Chapter 2: The Monster Behind the Marriage
Chapter 2: The Monster Behind the Marriage
Exactly fifty-eight minutes later...
The DNA report arrived.
The laboratory director personally handed the sealed envelope to Eleanor.
The room fell completely silent.
She opened it with trembling hands.
Her eyes scanned one line.
Then another.
Finally...
She broke.
"Ninety-nine point nine nine nine percent..."
She looked at Claire through tears.
"You're my daughter."
Claire collapsed into Eleanor's arms.
For the first time in her life...
She knew where she belonged.
The entire hotel staff applauded through tears.
Marcus lowered his head in shame.
"I'm so sorry, Mrs. Crawford... Mrs. Sterling... I failed you."
Claire gently nodded.
"You only protected power."
Marcus couldn't deny it.
Meanwhile Richard slowly backed toward the exit.
Security immediately blocked the doors.
Eleanor smiled coldly.
"Leaving already?"
"I have a meeting."
"No."
"You have questions to answer."
Before Richard could respond, Eleanor's chief of security entered carrying a tablet.
"We reviewed the lobby footage."
Everyone looked up.
"Mr. Sterling sent a text ordering someone to destroy records connected to Mrs. Crawford's missing child."
The room exploded.
Richard's face drained of every trace of confidence.
"That's not what it means."
"Really?"
The security chief pressed play.
The surveillance footage clearly showed Richard typing the message.
Seconds later police cyber investigators confirmed the recipient.
A retired private investigator.
The very same investigator who had handled the Crawford kidnapping case thirty years earlier.
Eleanor's voice became deadly calm.
"You knew."
Richard stayed silent.
She stepped closer.
"How?"
Finally...
He laughed.
A bitter laugh.
"My father kidnapped her."
Gasps echoed across the room.
"He worked for your family's construction company."
"He discovered your husband planned to cut him loose."
"So he stole your baby for revenge."
Claire couldn't breathe.
Richard lowered his eyes.
"I found out years after we married."
"I never told Claire."
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"Because if she learned who she really was..."
"...she would become richer than I could ever control."
