Chapter 5: A Forged Reality
Arthur rushed through the front doors of the manor, his heart pounding. Martha had called him in tears, saying the children had been locked in the basement storage room.
He found Victoria and Eleanor sipping tea in the drawing-room, looking entirely unbothered.
"Where are they?!" Arthur roared, his voice shaking the crystal chandelier.
"Calm down, Arthur," Eleanor said smoothly. "The boy went berserk. He attacked a guard, hit his own head, and threatened to burn the house down. We had to contain him for everyone's safety."
Arthur didn't waste another second on them. He sprinted to the basement, tearing the keys from a trembling guard's hands. When he threw open the heavy metal door, his breath hitched.
Leo was sitting in the damp darkness, cradling a sobbing Mia. Dried blood caked the side of his face.
"Leo," Arthur gasped, dropping to his knees.
The boy looked up, his eyes cold and distant. "Are you going to send us away now? Like the lady said?"
"Never," Arthur whispered, pulling them both into a tight embrace, ignoring the dirt on his suit. "I am so sorry. I will never leave you alone again."
As he carried them upstairs, calling for a doctor, his phone buzzed. It was Dr. Aris, the independent geneticist he had hired for the DNA test.
"Arthur," the doctor said, his voice strangely flat. "I have the results."
"And?" Arthur asked, pressing the phone to his ear while laying Leo on the bed.
"I'm sorry, Arthur. The probability of paternity is 0.0%. You are not the father."
Arthur froze. The room spun. "That's impossible. Look at him, Aris. Look at the letter!"
"Science doesn't lie, Arthur. I ran the test twice. It's negative."
Arthur dropped the phone. He looked at Leo, who was staring back at him with a mixture of hope and fear. If they weren't his... then whose were they? Was Elena's letter a lie? Was Victoria right?
Just then, Victoria walked into the room, holding an envelope with the clinic's seal. She had intercepted the physical copy. She wore a triumphant, wicked smile.
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"I told you," she whispered poisonously. "They are nothing to you. Now, get these little monsters out of my future house."
Arthur looked at the children, then at the smirking woman. His heart tore in half, but a quiet, sharp instinct in the back of his mind started screaming. Something was deeply, fundamentally wrong.
