Chapter5
1787 Words
# Chapter 5: Shattered Glass
*Julian's POV*
The DNA report burned in my vision. Sibling match: 47.3% shared DNA. Half-siblings. Statistical certainty: 99.97%.
Marisol picked up the phone I'd dropped. Her face went white as she read.
"This can't be real," she whispered.
I stumbled back, hit my desk. The room spun. Everything we'd almost done, almost said, almost been, rose in my throat.
"Julian—"
"Don't." I couldn't look at her. "Please. Just don't."
My mother had done this. Had known this. Had brought Marisol here knowing we shared a father.
I ran to my private bathroom and emptied my stomach. Eighteen months of control, gone. All the walls I'd built, meaningless. Because the one person who'd made me want to feel again was the one person I could never have.
When I came out, Marisol was on the phone, pacing.
"I don't care what you intended, Victoria!" Her voice was raw. "You know? You knew and you let us". She listened, then laughed bitterly. "A test? Is this a test?"
She hung up and threw the phone at the wall. It shattered.
"She's on her way here," she said. "Says she can explain everything."
"There's nothing to explain. The DNA.."
"Could be fake. Like the video of you."
"Why would she fake this?"
"Why would she bring me here knowing we're siblings?" Marisol's eyes were wild. "None of this makes sense."
I wanted to comfort her. Wanted to pull her close and tell her it would be okay. But I couldn't touch her. Not now. Not knowing what we were to each other.
Dev burst in. "Thomas is selling, but…" He stopped, looking between us. "What happened?"
"Victoria happened," I said.
"Your mother just saved your company."
"She just destroyed…" I couldn't finish.
Marisol walked to the window, arms wrapped around herself. "Dev, can you verify a DNA test? Make sure it's real?"
"Sure, but why?"
"Please. Just do it."
Dev looked at me. I nodded. He grabbed the phone and left.
We stood in silence, me behind my desk, her at the window. Ten feet apart. Might as well have been miles.
"Last night," she said quietly. "When you almost kissed me. Did you feel it too? Like everything finally made sense?"
"Don't."
"Answer me."
"Yes." The word ripped out of me. "Yes, I felt it. I feel it now, even knowing…" I slammed my fist on the desk. "This is what she does. My mother. She plays god with people's lives."
"Maybe she's lying."
"The numbers don't lie. 47.3% shared DNA."
"Then why bring me here? Why let us get close?"
"Because she's cruel." I laughed, dark and bitter. "Or maybe she didn't think we'd connect. Maybe she thought I was too frozen to care about anyone."
"You're not frozen. You're just scared."
"I'm not"
"You are. We both are. Scared of being hurt again. Scared of trusting. Scared of feeling." She turned to face me. "But for one day, we weren't scared. We were just us."
"Us can't exist now."
"Because of a piece of paper?"
"Because we're siblings!"
The word echoed in the office. Made it real.
Victoria entered without knocking, Dev behind her.
"You're both being dramatic," she said.
"Dramatic?" I stood, rage flooding through me. "You brought my half-sister here and watched us fall."
"I brought Marisol here because she needed a job, and you needed humanity." Victoria sat in my chair like she owned it. Which technically, she partially did. "The DNA test is real. But it's not yours, Julian."
The room tilted. "What?"
"It's your father's DNA and Marisol's. She is his daughter. From an affair he had thirty years ago, before he met me."
"But you said…"
"I never said she was your sister. The test says siblings match because that's what the lab assumes when two samples share a parent." She looked at Marisol. "Your mother never told you who your father was, did she?"
Marisol shook her head, speechless.
"It was Richard Davenport. Julian's father. He had a brief relationship with your mother before he married me. When she got pregnant, he paid her to disappear. Charming man, my late husband."
"So we're not..." I couldn't finish.
"You're not related. Not even slightly. I had Julian's DNA tested against yours yesterday, Marisol. Zero genetic match. You share a father's name, nothing more."
"You tested my DNA without asking?" Marisol's voice was deadly quiet.
"Your hairbrush. Very simple."
"That's a violation of…"
"That's me protecting my son from making a terrible mistake."
"What mistake?" I demanded.
Victoria stood, smoothed her skirt. "The mistake of falling in love with someone is inappropriate. Again."
"Marisol isn't Sophia."
"No. She's worse. She's connected to your father's sins. To Thomas's revenge plot. To Marcus Chen. She's a walking disaster for your reputation."
"Get out," I said.
"Julian"
"Get. Out."
Victoria looked between us. "I did this for your own good."
"You did this for control. Like always." I walked to the door, held it open. "Leave. Now. And don't come back."
She left, but paused at the doorway. "That test I sent was real, Julian. Richard was her father. Which means she inherits part of his estate. The part I couldn't touch. Nearly fifty million dollars in a trust that activates when she turns thirty." She smiled coldly. "Which is next month, isn't it, dear?"
She left. Dev followed, muttering something about needing a drink.
Marisol sank into a chair. "Fifty million dollars?"
"My father's hidden accounts. Mother's been looking for them for years."
"And they're mine?"
"If you're his daughter, yes."
She laughed, high and hysterical. "Yesterday I had nothing. Today I have a fortune I don't want from a father I never knew."
I walked to her, knelt beside her chair. "Marisol."
"We're not related."
"We're not."
"You almost kissed me."
"I wanted to. I still want to."
She looked at me, tears streaming down her face. "Everything is so complicated."
"Or maybe it's simple." I took her hands. "Maybe it's just two broken people who found each other at exactly the right moment."
"Your mother…"
"Is gone. This is our choice now."
"The resort. Your reputation. The investors…"
I pulled her down to me and kissed her.
It wasn't gentle. It was desperate, hungry, eighteen months of loneliness crashing into three months of her pain. She tasted like coffee and tears. Her hands tangled in my hair, pulling me closer.
When we broke apart, we were both breathing hard.
"That was…" she started.
"Inappropriate. Unprofessional. Complicated."
"Perfect," she finished.
My phone rang. Dev.
"What?" I answered.
"Turn on the news. Now."
I grabbed the remote, turned on the wall-mounted screen.
Leaked documents show that Victoria Davenport has been hiding her late husband's assets for years, keeping them from their rightful heir. Sources say Richard Davenport had a daughter from a previous relationship, and that daughter is now working at the exclusive Coral Haven resort.
I turned it off.
"She leaked it herself," Marisol said quietly. "Victoria. She leaked the story."
"Why would she"?
"To force us apart. If I'm in the spotlight as your father's secret daughter, being with me will look like…"
"I don't care how it looks."
"Your investors will. Your board will."
My phone exploded with calls. The board. Investors. Media outlets.
"I should go," Marisol said. "Disappear. Make this easier for you."
"No."
"Julian"
"No." I grabbed her shoulders. "Everyone wants to make our choices for us. Marcus. Thomas. My mother. Even Dev. But this is our choice. Stay or go. Fight or run. Together or apart."
"Will it survive or won'ttn't? But I'm done living frozen. Done choosing safety over feeling." I pulled her against me. "Choose, Marisol. Choose what you want, not what's easier or safer or smarter. Choose."
She looked up at me, those brown eyes still wet with tears.
"I choose you," she whispered. "Even if it costs everything."
"It might."
"Then we'll build something new."
I kissed her again, softer this time. A promise more than passion.
When we pulled apart, Dev was standing in the doorway.
"The board is calling an emergency meeting," he said. "They want you to explain the situation."
"When?"
"One hour."
I looked at Marisol. "Together?"
She squeezed my hand. "Together."
We walked to the elevator, hands linked, ready to face the storm. The weight of everything crushing down on us, but somehow feeling lighter because we weren't carrying it alone.
"Julian," Marisol said as we waited. "What if the board forces you to choose? The company or me?"
"Then I choose the one thing money can't buy." I pressed the button. "Someone who sees past the ice."
The elevator arrived with a soft ding. We stepped inside, and I pulled her close, breathing in her scent. Coconut shampoo and determination.
"Whatever happens down there," I whispered against her hair, "we face it together."
"Even Marcus?"
"Especially Marcus."
The elevator descended, each floor marking our journey toward chaos. Twenty floors of possibility. Twenty floors of danger. When we hit the tenth floor, Marisol suddenly grabbed my arm.
"Wait. How did Marcus get on the island?
The elevator lurched to a stop. The lights flickered and died. Emergency lighting cast everything in red.
"Julian?" Marisol's voice was tight with fear.
I pulled out my phone. No signal. The security app showed nothing, just a spinning wheel.
Then the elevator phone rang. That old emergency phone that hadn't been used in years.
I answered it.
"Hello, Julian." The voice wasn't Marcus. It was someone I hadn't heard in eighteen months. Someone who was supposed to be in Europe, writing her tell-all book about our relationship.
Sophia.
"Miss me, darling?" she purred. "I've come back for what's mine. And this time, I brought friends."
The line went dead. The elevator shuddered and started moving again, but not down.
Up.
We were going up, past the penthouse, to the roof access that was supposed to be sealed.
Marisol looked at me, her face pale in the red light. "Who was that?"
"The woman who destroyed me." I pulled her behind me, positioning myself between her and the doors. "And apparently, she's not done."
The elevator climbed higher. Twenty-one. Twenty-two. Twenty-three.
Then it stopped. The doors started to open slowly, revealing darkness beyond.
And in that darkness, three figures stood waiting.
Marcus Chen. Thomas Kensington.
And Sophia, smiling like she'd already won, holding papers I recognized even from here.
The deed to Coral Haven.
"Hello, lovers," she said. "Ready to sign everything over? Or should we discuss what happens to Marisol's newfound inheritance if you refuse?"
Behind her, I heard the sound I'd been dreading.
A helicopter.
We weren't just trapped.
We were about to disappear.
- Writer
