The video went viral before the gavel even cooled.Eliora’s voice, unhinged.Her fake bump slipping.The screams. The guards.Captured in perfect detail.Posted. Shared. Reposted.A storm with no mercy.The headlines read like confessions.“Twin Sister Exposed in Fake Pregnancy Scandal”“Heir to Vaughan Empire Caught in Web of Lies”“Eliana’s Twin or Eliana’s Threat?”Vanessa showed us the metrics,four million views in ten hours.My face was everywhere, but it was her disgrace the world saw.And for the first time since this began, she had nowhere to hide.“She’s gone dark,” Vanessa said. “No more press appearances. No social updates. Phones off. Her lawyer quit last night.”Adrian crossed his arms. “She won’t stay buried. Not her.”“She doesn’t need to stay buried,” I whispered. “She needs to resurface with something bigger than shame.”Granny Elizabeth stirred her tea without drinking it. “Desperation makes people reckless. But smart people? They weaponize it.”I knew what she meant
Two days.That was all we had before the hearing.Two days to prepare, to breathe, to pull the string that would unravel everything she’d sewn with lies.And it started with a name.“David Brown,” Vanessa said, slapping a file down on the table. “Private investigator. Ex-military. Works underground now off-record jobs, reputation for digging where others won’t.”Adrian flipped through the dossier. “You think Eliora hired him?”Vanessa nodded. “The man driving the car yesterday was one of Brown’s known associates. Facial structure’s close enough. The license plate led nowhere because it’s a dummy reg. Military wash.”I sat beside them, my hands flat on the table.“She’s building a case we can’t see,” I said. “But she’s made one mistake—she keeps underestimating me.”Vanessa handed me a second folder. “This is what you asked for. Her old life, the real one—before she became you.”The file was thicker than I expected. Dozens of pages. Receipts. Names. Locations. A map marked in red.“She
She was just standing there.At our gate. Dressed in white. Hands folded beneath her belly like some holy virgin, chin tilted up toward the camera. Smiling.“Don’t open it,” I said, my voice barely a whisper.“I wasn’t planning to,” Adrian muttered, already dialing security. “How the hell did she get past the outer checkpoint?”Vanessa pulled up the perimeter feed on her tablet. “She had clearance. Someone in the inner ring let her through.”“The mole,” I said quietly.We watched Eliora raise a hand and wave at the camera. Not a taunting wave. Not frantic. Just… calm. Calculated. Like she wasn’t afraid of anything that was coming.“Do we call the police?” Vanessa asked.“No,” Adrian said. “We don’t let her turn this into a public circus.”“But she wants that,” I added. “She’s baiting us. One wrong move and she’ll have us exactly where she wants us,defensive, reactive, emotional.”The camera feed zoomed as Eliora leaned closer to the intercom.“Come out, sis,” her voice buzzed through
The air went still.Vanessa locked the door behind him while Adrian scanned the street for signs of anyone watching. I just stood there, staring at the man who could unravel everything.Kellan looked exhausted, like he hadn’t slept in weeks. His eyes darted to every corner of the room before finally landing on me.“You’re Eliana,” he said, though it wasn’t a question.I didn’t answer. I just nodded once.“I don’t have long,” he said, stepping further inside. “I don’t even know how I got out.”“Start talking,” Adrian said sharply. “Who’s behind this?”Kellan’s voice cracked. “Eliora. And her grandmother. They paid me to disappear after the pregnancy test. Told me if I ever spoke, I’d never be found.”He sank into the couch, rubbing his palms together. “I met Eliora at the clinic. She was... intense. Charming at first. She said she wanted a fresh start, a baby to anchor her. Said she was in love with someone powerful who didn’t want her. I didn’t ask too many questions. She offered mone
I didn’t sleep.Not a second.The USB still sat on the living room table like it was radioactive, glowing with everything I didn’t want to believe. I kept replaying that whispered voice, those last words.“You chose the wrong twin.”Not just a threat.A promise.Vanessa had stayed the night in one of the guest rooms, insisting someone needed to be close in case they tried anything again. Adrian didn’t come to bed either,I could hear him pacing in his study until dawn.By morning, the air in the house had shifted. Every floorboard creaked like it was spying. Every window felt watched.And I was done being scared.I stormed into Adrian’s study without knocking. He was hunched over his desk, papers scattered, his laptop glowing. The moment he looked up, I saw it,he hadn’t slept either.“They’re not going to stop,” I said.“I know.”“So what are we doing about it?”He closed the laptop, leaned back in his chair. “We fight smart. We don't react emotionally. We stay quiet and gather evidenc
The silence between us in the car was sharp enough to cut skin.Adrian hadn’t said a word since we left the courthouse. His hands gripped the steering wheel with white knuckles, his jaw clenched so tight I thought he might break a tooth. I sat beside him, watching the city blur past the window, feeling a strange hollowness in my chest.It wasn’t just the paternity result. It was everything. The courtroom, Eliora’s sham of a breakdown, the video evidence, the twisted reveal that the baby might truly be his. I didn’t know what to believe anymore. I didn’t even know if I trusted myself to ask the right questions.“You think the test is real?” I finally asked, breaking the thick silence.Adrian didn’t look at me. “No.”I blinked. “No?”“I think it’s tampered with,” he said tightly. “The lab we used isn’t one I trust. I let Vanessa choose it because she said it was fast and secure, but now I’m wondering if that speed came at a cost.”I turned fully to him. “You think Vanessa’s in on it?”H