Madly Yours (Nora Reed) novel Chapter 604

Arthur suddenly realized he had forgotten to put the DNA Paternity Test report away. He quickly reached out to grab it. "Tiffany, that's just—"

"I'll look at it myself," Tiffany said, dodging his hand. She tore open the manila envelope and plunked herself down in the seat.

Arthur gave a helpless sigh, but he couldn't exactly wrestle it out of her hands.

Fortunately, it wasn't a highly classified document. If she saw it, she saw it.

Tiffany had only opened it out of sheer curiosity, but when she read the contents, her eyes went wide. "Nora, you're not Mrs. Reed's biological daughter? No wonder..."

"What?"

Nora froze, thinking Tiffany must have misread the name.

"Give it to me." Hudson suddenly reached forward from the back seat, his brow deeply furrowed.

Looking bewildered, Tiffany handed the report and the envelope back to him.

Hudson took it with a dark expression. As his eyes swept over the document, his frown tightened into a harsh knot.

The name printed on the paper was Penelope Reed!

Not Arnold Vance!

He quickly checked the date—it was done before Liam Harrison had run the DNA test for Nora and Arnold!

"Who left this here?"

Arthur quickly replied, "It must have been Olive..."

Hudson instantly pulled out his phone and dialed Olive's number.

At that exact moment, Olive was standing by the road, looking thoroughly annoyed as she waited for a cab.

Since the car couldn't fit everyone, she had been told to head back to Cloudwater Estate first.

Seeing the caller ID, Olive flashed a bright smile, assuming they were calling her back to join them for dinner.

"Hey, Boss..."

But before she could celebrate, Hudson's cold, deep voice cut through the line. "Olive, whose samples were used in that DNA test you ran?"

Without overthinking it, Olive replied, "Madam's and Penelope Reed's."

The car plunged into total silence.

Arthur glanced back at Hudson, his expression turning grave.

Olive was still talking. "What's wrong? Didn't you guys already know? Didn't Liam run one too?"

"Liam ran the test for Nora and Arnold Vance."

Then didn't that mean...

The line was dead silent for a full five seconds before Olive erupted into a string of vicious curses. "Fuck! Those goddamn human traffickers... *&%#@!"

Hudson hung up right as the profanities began to fly.

Nora finally understood what was going on.

She had been there the last time they looked at a DNA report.

That one was to check her relation to Arnold Vance.

Because Hudson had called ahead, Penelope was already isolated in a small room lined with heavy iron bars by the time they arrived.

Even though it had only been a few weeks, Penelope looked as if she had aged decades. She sat blankly on a stool, humming an unrecognizable tune, her eyes completely vacant.

"Penelope Reed."

Hudson's low, commanding voice suddenly broke the silence. Hearing the sound, Penelope jerked her head up.

"Ah... Don't, don't come near me!"

She shrieked, scrambling backward on her hands and knees until she was cowering in the corner. Hugging her knees, she began to mumble incoherently, absolute terror filling her eyes.

"I was wrong... don't kill me... I was wrong... don't kill me..."

She just kept repeating those two phrases over and over.

She had completely lost her mind.

Nora felt a strange, dull ache in her chest.

Not pain, just a suffocating weight.

Before she knew the truth, her feelings toward Penelope had always been incredibly complicated.

But now, realizing that their only connection was built on a lie, all she felt was a hollow sense of tragedy.

But...

If she wasn't Penelope's child, who were her real parents?

And how did she end up in Penelope's hands?