Chapter 9: The Secret of My Unborn Child

My mother’s warning made no sense, but the fear in the nurse’s eyes told me it wasn’t something I could ignore.

I read the message again, hoping I had misunderstood it.

Never let Adrian find out that the baby you’re carrying is a Blackwell heir.

Adrian was my husband’s name. He was the only man I had ever been with, and there was no question about who had fathered my child.

Unless my mother knew something I didn’t.

“Did she leave an address?” I asked the nurse.

The woman shook her head. “She only left that envelope. She seemed frightened, and she kept asking whether anyone had come looking for her.”

I looked at the photograph again. My father stood beside Margaret Blackwell, both of them looking serious. The date written on the back was from twenty-six years ago, shortly before my birth.

Why had my father connected Victoria’s child to Margaret?

I pulled out my phone and called my mother. It rang several times before going to voicemail.

I tried again.

Nothing.

“Elena?”

I turned and found Adrian walking toward me. His expression hardened when he noticed the photograph in my hand.

“Where did you get that?”

“From my mother.”

He took one step closer. “What did she tell you?”

“That I should keep my pregnancy from you.”

His eyes narrowed. “Why?”

“That’s what I’m trying to understand.”

I held up the photograph.

“Did your mother know my father?”

Adrian studied it, and something changed in his expression.

“Where was this taken?”

“I was hoping you could tell me.”

He didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he reached for the photograph, but I pulled it away.

“Don’t,” I warned him. “I’m not handing you another piece of my family’s history so you can hide it from me.”

“Elena, this photograph could be important.”

“Then explain why.”

He exhaled slowly. “My mother and your father worked together on a confidential financial investigation. I found out about it only after your father’s name appeared in the old Blackwell records.”

“So you knew they were connected?”

“Yes.”

“And you still married me without telling me?”

His jaw tightened. “I have already admitted that I made mistakes.”

“Your mistakes have become my entire life, Adrian.”

For a moment, neither of us spoke.

Then his phone rang.

He checked the screen, and his expression changed when he answered.

“Mother?”

I watched him listen.

“What do you mean she’s missing?”

My stomach tightened.

Adrian ended the call and looked at me.

“My mother wants us at the estate. She says Victoria has been lying about the baby.”

“Which baby?”

“The child she claimed was hers.”

I stared at him. “You still believe that child belongs to Victoria?”

“I don’t know what to believe anymore.”

“Then perhaps you should stop deciding what everyone else is allowed to know.”

I walked toward the exit, but Adrian caught up with me.

“This concerns your father, Elena. If Victoria has been using his name to manipulate us, we need to find out why.”

I stopped.

“Then we’re going to the estate. But I want the truth this time, even if it destroys your family.”

The Blackwell estate looked exactly as I remembered it, with its tall iron gates and perfectly trimmed gardens hiding years of secrets behind expensive walls.

Margaret was waiting in the drawing room when we arrived.

She looked unusually pale, and her hands trembled as she placed a sealed envelope on the table.

“Victoria came here last night,” she said. “She demanded money and threatened to expose something that should have remained buried.”

Adrian’s expression darkened. “What did she want?”

“To know who her biological father was.”

My heart began to race.

Margaret looked at me.

“Your father discovered the truth before he died. Victoria was not the only child whose identity was changed.”

I stepped forward. “What does that mean?”

She opened the envelope and removed an old hospital document.

It contained two birth records, both dated twenty-six years ago. One belonged to Elena Hayes. The other belonged to a baby girl registered under a different surname.

At the bottom was a signature I recognized immediately.

Daniel Hayes.

“My father signed this?”

Margaret nodded. “He tried to protect both of you. But he made an agreement with my husband, and when he realized what that agreement would cost, he threatened to expose everything.”

“Why was Victoria taken away?”

Margaret looked toward Adrian before answering.

“Because she was the daughter of a man who had no right to claim her.”

Adrian stepped closer. “Who was he?”

Margaret’s lips trembled.

“Your grandfather.”

The room fell silent.

I looked at Adrian, waiting for him to deny it, but he appeared just as stunned as I was.

Victoria was not simply my twin sister.

She was also Adrian’s aunt.

And the Blackwell family had separated us to hide a scandal that could destroy their name.

Then Margaret reached for another document.

“There is something else you both need to understand,” she said. “The child Victoria was searching for isn’t the child you think it is.”

Adrian took the paper from her.

His face drained of colour as he read the final line.

The DNA report listed Adrian Blackwell as the biological father of the child, but the mother’s name was not Victoria Sinclair.

Margaret looked directly at me.

“Elena, that child belongs to someone in your family.”