All Chapters of Contracted to the wrong twin : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Chapter 11The Blood TestMarcus didn't stay a minute longer before he disappeared out of the hospital and sat alone inside his car near the hospital parking lot.Judith’s face refused to leave his mind.After all these years, he never expected to see her again. Not after all the things that had happened.And he definitely never expected to hear about a missing child connected to her.Marcus leaned back slowly and closed his eyes. Memories flashed through his head.A frightened young Judith standing inside the dark Thompson mansion years ago.Her trembling voice. Her tears.That one night that changed everything.He opened his eyes sharply.“No…” he muttered to himself.The timing was impossible.Still, the thought refused to disappear.Inside the hospital, Dan stood in a quiet hallway staring at the papers the female doctor gave him earlier.Every detail pointed toward planned poisoning and not an accident nor a mistake.Someone carefully arranged Judith’s death. And somehow his own

Chapter 13Shadows of the PastMarcus stared at the old photograph until his eyes burned. Judith’s face—younger, softer, terrified—looked back at him from seven years ago. The night everything shattered.He ran a hand over his face, the DNA results still glowing on his laptop screen. No biological match. The words refused to settle. Neither Dan nor Ethan was Lily’s father.Which meant only one impossible thing.Marcus stood abruptly, knocking over a glass of whiskey he hadn’t touched. The liquid spilled across the wooden floor like blood. He didn’t care.He grabbed his coat and left the office, the photograph burning a hole in his pocket.Back at the hospital, the first light of dawn crept through the blinds of Judith’s room. She hadn’t slept. Every time she closed her eyes, she heard that angry male whisper again.“You should have stayed gone.”The voice was familiar. Very familiar.A soft knock pulled her from her thoughts. Dan entered carrying a small bag.“I brought you proper tea

Chapter 15Shadows ReturnJudith woke to the sound of soft crying.She sat up quickly, heart hammering, and crossed the small bedroom in three strides. Lily was curled on her side in the narrow bed, face buried in the pillow that still smelled faintly of Erica’s lavender detergent. The girl’s small shoulders shook.“Lily?” Judith whispered, kneeling beside her. She reached out but stopped short of touching her, remembering how the child had flinched the night before. The sting of that rejection lingered like a fresh bruise on her heart.“I want Mummy Erica,” Lily sobbed into the fabric. “She makes the bad dreams go away. She sings me the special song and holds me tight until the monsters leave.”Judith’s throat tightened. “I’m here now, baby. I’ll keep the bad dreams away. I can learn the song too. Just give me time—we’ll make new memories together.”Lily didn’t answer. She simply cried harder, the sound muffled but heartbreaking. Judith stayed on her knees until the sobs quieted into

Chapter 17What the Night HoldsJudith could not settle.The afternoon had shifted into early evening without her fully noticing. The light coming through the curtains had gone from pale gold to a dull grey, and now the apartment sat in that in-between hour where it was too dim to see clearly, but not quite dark enough to turn the lights on. She had not bothered with the lights anyway. She just sat on the couch with her knees pulled up to her chest and listened to the apartment breathe around her.Lily was still asleep in the bedroom. She had checked on her twice since Dan locked the balcony door, and each time the child was curled on her side with her small fist tucked under her chin. Peaceful in the way only children could manage to be, even when the world around them was coming apart at the seams. Judith stood in the doorway for a long moment, just watching her breathe. Then she pulled the door halfway closed and came back into the living room.Dan was on the phone.He was speaking

Chapter 19Two Sides of the Same NightDan found a notepad in the kitchen drawer.It was a small thing, spiral bound, the kind people kept around for shopping lists and phone numbers. He set it on the coffee table between them along with a pen and sat back down. Judith looked at it for a moment. There was something about seeing a plain notepad on a table that made everything feel more real than it had five minutes ago. Like the act of writing it down was the point of no return.She picked up the pen anyway.“Start from the beginning,” she said. “The property deal. Everything you know about it.”Dan leaned forward and began. He spoke slowly and carefully, pausing when he needed to remember exact details, correcting himself once or twice when the timeline felt uncertain. Judith wrote as he talked. Not word for word. Just the important things. Names. Dates. The shape of the arrangement between their fathers and Marcus Kane. The collapse of the deal. Her father’s refusal to continue and w