CHAPTER THREE: THE LIE I WAS BORN INTO
1162 Words
The words wouldn’t leave my head.
I don’t think your father is your father.
I stared at Damian.
He stared back.
Neither of us moved.
Then I laughed.
It wasn’t because anything was funny.
It was the kind of laugh that escaped when reality became too absurd to accept.
“You’re lying.”
“I wish I were.”
“You’re trying to manipulate me.”
“Aria—”
“My father raised me.”
“I know.”
“He held me when my mother died.”
“I know.”
“He was there every birthday. Every graduation. Every time I was sick.”
Damian’s jaw tightened.
“I know.”
“Then don’t stand there and tell me he isn’t my father.”
“I didn’t say he wasn’t your father.”
My breathing stopped.
He stepped closer.
“I said he may not be your biological father.”
I shook my head.
“That’s the same thing.”
“No.”
His voice softened.
“It’s not.”
I grabbed my handbag.
“Take me to the hospital.”
He didn’t argue.
The drive was silent.
Rain began hitting the windshield as Damian’s car cut through the city.
I sat beside him, staring through the window.
Every memory of my childhood was suddenly being rewritten.
My father teaching me how to ride a bicycle.
My mother laughing in the kitchen.
My father carrying me after I fell.
Could all of it have been a lie?
No.
It couldn’t.
I refused to believe it.
“We’re here.”
Damian’s voice pulled me back.
The hospital entrance came into view.
Before the car completely stopped, I opened the door.
“Aria.”
I ignored him.
I ran inside.
A nurse pointed me toward my father’s room.
I pushed the door open.
“Dad!”
He was lying on the bed.
Pale.
Weak.
But alive.
His eyes opened.
The moment he saw me, tears filled them.
“Aria.”
I rushed to him.
He grabbed my hand.
“You shouldn’t have come.”
I stared at him.
“You almost died.”
He closed his eyes.
“I know.”
“Who attacked you?”
He didn’t answer.
“Dad, who attacked you?”
His fingers tightened around mine.
“I made a mistake.”
“What mistake?”
He looked toward the door.
Damian had entered.
My father saw him.
Fear flashed across his face.
“You brought him?”
I turned.
“Yes.”
My father’s breathing became heavier.
“Get him out.”
“No.”
“Aria—”
“No.”
I stepped between them.
“You’re going to tell me everything.”
He looked at me.
I had never seen my father look so frightened.
“What did Damian mean?”
Silence.
“Am I your daughter?”
My father’s face crumpled.
I felt my heart shatter.
“Dad…”
He looked away.
“Answer me.”
His eyes filled with tears.
“Yes.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
He closed his eyes.
For several seconds, there was only the sound of the heart monitor.
Then he whispered,
“You are my daughter.”
I exhaled.
Relief.
Until he added,
“But I am not your biological father.”
The room disappeared around me.
I couldn’t hear anything.
Couldn’t move.
Couldn’t breathe.
I looked at Damian.
His expression was unreadable.
Then I turned back to the man who had raised me.
“Who is?”
My father began to cry.
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“I knew your mother was pregnant.”
“With me?”
“Yes.”
“Then who was the father?”
He shook his head.
“Your mother never told me.”
I stepped backward.
“That’s impossible.”
“She disappeared for three months.”
My stomach twisted.
“When she returned, she was carrying you.”
“And you accepted me?”
“I loved your mother.”
His voice broke.
“And when I saw you, I loved you too.”
I wiped my tears.
“Then why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because your mother begged me not to.”
“Why?”
He looked at Damian.
“Because his father was looking for you.”
My heart stopped.
“What?”
Damian stepped forward.
“My father?”
My father nodded.
“Your father knew about the child.”
Damian’s expression hardened.
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re lying.”
“I swear I’m not.”
Damian moved closer.
My father suddenly grabbed my wrist.
“Aria, listen to me.”
I looked at him.
“Your mother wasn’t running from your biological father.”
“Then who was she running from?”
His lips trembled.
“Everyone.”
I frowned.
“She discovered something.”
“What?”
He hesitated.
Then whispered,
“The Blackwood family wasn’t the most powerful family involved.”
Damian went completely still.
My father continued.
“There was another family.”
“Which family?”
He looked at me.
“The Kingsleys.”
Damian’s face changed.
I noticed.
“You know them?”
His voice was barely audible.
“They’re dead.”
My father shook his head.
“No.”
He swallowed.
“They’re not.”
A sudden noise came from the corridor.
A crash.
Damian turned immediately.
“Stay here.”
He pulled the door open.
Two security guards were lying unconscious outside.
My blood ran cold.
“Damian…”
He stepped into the corridor.
A shadow moved at the far end.
Then a gunshot echoed through the hospital.
I screamed.
Damian turned sharply.
“ARIAL!”
He rushed back toward me.
But before he reached the room, the lights went out.
Complete darkness swallowed the hospital.
My father’s hand found mine.
Then another hand grabbed my waist.
I tried to scream.
A familiar voice whispered beside my ear.
“Don’t.”
I froze.
Damian.
He pulled me against him.
“Stay behind me.”
Another gunshot rang out.
Glass shattered somewhere nearby.
Then a voice came through the darkness.
“Blackwood!”
Damian’s body went rigid.
The voice laughed.
“You took eighteen years to find the girl.”
A pause.
“Now let’s see how long it takes you to lose her.”
The emergency lights flickered on.
And I saw him.
A man stood at the end of the corridor.
Older.
Scarred.
Smiling.
My father looked at him through the open doorway.
His face went white.
“No…”
I looked between them.
“Dad?”
The stranger smiled.
Then he pointed directly at me.
“Hello, little Kingsley.”
My blood ran cold.
Damian grabbed my hand.
“Run.”
And for the first time in my life, I realized something terrifying.
I wasn’t being hunted because of Damian Blackwood.
I was being hunted because of who I was.
- Writer
- chap_listContents
- likeADD