Chapter 20 - The Blood Test Was Only the Beginning
By the time the house finally went quiet, I had cried twice, threatened Stellan once, argued with three lawyers, and learned that Fern apparently needed her own attorney before she could say “mama” clearly.
The attorney was a woman named Claire Donnelly who wore sneakers with a navy suit and told Stellan, “If you interrupt me, I bill double.”
I liked her immediately.
She explained the trust in plain English, then looked at me.
“You are allowed to say no to all of them.”
Stellan raised an eyebrow.
Claire pointed at him.
“Especially him.”
I almost laughed.
Maybe normal life had not vanished completely. Maybe it had just become very expensive and heavily armed.
I did not sleep that night.
Fern did.
She slept in the middle of Stellan’s bed with one fist around my finger and one foot pressed against his ribs like she had owned the place for years.
Maybe she did now.
The Cross trust recognized her legal identity before midnight.
FERN SELENE HART-CROSS.
Twenty-two percent of Cross Holdings locked beyond anyone’s reach until she was an adult.
I made Stellan add protections that prevented him from touching it too.
He signed without arguing.
That mattered more than I told him.
Grant Mercer was in federal custody.
Edward Vale was being questioned.
Gideon was back under guarded medical care.
Mrs. Thornbury had been cleared in Roman’s murder after security footage proved Grant entered her room and took the gun.
Roman’s death hurt Rose more than she admitted.
If Rose was still who she said she was.
That question sat between us like broken glass.
At 3:10 a.m., Stellan entered the bedroom carrying two coffees.
“You’re not supposed to drink that near the baby,” I whispered.
“She’s asleep.”
“She has hands.”
He put both coffees on the dresser.
“Fair.”
I looked at Fern.
“She likes you.”
He sat on the edge of the bed.
“I like her.”
“That sounded dangerously emotional.”
“I’ll recover.”
I smiled despite myself.
Then it disappeared.
“Do you regret that night?”
He looked at me.
“No.”
“You didn’t even know my last name.”
“I knew enough.”
“That is exactly the kind of sentence that got me into this mess.”
His mouth twitched.
Then he became serious.
“I regret leaving you alone.”
I looked at him.
“I don’t know what we are.”
“Neither do I.”
“I don’t trust you yet.”
“I know.”
“You do not get custody because you have a mansion.”
“I know.”
“You do not get to turn Fern into some Cross princess.”
He looked offended.
“Absolutely not.”
That surprised me.
“She can be whatever she wants.”
I studied him.
Maybe people could come from bad families without becoming the family.
Maybe.
At 3:34 a.m., Darius knocked.
He held a laptop.
“We found Rose’s safe house login.”
My stomach tightened.
“Was it her?”
“No.”
Relief came too quickly.
Darius continued.
“The login came from a device hidden inside her apartment.”
“Planted by Northstar?” Stellan asked.
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
Darius opened the device log.
“The hardware was installed five years ago.”
I stared.
“Before Northstar started watching Fern.”
“Yes.”
“Before my mother contacted Mrs. Thornbury again.”
“Yes.”
Stellan leaned closer.
“Who installed it?”
Darius opened an old service invoice.
My heart stopped.
The technician had used a false name.
But the security photograph was clear.
My mother.
Rose herself had installed the device that later accessed Northstar.
I felt the floor shift again.
“Why would she spy on her own safe house?”
Darius said, “There’s more.”
He played a recovered video from the hidden device.
Rose sat alone at a table three nights earlier.
She was speaking to someone over an encrypted call.
Her words were clear.
“Fern is finally inside Stellan’s house.”
A distorted voice answered, “Then the first phase worked.”
My lungs forgot how to breathe.
Rose said, “Selene still thinks I built all of this to protect her.”
Stellan stood.
I could not move.
The voice asked, “And when she learns why you really chose Stellan?”
Rose was silent for a long time.
Then my mother looked directly toward the hidden camera she had installed herself.
Almost like she knew one day I would see the recording.
“She’ll hate me,” Rose said.
The screen went black.
Fern stirred between us.
I touched her back until she settled.
Stellan looked at me.
“What do you want to do?”
For the first time since this started, he did not tell me where to go.
He did not make a plan for me.
He asked.
I looked at the frozen image of my mother.
Five years dead.
Eleven months watching my daughter.
Still hiding the truth.
“Find her,” I said.
Stellan nodded.
“And then?”
I looked down at Fern.
“The blood test told us who Fern’s father is.”
I closed the laptop.
“Now I want to know who my mother really is.”
END OF SEASON ONE.
---
The next chapters are on the left side of your screen.
May you like
If you enjoyed the story, bookmark my site: https://metro.treeiq.biz
New stories are posted daily, so check back for updates.
