Chapter 4 - The Firstborn Heir
After the stranger announced that the firstborn Bennett heir had been born twenty-nine years earlier, no one in the ballroom moved.
Charles Bennett’s face had become almost gray.
Eleanor gripped the edge of her chair.
Adrian stared at the stranger.
“Who are you?”
The man stepped beneath the chandeliers.
He appeared to be in his early thirties, tall and composed, with dark hair and eyes that seemed strangely familiar.
Sophia looked from him to Charles.
The resemblance was impossible to ignore.
“My name is Gabriel Vale,” the stranger said.
A ripple moved through the guests.
Julian whispered, “My God.”
Charles recovered first.
“This man is an intruder. Remove him.”
Two security guards approached.
Gabriel held up a folder.
“Before you touch me, you should know that certified copies of these records have been delivered to the press.”
The guards hesitated.
Charles’s voice became sharper.
“What records?”
“My birth certificate. The hospital register. DNA results confirming that Charles Bennett is my biological father.”
Cameras rose throughout the ballroom.
Reporters had been invited to cover Adrian’s birthday and the announcement of a major Cross Capital partnership.
Now they began recording something far more valuable.
Eleanor stood.
“You are lying.”
Gabriel turned toward her.
“You paid my mother to leave the country.”
Eleanor’s lips parted.
“I have never seen you before.”
“No. But you knew I existed.”
Charles moved down from the stage.
“Turn off every camera in this room.”
No one obeyed.
Sophia watched Gabriel carefully.
Someone Adrian should have remembered.
He had sent the messages.
He had guided her toward the evidence.
But why?
Adrian stepped forward.
“You helped her.”
Gabriel looked at him.
“You built a case to steal her child.”
“That has nothing to do with you.”
“It has everything to do with me.”
Gabriel opened the folder.
“The Bennett succession agreement names the first legitimate male descendant of Charles Bennett.”
Adrian laughed.
“You’re illegitimate.”
Gabriel’s expression did not change.
“My mother married Charles three months before you were born.”
The ballroom erupted again.
Eleanor turned toward her husband.
“What is he talking about?”
Charles said nothing.
Gabriel removed an old marriage certificate.
“Charles Bennett married my mother, Elena Vale, in a private ceremony in Italy. He abandoned her when Eleanor’s family offered the money required to save Bennett Industries from bankruptcy.”
Eleanor stared at Charles.
“You told me she was an employee.”
“She was,” Charles said quietly.
Gabriel’s composure cracked for the first time.
“She was your wife.”
Charles lowered his voice.
“The marriage was annulled.”
“After my birth.”
Adrian’s confidence began to collapse.
“If that is true,” he said, “then you came here to claim the company.”
Gabriel looked at Sophia.
“I came because your plan would have destroyed her and her child.”
“Why do you care?”
Gabriel’s eyes rested on Sophia for several seconds.
“Because your son may not survive long enough to become anyone’s heir.”
Sophia’s hand flew to her stomach.
“What does that mean?”
Adrian moved quickly.
“He’s trying to frighten you.”
Gabriel removed a medical report.
“Three weeks ago, someone paid a private clinic to alter Sophia’s prenatal records. Her doctor was instructed to schedule an unnecessary early delivery.”
Sophia felt the room tilt.
Her obstetrician had recently insisted that labor should be induced two weeks early.
She had found the recommendation strange but had trusted him.
Gabriel continued.
“The medication selected for that procedure carries a serious risk for someone with Sophia’s actual blood condition.”
Maya stepped out of the crowd.
Sophia had not noticed her arrival.
She took the report from Gabriel and scanned it.
“This could cause catastrophic bleeding.”
Sophia looked at Adrian.
“You knew?”
“No.”
The answer came immediately.
Too immediately.
Vanessa began moving toward the terrace.
Julian saw her.
“Stop her.”
Vanessa ran.
A security guard blocked the door.
She turned.
“I have nothing to do with this.”
Gabriel faced her.
“The clinic payment came from a Cross Capital account.”
Marcus Cross pushed through the crowd.
“That is a corporate account used by hundreds of employees.”
Gabriel held up another page.
“The transfer authorization carries your daughter’s digital signature.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“No. That’s impossible.”
Adrian turned toward her.
“What did you do?”
Her eyes widened.
“You told me the doctor would only speed up the birth.”
Sophia felt all sound disappear.
Adrian’s face changed.
Vanessa realized too late what she had admitted.
“You said once the baby was born, everything would be easier,” she whispered.
Charles stared at his son.
“Did you authorize this?”
Adrian looked around at the guests.
“It wasn’t supposed to hurt her.”
Sophia stepped backward.
The baby moved violently beneath her ribs.
A sudden pain tightened across her abdomen.
She gasped.
Julian rushed toward her.
“Sophia?”
Warm liquid ran down her legs.
The room blurred.
Maya caught her hand.
“Her water broke.”
Adrian moved closer.
Sophia recoiled.
“Don’t touch me.”
Another contraction seized her.
The documents slipped from her hands and scattered across the floor.
Gabriel shouted for an ambulance.
As the guests panicked, Sophia looked down at one of the pages near her feet.
It was not part of the succession agreement.
It was a handwritten hospital record.
Beside the name Elena Vale was a second name.
Infant female.
Transferred at birth.
Sophia stared at it.
Gabriel followed her gaze.
For the first time that night, he looked afraid.
Sophia whispered, “You had a sister.”
Gabriel knelt and grabbed the document.
“I was told she died.”
Another contraction tore through Sophia.
May you like
As Julian lifted her into his arms, she saw Eleanor watching the page in Gabriel’s hand.
And in Eleanor’s eyes, Sophia saw recognition.
