Bell stood beneath the harsh basement light, his expression calm despite the weapon in his hand.
Jason slowly lowered Sophie's file.
“You came prepared.”
Bell's eyes remained fixed on him.
“I always do.”
Michael stepped forward.
“You've been lying for twenty years.”
Bell looked at him.
“No. I've been keeping a promise.”
“To whom?”
Bell's expression changed slightly.
“Daniel.”
Jason felt his anger rise.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“You don't have to.”
Bell glanced at the file.
“But you should read the last page.”
Jason looked down.
He turned the pages carefully.
The final sheet contained a laboratory report.
At the bottom was a signature.
Dr. Vance.
Beside it was a second signature.
Daniel Parker.
Jason stared.
“Why did my father sign this?”
Bell answered quietly.
“Because he knew the truth.”
Jason looked up.
“Tell me.”
Bell lowered the weapon slightly.
“Sophie is not your daughter.”
Jason's entire body went rigid.
Eleanor exhaled sharply.
Michael closed his eyes.
Bell continued.
“But she is connected to you.”
Jason looked at the report again.
The biological relationship was not between Jason and Sophie.
It was between Sophie and someone else.
Someone whose name had been blacked out.
“Who?”
Bell shook his head.
“That's what Daniel wanted to protect.”
Jason's voice became harder.
“You've been threatening us over this.”
“No.”
Bell looked toward Michael.
“He has.”
Jason turned.
Michael's face had gone pale.
“You said Daniel wanted me to find you.”
Michael nodded.
“I lied.”
The confession struck harder than Bell's threats.
Jason stepped toward him.
“Why?”
Michael swallowed.
“Because Daniel asked me to keep you away from the truth until you were ready.”
“For twenty-three years?”
“I tried.”
“You let me believe he was dead.”
“I believed he was dead.”
Bell interrupted.
“You both did.”
Jason looked between them.
“Then what happened?”
Bell slowly lowered the gun.
“Daniel discovered that Dr. Vance had created a system for changing children's identities. Bell Enterprises later used those records to manipulate inheritance claims and legal guardianships.”
Eleanor stared at him.
“You're admitting it.”
“I'm telling you what happened.”
“And your role?”
Bell looked at her.
“I helped conceal the operation.”
There was no hesitation.
Jason stepped closer.
“Why?”
“Because by the time I understood the scale of it, too many people were involved.”
Michael said, “That's not the whole truth.”
Bell looked at him.
“No.”
Jason turned.
“Then give me the rest.”
Bell placed the gun on the floor.
“Daniel discovered that one of the children had a direct connection to the Parker family.”
Jason looked at Sophie's file.
“Sophie.”
“Yes.”
“But you said she isn't my daughter.”
“She isn't.”
“Then who?”
Bell hesitated.
“Your sister.”
Jason's face emptied of expression.
Eleanor stared at him.
“You don't have a sister.”
Bell shook his head.
“Not officially.”
Michael whispered, “Daniel had another child.”
Jason could barely speak.
“When?”
“Before you were born.”
The room seemed to tilt.
Bell explained that Daniel had been young when the child was born. The mother had been connected to the hospital and feared that Dr. Vance would take the baby.
Daniel tried to protect her.
The child was entered under a false identity.
Years later, the record was changed again.
Then again.
Eventually, the child disappeared into another family.
That child became Sophie's biological mother.
Jason stared at the file.
“So Sophie is my niece.”
Bell nodded.
Eleanor covered her mouth.
“But why hide that from us?”
“Because the people who controlled the records wanted Sophie found.”
“Why?”
“Because her mother's original file contained evidence.”
Michael pointed toward the cabinets.
“The original ledger.”
Bell nodded.
“Sophie's mother was one of the few people who had seen the complete archive.”
Jason remembered the strange gaps in his father's stories.
The locked cabinet.
The unexplained photograph.
The way his mother had avoided discussing Daniel's work.
Everything had been connected.
“What happened to Sophie's mother?”
Bell looked away.
“She died before she could reveal the location of the original records.”
Jason stared at him.
“Did you kill her?”
“No.”
“Did Daniel?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Bell said nothing.
Michael stepped forward.
“I know.”
Everyone looked at him.
Michael's voice trembled.
“Dr. Vance.”
Bell nodded.
“He arranged her death to look accidental.”
Jason's hands curled into fists.
“And my father?”
“Daniel discovered what happened.”
Bell pointed toward the cassette recorder.
“He confronted Vance.”
“What happened then?”
Bell looked at Jason.
“Daniel disappeared.”
“Was he killed?”
Bell shook his head.
“No.”
Jason froze.
“You said his body was identified.”
“It wasn't Daniel.”
The truth finally emerged.
The body had belonged to another man whose records had been altered to resemble Daniel's.
Dr. Vance had used the same system Daniel had spent years trying to expose.
Daniel survived.
He disappeared under another identity.
And Michael had helped him.
Jason stared at Michael.
“You knew.”
“I suspected.”
“You lied.”
“I was protecting him.”
Bell interrupted.
“Daniel wanted you to believe he was dead because he knew you would be safer without him.”
Jason's eyes filled with anger.
“He left me.”
“He sacrificed himself.”
“No.”
Jason shook his head.
“A father doesn't disappear for twenty-three years.”
Bell looked at him.
“Sometimes he does when staying alive would put his family in greater danger.”
Eleanor picked up the file.
“There has to be more.”
She turned to the final page.
At the bottom, beneath Sophie's mother's name, was another handwritten note.
Daniel had written it.
FIND THE HOUSE ON WILLOW ROAD.
Jason recognized the address.
It was the address on the paper Margaret had given them.
The Vermont address.
Michael looked at the page.
“He's there.”
Jason stared at him.
“You mean Daniel?”
Michael nodded.
“If he's alive, he's there.”
A noise echoed from the corridor.
Everyone turned.
The basement door slammed shut.
Then the lights went out.
Bell grabbed his weapon.
A man's voice came from the darkness.
“Richard.”
Bell froze.
Jason heard the voice.
He knew it.
It was older.
Weaker.
But unmistakable.
“Daniel?”
The darkness remained silent.
Then a figure stepped into the emergency light.
Jason stopped breathing.
His father stood at the end of the corridor.
Click here to continue reading: PART 15: Jason could not move.
My Brother Accused Me Beside Our Father’s Coffin, but the Lawyer Arrived Carrying a Key Dad Had Hidden for Years
Part 14 of 15
