Chapter 21: A Knight by Blood
927 Words
The room spun around Sophia.
She stared at Alexander.
Then at Marcus.
Then back again.
Nobody moved.
Nobody breathed.
For a moment, Sophia was convinced she had heard them wrong.
"That's not funny."
Her voice came out weak.
Shaken.
Marcus didn't respond.
Alexander didn't respond either.
And that terrified her.
Because neither man looked like they were joking.
Sophia slowly stood.
"What did you just say?"
Marcus swallowed.
"The records show that Maria Bennett wasn't your biological mother."
"No."
Sophia's heartbeat thundered in her ears.
"No."
She shook her head repeatedly.
"You're wrong."
Marcus looked genuinely sorry.
"I wish I was."
Alexander stepped forward.
"Sophia..."
She immediately backed away.
"Don't."
Pain flashed across his face.
But he stopped moving.
Giving her space.
Giving her time.
Sophia wrapped her arms around herself.
As if she could somehow hold the pieces together.
Her mother couldn't be alive.
And she couldn't be adopted.
Both things couldn't be true.
Could they?
---
An hour later.
The three of them sat in Alexander's office.
Stacks of documents covered the desk.
Birth certificates.
Hospital records.
Old company files.
Everything Marcus's team had managed to uncover.
Sophia stared at the paperwork.
None of it felt real.
Marcus carefully opened a folder.
"The original hospital records were altered."
Sophia looked up.
"Altered?"
He nodded.
"Someone replaced your birth information years ago."
"Why?"
Marcus hesitated.
"We don't know yet."
Alexander's jaw tightened.
"But somebody spent a lot of money making sure the truth stayed hidden."
Sophia felt sick.
Her entire life had been built on a lie.
A lie she didn't even understand.
Marcus pulled out another document.
"This is the original file."
Sophia stared at it.
The paper was old.
Yellowed with age.
Yet the information remained clear.
Mother: Catherine Knight.
Her breath caught.
Knight.
The same surname as Alexander.
The same family.
The same empire.
The same inheritance everyone seemed willing to kill for.
Sophia looked up slowly.
"What does this mean?"
Nobody answered immediately.
Because nobody wanted to say it out loud.
Finally Alexander spoke.
"It means you're connected to my family."
---
Silence followed.
A long silence.
Then Sophia laughed.
Not because anything was funny.
Because the situation had become completely absurd.
"Of course I am."
Alexander frowned.
Sophia stood and began pacing.
"Why not?"
She threw her hands into the air.
"My mother isn't my mother."
Another step.
"A dead man isn't dead."
Another step.
"A billionaire inheritance is involved."
Another.
"And apparently I'm secretly related to the Knight family."
She laughed again.
A little hysterically.
"Amazing."
Alexander exchanged a worried glance with Marcus.
Sophia stopped pacing.
The smile vanished from her face.
"What if that's why they're after the baby?"
The room became silent.
Because everyone had already considered that possibility.
Marcus slowly nodded.
"We think it might be."
Fear settled heavily inside her chest.
If she was connected to the Knight family...
Then her child wasn't just Alexander's heir.
The baby was connected through her as well.
Twice over.
Sophia suddenly understood why the note had been so specific.
The heir must never be born.
---
That evening, Eleanor Knight arrived at the penthouse.
For once, she wasn't perfectly composed.
She looked shaken.
Genuinely shaken.
The moment she entered the room, her eyes landed on the documents.
Then on Sophia.
For several seconds, she simply stared.
Sophia shifted uncomfortably.
"What?"
Eleanor looked as though she'd seen a ghost.
Finally she whispered,
"You have her eyes."
Sophia frowned.
"Whose eyes?"
Eleanor slowly sat down.
"Catherine's."
The room froze.
Sophia's pulse quickened.
"You knew her?"
Eleanor laughed softly.
A sad laugh.
"Of course I knew her."
She looked away.
"Catherine was my sister."
The world stopped.
Sophia's breath caught.
Alexander went completely still.
Marcus looked stunned.
Nobody had expected that.
Nobody.
Sophia stared at Eleanor.
Unable to process what she'd just heard.
"Sister?"
Eleanor nodded.
Tears filled her eyes.
For the first time, she looked less like the powerful Eleanor Knight.
And more like a grieving woman.
"Catherine disappeared twenty-six years ago."
Sophia felt her knees weaken.
Alexander immediately moved closer.
Ready to catch her if she fell.
"Eleanor..."
His voice was barely above a whisper.
Eleanor wiped away a tear.
"We searched for years."
Another tear.
"But we never found her."
Sophia's heart pounded.
If Catherine was Eleanor's sister...
Then that made Sophia—
Her thoughts stopped.
Because she suddenly realized something.
Alexander realized it at the exact same moment.
Their eyes met.
Horror flashing between them.
Because if Catherine Knight was Sophia's biological mother...
Then Sophia was a member of the Knight family.
A blood relative.
The same family as Alexander.
The room became suffocatingly quiet.
Until Marcus suddenly spoke.
"No."
Everyone looked at him.
Marcus grabbed one of the files.
Scanning it rapidly.
Then he looked up.
Relief flooding his face.
"No, that's not possible."
Sophia's stomach tightened.
"What?"
Marcus pointed to another document.
"Catherine wasn't born a Knight."
Confusion filled the room.
Marcus continued.
"She married into the family."
A collective breath was released.
The tension eased slightly.
Sophia wasn't related to Alexander by blood.
But she was still connected to the Knight family.
Deeply connected.
And somehow, that felt almost as dangerous.
---
Just before midnight, Marcus received another report.
The moment he read it, his face lost all color.
Alexander immediately noticed.
"What happened?"
Marcus looked up slowly.
His expression grim.
"We found Richard."
The room froze.
Sophia's heart skipped.
"Where?"
Marcus swallowed hard.
Then answered.
"He's in the city."
A pause.
"And according to our sources..."
Another pause.
"He knows Sophia is his daughter."
- Writer
