CHAPTER 20: THE DAUGHTER

POV: ANASTASIA

For a few seconds, nobody moved.

The sealed envelope sat between us on the table, and I couldn’t stop staring at my name printed across the front.

ANASTASIA GRACE.

It was the same name I had carried for twenty-seven years. The same name that belonged to the woman who had grown up with her mother, gone to school, become a kindergarten teacher, and built a quiet life without ever knowing where she came from. Now that name was sitting on an envelope that could change everything.

Rafe remained beside the table, his expression unusually serious.

“What else came back?” I asked.

He looked at Jaxon before answering, and that brief exchange immediately made my stomach tighten.

“Rafe.”

He finally met my eyes. “The laboratory confirmed the DNA match.”

I frowned. “What match?”

Jaxon reached for the envelope, but I caught his wrist. “No. I’ll open it.”

His eyes dropped briefly to my hand before he looked back at me. He didn’t argue. I released him, picked up the envelope, and tore it open with fingers that were already beginning to tremble. There was only one page inside. I scanned the medical language without understanding much of it until my eyes landed on the line that mattered.

Probability of paternity: 99.99%.

Below it was a name I had only recently learned.

Victor Devereaux.

My breath caught. I read it again, hoping somehow I had misunderstood it, but the words remained exactly where they were. Victor Devereaux was my father. The man whose name had haunted the last few days wasn’t simply connected to my mother’s past. He was connected to me by blood. I lowered the paper slowly.

“He’s my father.”

My voice sounded unfamiliar. Jaxon moved closer, but I barely noticed him. I was still staring at the report as if the answer might change if I looked at it long enough.

For twenty-seven years, I had wondered about the man who had given me half my DNA. I had wondered whether he was alive, whether he had ever thought about me, and whether there had been something wrong with me that made him leave.

Now I know his name. And somehow, knowing the truth didn’t make me feel relieved. It made everything more frightening.

““My mother knew.”

Jaxon sat across from me. “She knew enough to keep you hidden.”

“She knew who he was.”

“Maybe she did, but we don’t know exactly what Clara knew about your biological connection to him,” Jaxon said, his voice remaining calm. “I mean we don’t know what she knew when she made those decisions. She may have known Victor was your father. She may have suspected it. There are still pieces we’re missing.”

I looked down at the report again. “So I’m the secret daughter.”

Neither of them corrected me. I folded the report carefully and placed it on the table.

“Why would my mother hide me?”

Jaxon leaned forward. “Because she believed someone would come after you.”

“They already did.”

His expression hardened. “Exactly.”

I looked between them as the pieces began falling into place. The armed men in my apartment hadn’t been looking for a random kindergarten teacher. Someone had searched for me for years, someone had taken photographs of me outside my school, and someone inside Jaxon’s compound had been close enough to photograph me while I slept.

Connor had known my mother’s name. The wooden box had contained Victor’s name. None of this had started when Jaxon entered my life, it had started long before I ever knew there was anything worth hiding.

“Does this mean I have an inheritance?”

Rafe and Jaxon exchanged another glance. I noticed immediately.

“Please don’t do that.”

Jaxon frowned. “Do what?”

“Look at each other before answering me. Every time you do, I know the answer is something you don’t want to tell me.”

Rafe exhaled and pulled out the chair opposite me. “Being Victor’s biological daughter doesn’t automatically mean you inherit everything he owns. Legal inheritance depends on how his assets are structured, whether there are existing wills or trusts, and what succession arrangements are already in place.”

“So I could be his daughter and still get nothing?”

“Yes.”

The answer should have relieved me. Instead, another question surfaced.

“Then why does everyone suddenly care?”

Jaxon rested his forearms against the table. “Because blood changes how certain people will see you.”

“And the empire?”

His expression became more guarded. “Victor’s businesses and assets are complicated. We need to find out what he has legally transferred, what is held through companies, what has been promised to other members of the family, and whether you’re mentioned in any estate documents.”

I stared at him. “So I may have a claim.”

“You may.”

That possibility frightened me more than I expected. I hadn’t asked for an empire. I hadn’t even asked for a father. Yet suddenly, I was standing at the edge of a family I had never known, surrounded by people who might see my existence as a threat.

“Who else is in the family?”

Jaxon’s eyes darkened. “Victor has sons.”

“How many?”

“Adrian is the one you need to worry about.”

The name meant nothing to me, but the warning in Jaxon’s voice made it clear that it would not stay that way.

“Why?”

“Because if Victor never publicly acknowledged you, your existence could threaten people who believe they’re entitled to whatever comes after him.”

I stared at him as the meaning sank in. His sons. Their inheritance. Their position. And now me.

For twenty-seven years, I had been invisible. That invisibility had probably kept me alive. But now that I knew who I was, other people could find me too.

“If I have a claim to his empire, they could come after me.”

“They already are.”

The certainty in Jaxon’s voice sent a chill through me. I pushed the report away.

“I don’t want an empire,” my voice shook despite my attempt to control it. “I don’t want money or power, and I certainly don’t want whatever kind of family comes with that name. I only wanted to know who my father was.”

Jaxon came around the table and stopped in front of me. “And now you know.”

I looked up at him. There was something different in his expression. The controlled, intimidating man everyone else knew was still there, but underneath it was concern he wasn’t trying very hard to hide.

“What if knowing makes everything worse?”

“It probably will.”

I blinked at his honesty.

“But it doesn’t mean you have to become what he is.”

Something inside me loosened. Just a little.

“What if I can’t escape it?”

“You can,” his answer came without hesitation. “You get to decide what you become, Anastasia. Being Victor Devereaux’s daughter doesn’t take that choice away from you.”

I held his gaze. “Even if I’m his heir?”

“Especially then.”

His hand lifted as though he wanted to touch my face, but he stopped himself before his fingers reached me. That hesitation affected me more than the touch might have.

For a moment, neither of us spoke. Then the door opened. Rafe stepped inside with his phone in his hand. “We have a problem.” Jaxon immediately turned toward him. “What happened?”

“The laboratory didn’t send the report only to us.”

The warmth that had briefly settled between us disappeared.

“Who else received it?”

Rafe’s expression hardened. “Someone sent Victor Devereaux a copy of the DNA results.”

Everything inside me went still. Jaxon didn’t move. I couldn’t take my eyes off Rafe.

“Victor knows?”

“He knows.”

My chest tightened. After twenty-seven years of wondering whether my father even knew I existed, I had finally received an answer. He knew. And he hadn’t learned it from me.

Rafe’s phone vibrated again. He looked at the screen, and whatever he saw made his expression change.

Jaxon noticed. “What is it?”

Rafe hesitated before answering. “Victor has made a call.”

“To whom?”

Rafe looked at me. “Adrian.”

The name suddenly carried a weight it hadn’t carried a minute ago. Jaxon reached for his weapon, racking the slide with a lethal, decisive sound. Across the country, Victor Devereaux was staring at the same DNA report that had just turned my life upside down. After twenty-seven years, the daughter he had never known was alive. And now he knew where to begin looking.