I found a young woman half-frozen in the park with two babies clinging to her — and when she whispered, “Please don’t let him find us,” I didn’t realize I was seconds away from a truth tied to my own past.

CHAPTER 3: THE TRUTH THAT CAN’T WAIT

I didn’t want to believe it too easily. Too many people try to manipulate men with power. But Isla didn’t look like someone running a scheme—she looked like someone running for her life.

I asked Dr. Hayes to perform a DNA test.
Isla agreed without hesitation.

While samples were processed in my lab downstairs, she told me pieces of her story in short, fragile breaths.

Her mother had tried to leave a controlling man years ago, but fear kept her trapped. When Carolyn became sick recently, she finally told Isla the truth—about me, about our past, about wanting Isla to find safety somewhere I might still exist.

And Isla ran. She carried the twins with her because “no child deserves the world he would have given them.”

The man she spoke of wasn’t named at first. Just fear in her voice every time she said “he.”

Hours later, the DNA results printed.

And everything inside me froze.

Isla: 99.9% match
Theo & Silas: not related to me

I walked upstairs with a heart pounding harder than any business deal ever had.

But before I reached the room—

The door was open.

The window cracked.

The babies gone.

And Isla’s footprints leading outside.

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