Chapter Forty-Two — Marcus Was Never Just My Assistant

Marcus closed the door behind him.

For years, I had known the rhythm of his footsteps, the exact tone he used when delivering bad news, the way he stood slightly to my left during meetings because he knew I hated people hovering behind me.

He had been there for contracts, funerals, scandals, board fights, investor dinners, sleepless nights, and every crisis I thought mattered.

Now he stood across the room looking like a stranger wearing a familiar face.

“We need to talk about the night you were born.”

Ronan moved in front of me.

Marcus looked at him.

“You can stop doing that.”

Ronan’s expression hardened.

“Doing what?”

“Standing between Adrian and every answer.”

My pulse changed.

Marcus had never spoken to Ronan that way.

Not once.

Not as an equal.

Not as someone who knew more.

I stepped around Ronan.

“Who are you?”

Marcus looked at me.

The question seemed to hurt him.

That only made me angrier.

“You heard me.”

“My name is Marcus.”

“That is not what I asked.”

He exhaled slowly.

“My full name is Marcus Kerr.”

Silence.

Damian went rigid.

Julian Kerr remained visible on the screen behind us.

Ronan looked between them.

“Kerr.”

Marcus nodded.

“My father is Julian.”

The room seemed to tilt.

I looked back at the screen.

Julian did not smile.

He simply watched.

I turned to Marcus again.

“You knew him.”

“Yes.”

“You knew about Cradle.”

“Yes.”

“You knew about me.”

“Yes.”

Every answer cut deeper because he did not even try to soften them.

Rage tightened my chest.

“How long?”

Marcus’s expression changed.

“Since before I met you.”

I laughed once.

The sound came out cold.

“So every day you stood beside me, every time you told me security was clear, every time you handled my schedule, you already knew I was O-17.”

“Yes.”

Ronan stepped forward.

“That makes you a handler.”

Marcus looked at him.

“No.”

“Then what?”

Marcus’s jaw tightened.

“I was assigned to protect him.”

I stared at him.

“Assigned by whom?”

Julian answered from the screen.

“Me.”

I looked at him.

Marcus immediately said, “Not Cradle.”

That distinction mattered.

Barely.

I crossed my arms.

“Then explain the embryo.”

Marcus went still.

Lucian moved closer.

“Julian said you were the reserve.”

Marcus looked at the floor.

Then back at me.

“Yes.”

My blood turned cold.

“You were created in the same selection cycle.”

“Yes.”

“Same genetic material?”

“No.”

“Then how are you connected to me?”

Marcus hesitated.

Ronan noticed.

“Answer him.”

Marcus looked at me.

“We shared one donor.”

My pulse slowed.

“Which donor?”

He did not answer.

I stepped closer.

“Marcus.”

“Our mother.”

Silence.

I stared at him.

“My mother carried you?”

“No.”

“Then what does that mean?”

Marcus swallowed.

“Evelyn Vale supplied the ova for two viable embryos.”

My stomach dropped.

“One became me.”

“Yes.”

“And the other became you.”

“Yes.”

I felt sick.

Not twins.

Not exactly.

But something close enough that the distinction felt cruel.

“We are brothers.”

Marcus’s face tightened.

“Biologically, yes.”

Ronan swore quietly.

I looked at Marcus’s face differently now.

The shape of his eyes.

The line of his mouth.

Small things I had never noticed because I had never been told to look.

My anger became harder to hold.

“You knew.”

“Yes.”

“And you never said anything.”

“I was told that telling you would put you at risk.”

“Everyone uses that excuse.”

“I know.”

“Do you?”

Marcus stepped closer.

“I watched Cradle kill people who got too close to the truth.”

My voice sharpened.

“And you still stayed beside me?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

His expression finally cracked.

“Because you were my brother.”

The room went silent.

The answer hurt more than the lies.

I hated that too.

Ronan looked at Marcus carefully.

“If you were protecting him, why did Cradle know everything about his movements?”

Marcus’s face hardened.

“Because I was not the only one inside Vale.”

I thought of Marius.

The cameras.

The keycards.

The altered suppressants.

“Who else?”

Marcus looked toward Julian.

Julian answered.

“Several.”

Damian swore.

“How many?”

“Enough that Vale security was compromised long before tonight.”

I looked at Marcus.

“You suspected?”

“Yes.”

“And said nothing?”

“I was trying to identify them.”

“You let them get to my medication.”

The sentence stopped him.

His face changed.

That one landed.

“I did not know they had reached the medical floor.”

“But they did.”

“Yes.”

“And now Halden is missing, a man is dead, my father is tied to a chair, and Cradle has been controlling my heat while you were standing beside me.”

Marcus’s voice broke slightly.

“I know.”

I stepped closer.

“You failed.”

Ronan turned toward me.

“Adrian.”

I ignored him.

Marcus did not defend himself.

“Yes.”

That made it worse.

I wanted him to argue.

I wanted him to give me something solid enough to hate.

Instead, he just stood there.

“I failed you.”

The anger inside me weakened.

Not disappeared.

Changed.

I hated that too.

Lucian spoke quietly.

“If Marcus was the reserve embryo, what was he supposed to be?”

Julian answered from the screen.

“A contingency.”

Cassian frowned.

“For what?”

“If Adrian failed reproductive viability, Marcus was intended to replace him in the Vale succession line.”

My blood went cold.

I looked at Marcus.

“You were another replacement.”

“Yes.”

Just like Ronan.

Just like Damian.

Just like me.

Cradle had built entire lives around people being replaceable.

Ronan’s jaw tightened.

“What designation?”

Marcus looked at him.

“Beta.”

That surprised me.

Julian explained.

“Cradle expected Marcus to be easier to place socially if Adrian failed. He was never intended for Alpha-Omega pairing.”

“So why hide him?” I asked.

Marcus looked at me.

“Because Helena stole both reserve records.”

My pulse changed.

“Helena knew about you.”

“Yes.”

“She hid you.”

“Yes.”

“And then?”

Marcus’s expression darkened.

“She gave me to Julian.”

I looked toward the screen.

Julian nodded.

“I raised him under another name.”

“You are his father legally.”

“Yes.”

“Biologically?”

“No.”

The room became still again.

I almost laughed.

Nothing in this story was allowed to be simple.

“Then who is Marcus’s biological father?”

Julian hesitated.

Marcus looked toward him.

“Do not.”

That caught my attention immediately.

Marcus did not want me to know.

Which meant the answer mattered.

I stepped closer.

“Tell me.”

Marcus shook his head.

“It changes nothing.”

“Then it should be easy to say.”

His jaw tightened.

“Adrian.”

“Who is our biological father?”

Silence.

Julian finally answered.

“Not one man.”

I stared at the screen.

“What?”

“The embryos were created using genetic material from different paternal donors.”

My pulse stumbled.

“So Marcus and I share Evelyn’s genetics but not our fathers.”

“Yes.”

I looked at Marcus.

“Who was yours?”

He closed his eyes.

Julian said, “Theodore Vale.”

The room went silent.

I stared at Marcus.

Theodore.

My father.

His father.

Which meant Marcus was Theodore Vale’s biological son.

And I was not.

Ronan slowly looked at me.

Everything inside me went cold.

Marcus opened his eyes.

“That is why Theodore kept me close.”

My throat tightened.

“He knew.”

“Yes.”

“He knew you were his son.”

“Yes.”

“And he made you my assistant.”

Marcus’s face hardened.

“He thought keeping me beneath you would keep the succession clean.”

The cruelty of it landed almost physically.

Theodore’s real son.

Reduced to assistant.

The genetically selected child.

Raised as heir.

I could barely speak.

“Did you resent me?”

Marcus’s expression changed immediately.

“No.”

“Never?”

“No.”

“Do not lie to me now.”

“I am not.”

He stepped closer.

“I hated him.”

My pulse changed.

“Theodore.”

“Yes.”

“For what he did to both of us.”

The room became quiet.

Then Ronan asked the question I had not been ready to ask.

“If Theodore is Marcus’s biological father, who is Adrian’s?”

Marcus looked at Julian.

Julian looked away.

That was enough.

I stepped toward the screen.

“You know.”

Julian’s face tightened.

“Yes.”

“Then tell me.”

“No.”

Rage hit me instantly.

I laughed without humor.

“You have kidnapped my physician, broadcast my birth video, exposed Marcus, and dragged my entire life apart one secret at a time, but this is where you suddenly develop boundaries?”

Julian’s expression hardened.

“Because this answer can get you killed.”

I leaned closer.

“Everything can get me killed.”

Silence.

Ronan moved beside me.

“Tell him.”

Julian stared at us both.

Then at Damian.

Then Marcus.

Finally, he spoke.

“Adrian’s father was the one donor Cradle was never supposed to use.”

My pulse slowed.

“Who?”

Julian’s face went pale.

“The man who founded the opposition network from inside Cradle.”

The room became completely still.

I thought of Helena.

The hidden records.

The sabotage from within.

The people who had tried to break the program before I was born.

“Name.”

Julian closed his eyes.

Then opened them.

“Gabriel Vale.”

I stared.

“I do not know that name.”

Marcus whispered beside me,

“You should.”

I turned toward him.

His face had gone white.

“Gabriel Vale was Theodore’s older brother.”

My blood went cold.

Ronan stopped breathing.

I looked back at Julian.

Theodore’s brother.

My uncle.

My biological father.

Before I could say anything, Marcus continued.

“And Adrian…”

I looked at him.

He swallowed.

“Gabriel Vale did not die before you were born.”

My pulse thundered.

“He is still alive.”

Then the screen behind us went black.

A new live feed appeared.

A man sat across from Theodore and Halden.

Older.

Dark hair gone mostly silver.

Gray eyes.

My eyes.

He looked directly into the camera.

And smiled.

“Hello, son.”