth threatened whatever plans the Choi family had for Adrian.
Except Adrian died less than a year later.
"And nobody told me afterward?" Daniel asked.
Price's silence answered.
Ava felt sick for him.
Daniel dismissed everyone shortly afterward.
That night, he stood alone on the mansion terrace while October wind moved through the city.
Ava joined him.
"You don't have to talk."
"That's convenient."
She looked over.
He was trying to joke.
Barely.
It surprised her enough to make her smile.
"I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"For what they did."
Daniel looked across Chicago.
"Eight years."
Ava said nothing.
"I stopped imagining children," he continued. "Eventually I stopped imagining a family at all."
Ava's chest tightened.
"So did I."
He looked at her.
She told him about Lucas.
Not every detail.
Enough.
How Lucas had loved the easy version of her life.
How quickly he disappeared when Michael's problems surfaced.
"He might be the father," Ava admitted.
Daniel nodded.
"You should tell him."
Fear surfaced instantly.
"What if he wants the baby?"
"He's allowed to know."
"And if he tries to use this against me?"
Daniel's voice softened.
"Then we'll deal with facts as they come."
"We?"
"Unless you want me gone."
Ava studied him.
For a marriage neither had chosen, Daniel had become the first person in weeks who wasn't asking what she could give him.
"I don't," she whispered.
Daniel's eyes held hers.
Then his phone rang.
Nathan.
Another discovery.
Daniel put the call on speaker.
"We found the person who accessed the archive," Nathan said.
"Who?"
"Not Eleanor."
Daniel frowned.
"The credential was cloned."
"By whom?"
A pause.
"Lucas Mercer."
Ava stopped breathing.
Daniel turned to her.
Nathan continued.
"Mercer has been communicating with Michael Bennett's former business partner for at least four months."
Ava's heart hammered.
"The man who disappeared?"
"Richard Vale," Nathan confirmed.
Michael's dishonest partner.
The man whose vanished money had helped destroy her father's company.
Daniel asked the obvious question.
"What does Lucas want with my medical records?"
"We don't know yet."
But Ava suddenly remembered something.
The night Lucas left her.
He had said something strange.
Something she hadn't understood at the time.
This is bigger than your father's debt.
She had thought it was an excuse.
Now she wasn't sure.
The next morning, Lucas called.
Ava stared at his name flashing across the screen.
Daniel stood across the breakfast room.
"Answer it," he said.
She did.
"Hello?"
Lucas sounded breathless.
"Ava, you need to listen to me."
"What do you want?"
"I know you're pregnant."
Her blood turned cold.
Daniel's eyes sharpened.
Ava forced herself to speak.
"How?"
Lucas ignored the question.
"The baby isn't safe there."
Daniel's expression didn't change.
Ava gripped the phone.
"What are you talking about?"
"Daniel's family knows."
"Knows what?"
Lucas went silent.
Ava heard traffic behind him.
Then he whispered:
"That child might be worth more to the Choi family than you are."
The call disconnected.
Ava stared at the screen.
Daniel was already reaching for his phone.
But before he could call Nathan, Ava received a text.
One image.
An old laboratory form.
A handwritten name appeared at the bottom.
MICHAEL BENNETT.
Her father.
Ava stared at Daniel.
"My dad knew."
May you like
And suddenly the marriage no longer looked like a desperate solution to Michael Bennett's debt.
It looked like something planned long before Ava had ever been told she was getting married.
