A Woman Worth Billions Dated the Wrong Brother novel Chapter 379

Amber POV

There was one thought I couldn't get out of my head.

The timing.

Jason had disappeared immediately after the DNA testing was completed.

Not before the appointment.

Not on his way there.

After.

That was too much of a coincidence.

I lay in the hospital bed staring at the information Pamela had pulled onto my laptop while the monitors beside me continued their steady rhythm. My blood pressure had finally come down enough that the doctors had stopped threatening me every ten minutes, but nobody was discussing discharging me yet.

Daniel had appointed himself their unofficial enforcer.

Jasmine was somewhere coordinating with security teams searching for Jason's car. Noah had barely moved from his position near the door, and Marcus had been speaking with Chronos contacts for the better part of an hour.

Everyone was searching.

But they were searching too broadly.

"Mr. White."

Pamela looked up from her tablet. "What?"

"My first suspect isn't Alexander."

Marcus ended his call and turned toward me.

"It's Mr. White."

The room went quiet.

I shifted against the pillows and ignored Daniel's immediate glance toward the blood-pressure monitor.

"Think about it. We know where Oscar is—or at least where he was most recently. Nevermore. We have footage of him entering the country."

"But nothing on Mr. White," Pamela said.

"Exactly."

That had bothered me from the beginning.

Mr. White and Oscar had left White Manor together. Both had been covered almost completely, both had carried luggage, and both had disappeared through an emergency exit.

Then Oscar resurfaced.

Mr. White didn't.

Not at an airport.

Not at a hotel.

Not at a border crossing.

Nothing.

He had simply vanished.

Just like Jason.

"Pull up everything we know about Jason's mother," I said.

Marcus frowned. "Amber—"

"Please."

He hesitated before opening another file.

I stared at the screen.

Jason's mother.

The late daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Sun.

A woman who had gone to college, had been extremely close to Connor St. Johns, and had eventually married the man we'd known for years as Mr. White.

She had Jason.

Then she died.

Mr. White remained.

And people connected to Sum tried to gain control of assets that should have belonged to Jason through his mother.

My stomach tightened.

"Do you see it?"

Pamela stared at the screen.

I continued before anyone could answer.

"Jason's mother died, and afterward Mr. White and people connected to Sum tried to take control of what belonged to her."

Marcus's expression slowly changed.

"It sounds familiar."

"It sounds exactly like what we've been uncovering."

Women used to acquire assets.

Women used to create alliances.

Children used to control inheritance.

Heirs moved around like pieces on a board.

The Vincent system wasn't simply about kidnapping people and hiding them in compounds. It was about ownership. Bloodlines. Marriages. Companies. Land. Inheritance.

Control.

And Mr. White had married a Sun heiress.

I stared at the photograph on the screen.

"What if she didn't marry him because she wanted to?"

Pamela went still.

Marcus looked at me sharply.

"We don't know that."

"No. We don't."

And I wasn't going to turn a theory into a fact simply because it fit.

But suddenly, there were too many similarities to ignore.

"What if Jason's mother was forced to marry Mr. White?"

Daniel had been quiet until then.

"Forced how?"

"I don't know. Threats. Family pressure. Blackmail. Maybe something involving Connor. We don't know enough yet."

I looked toward Marcus.

"But we do know what happened after she died."

Jason's inheritance had nearly disappeared into other hands.

Assets that should have belonged to him through his mother had been contested, manipulated, and controlled.

And Jason hadn't simply received everything automatically when he became an adult.

Marcus had helped him recover it.

I looked directly at him.

"You helped Jason get his mother's assets back."

Marcus nodded slowly.

"Yes."

"Because they weren't simply waiting for him."

"No."

There it was.

I leaned back.

A dead woman.

A child separated from his maternal family.

A husband attempting to maintain control.

Assets diverted away from the rightful heir.

It was practically the Vincent blueprint.

My hand curled around the edge of the blanket.

"And now we know Mr. White was born a Vincent."

Pamela's eyes narrowed.

"Alexander's uncle."

"Exactly."

The name White had hidden him.

River City had hidden him.

For years, everyone had looked at Mr. White as an entirely separate man who happened to have some connection to the Vincents.

He wasn't.

He was family.

And according to Oliver's chip, Alexander hadn't been the mastermind.

Mr. White had.

Suddenly, another thought hit me.

I went completely still.

"Amber?"

I barely heard Pamela.

Mr. White had taken Jason before.

We'd spent so much time examining the Vincents, Alexander, the trafficking operation and the St. Johns connection that I had almost missed the most obvious part.

Jason had been sent away as a child.

Mr. White had accepted money from the Vincents to let them take him.

He'd claimed he'd been pressured.

Threatened.

My body felt impossibly heavy.

Something was wrong with my hands.

I couldn't tell whether they were restrained or whether I simply couldn't move them.

Then I heard a voice.

And suddenly, none of the pain mattered.

I knew that voice.

I'd spent years wishing I didn't.

Mr. White.

The man I'd grown up believing was my father.

My false father.

He was somewhere nearby.

Talking on the phone.

I forced myself to stay still.

To listen.

"It is done," he said.

Silence followed while whoever was on the other end answered.

Then Mr. White spoke again.

"I have him."

My blood went cold.

He meant me.

Another pause.

Then his voice changed.

Harder.

"Have Amber retract the statements and get the chip from your boy."

My mind struggled through the haze.

Your boy.

Oliver.

Alexander.

Mr. White was talking to Alexander.

"Do you understand me?" Mr. White continued. "You know what will happen to him if you don't, son."

Son.

The word barely registered before another wave of pain tore through my head.

But it had registered.

Mr. White had called Alexander son.

Not nephew.

Son.

I tried to hold on to consciousness.

Amber.

He wanted Amber to retract her statements.

He wanted Oliver's chip.

And he had taken me to get both.

The bastard had done it again.

The thought should have made me afraid.

Instead, beneath the pain, something furious came alive.

Because I wasn't a child anymore.

I knew my name.

I knew who I was.

And this time, I knew someone would come looking for me.

Amber would come.

I almost felt sorry for them.

Almost.

Mr. White's voice blurred somewhere beyond me.

The pain surged.

I fought it.

Lost.

And darkness dragged me under again.