You Faked Your Deaths to Punish Me?! That’s Illegal, Family! novel Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The DNA crew showed up fast, ready to draw blood from all four of us.

My father waved them off before they got close.

“Needles make me pass out. Just test the three of them.”

I swallowed the laugh threatening to escape and kept my mouth shut.

Jake threw a million at expedited results. Two-hour turnaround.

My parents and Candy looked like they’d already won, moving through the room with easy confidence.

My father jumped straight into conversations with the senior board members, dropping specific details about old deals and early company decisions like he’d never left.

The older executives wrote him off at first-another opportunist trying to capitalize on tragedy. But he kept going, reciting numbers and names and decisions that only someone who’d been there would know.

Suddenly they weren’t so dismissive anymore, and when they looked at me their expressions shifted into something uncomfortable.

“He’s got too many specifics right. What if these people really are her family?”

“Forget what he looks like-listen to him talk, watch how he carries himself. That’s the old CEO, no question.”

“They agreed to genetic testing. Nobody does that unless they know it’ll come back in their favor. We might be looking at a CEO change before the day’s over.”

My father locked eyes with me, contempt bleeding through every word.

“Don’t play dumb with me. You’re pretending we don’t exist so you can keep everything for yourself-not gonna work. I’ve got a dozen ways to prove who I am and restore my legal status!”

He closed the distance between us, voice dropping into something cold and threatening.

“Admit who we are right now and resign, and maybe I’ll find you some entry-level position somewhere in the company. Otherwise, once those results come back, you’re finished.”

My mother looked at me like I was something rotting that had crawled across her path.

“You’re a leech! I’m your mother! You are trying to erase us so you can steal our lives? Why did I end up with a daughter like you?”

Candy glided between us with that expression she wore when she was sharpening the blade.

“Mom, give her a break-she didn’t think we’d ever make it home. Nobody hands over this kind of wealth once they’ve gotten a taste. We should try to understand.”

She turned to me with exaggerated concern.

“You almost died in that earthquake when we were kids, didn’t you? Trapped under all that debris? I’d think someone who barely survived something that traumatic would be overjoyed to see their family alive and well. But I guess not!”

My mother’s face twisted and she actually spat toward my feet.

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You Waked Your Danthe fer Darwich Make 713NAL

Chapter 5

“She’s poison and always has been! Should’ve left her buried in that earthquake instead of pulling her out!”

She clenched her jaw so tight I could hear her teeth grinding together like she wanted to bite straight through bone.

The raw hatred pouring off her felt sharp enough to cut.

She wanted me dead.

Same way she had when I was seven years old.

The earthquake came without warning-the ground heaved violently and the house started ripping apart at the seams.

My father grabbed my mother with one arm, scooped Candy up with the other, and bolted toward the door.

I stood frozen in the center of the living room, screaming until my throat burned raw.

“Dad! Mom! Don’t leave me-please don’t leave me, I’m scared, please—!”

My father looked back and hesitation crossed his face. He started to turn around.

My mother’s fingers locked around his arm and yanked him forward.

She stared straight at me with an expression that burned itself into my brain so completely I’ve never been able to shake it.

“Leave her! Let the house come down! She’s nothing but-”

The roar of collapsing walls drowned out whatever came next.

I dove under the table and somehow survived.

Twenty-five years later, that moment still plays on loop.

Her mouth forming words I couldn’t hear through the chaos.

I figured out what she’d said eventually.

I shoved the old ache aside and met her eyes without flinching, voice flat and icy.

“Sorry to disappoint-I’m still here.”

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You Faked Your Deaths to Punish Me?! That’s Illegal, Family!

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