The Daughter Daniel Never Knew
Chapter 02 - The Daughter Daniel Never Knew
Daniel’s secret began twenty-six years earlier, long before he met Claire.
During his final year of college, he fell in love with a journalism student named Marissa Lane. Their relationship ended suddenly after Marissa accepted an internship across the country. She stopped answering his calls and later sent one letter saying she had chosen another life.
Daniel believed her.
What he never knew was that Marissa had been pregnant. Her wealthy parents considered Daniel unsuitable and threatened to cut her off if she contacted him. Frightened and alone, Marissa raised Sophie without revealing her father’s identity.
After Marissa died, Sophie found a sealed box containing old photographs, letters, and Daniel’s college address. One photograph showed the same small crescent-shaped birthmark Sophie carried beneath her collarbone.
She contacted Daniel three weeks earlier.
He agreed to an independent DNA test but told no one until the result was certain. He claimed he wanted to protect Claire from a painful possibility and protect Sophie from another rejection.
Claire heard only the part he did not say: he had chosen secrecy instead of trusting his wife.
Liam remained in the doorway, still holding the ring. Sophie had known he planned a special dinner, but she had not known about the proposal. Now the happiest moment of their lives had collided with a family revelation.
Liam crossed the room and asked Sophie why she had faced it alone.
“I didn’t know who I would be after the answer,” she whispered.
He closed the ring box without putting it away.
Claire studied the report again. Something about the document felt wrong. The official result was genuine, but a notation at the bottom showed that someone had accessed the file before Daniel or Sophie received it.
The anonymous sender had known everything.
Daniel checked his phone. He had received a message from his older sister, Vanessa, chairwoman of the Bennett Family Foundation.
Have Sophie sign the waiver before Dad’s trustees hear about her.
Claire’s confusion turned cold.
Daniel’s late father had left company shares in a trust for every legally confirmed biological descendant. Sophie’s existence would change the voting balance and reduce Vanessa’s control.
The photograph outside the clinic, the anonymous warning, and the stolen laboratory report were not attempts to reveal the truth honestly.
Someone had staged the discovery to make Claire believe the worst.
Then Sophie’s phone rang on the bed.
May you like
The caller was Vanessa.
Claire answered and turned on the speaker.
