Chapter 12 - THE STORY THEY SOLD
By noon, Liam’s face was everywhere.
Articles claimed he had invented his identity to seize the Hale fortune.
Anonymous sources described Nora as a con artist.
A supposed former hospital employee called Liam’s birth certificate fraudulent.
Olivia slammed her laptop shut.
“They’re destroying him.”
Liam stood near the window.
“They can try.”
But his voice betrayed him.
At school, Olivia heard whispers.
Some students mocked her.
Others asked cruel questions about dating her brother.
She locked herself in a bathroom stall and cried.
Then someone knocked.
“Olivia?”
It was Liam.
Robert had sent him to pick her up.
Olivia opened the door.
“I hate them.”
Liam shook his head.
“Don’t waste your life hating strangers.”
“They’re laughing at us.”
“They’ll get bored.”
“How are you so calm?”
He smiled without humor.
“I’m not.”
For a moment they simply stood there.
Months earlier, Olivia might have reached for his hand differently.
Now she hugged him.
Not romantically.
Not uncertainly.
She hugged him like someone who had watched him lose his identity and still wanted him in her family.
Liam hesitated.
Then hugged her back.
“My little sister,” he murmured.
Olivia laughed through her tears.
“Don’t get used to saying that.”
It was the first time either of them had joked about their relationship.
The shame lost a little of its power.
That evening Robert held a press conference.
He did not hide Liam.
He stood beside him.
“This young man did not come looking for my money,” Robert told the cameras. “I spent eighteen years unknowingly living without my son.”
Then Miriam handed reporters copies of the financial transfer.
May you like
Nathan Pierce watched the broadcast from his office.
For the first time, he looked afraid.
