Chapter 6
The recording was on a tiny memory card.
Daniel handed it to Detective Hayes when police entered.
Vanessa immediately said:
“You can't use that.”
Hayes looked at her.
“Why?”
“Because it was private.”
Daniel answered:
“You admitted everything.”
Vanessa glared at him.
“You promised you'd destroy it.”
“I promised if you paid me.”
“I did.”
“You stopped paying.”
Dad looked at Daniel.
“You were blackmailing her?”
Daniel shook his head.
“I was collecting evidence.”
Dad laughed.
“After taking her money.”
“Yes.”
“At least you're honest.”
Daniel lowered his eyes.
The recording began.
Vanessa's voice filled the room.
“I don't want Nia.”
Dad's face changed.
Then the recording continued.
“I want what comes with her.”
My stomach turned.
Vanessa had said those words.
Not once.
Several times.
She described the trust.
The withdrawals.
The forged documents.
The plan to make Dad appear neglectful.
Then came something worse.
She said:
“If Marcus divorces me, I lose everything.”
Daniel's voice asked:
“And Nia?”
Vanessa answered:
“She'll go with him.”
“Then?”
“I'll make him look unstable.”
Dad closed his eyes.
The recording continued.
“Once he's investigated, I can petition for temporary custody.”
“And the trust?”
“I'll control it.”
I couldn't look at her.
Police arrested Vanessa that evening.
Not because of one cruel shopping trip.
Because the evidence showed a long pattern.
Financial exploitation.
Forgery.
Fraud.
Attempted manipulation of custody proceedings.
And the deliberate concealment of my mother's assets.
Daniel was arrested too.
His cooperation did not erase the fact that he'd extorted Vanessa.
The trustee froze the accounts.
My mother's money was protected.
But Dad still had one question.
“Why did Rachel think I wasn't my daughter's biological father?”
The answer came from a DNA test.
Dad was not my biological father.
The result was confirmed.
I watched him read the report.
His hands trembled.
I expected him to look at me differently.
He didn't.
He folded the paper.
Then walked toward me.
“Nia.”
I couldn't speak.
He knelt.
“I need you to hear this from me.”
I nodded.
“You didn't become my daughter because of DNA.”
He touched my shoulder.
“You became my daughter the day your mother put you in my arms.”
Tears filled my eyes.
“But I'm not your biological father.”
“No.”
He swallowed.
“But I'm your dad.”
I nodded.
“You always will be.”
Then he told me the part Mom had never recorded.
My biological father had died before I was born.
Rachel had known.
Dad had known.
They chose to raise me together.
That was why the trust had been created.
My grandfather wanted to protect me regardless of biology.
Then Dad showed me another letter.
This one was addressed to him.
Your daughter is yours because you choose her every day.
Not because blood tells you to.
Dad cried reading it.
So did I.
But the story wasn't over.
The DNA test had opened another question.
Who was my biological father?
The trustee had found an old medical file.
One name appeared.
Thomas Reed.
A business partner of my grandfather.
A man who had disappeared years earlier.
Dad stared at the name.
“I know him.”
“How?”
“He was your mother's lawyer.”
“And?”
“He was the last person she met before she died.”
My stomach tightened.
May you like
Dad called Detective Hayes.
“There's another person we need to find.”
