I stared at my father, unable to understand what he had just said.
“Rebecca?” I whispered. “My Rebecca? My best friend?”
Dad nodded, his face filled with regret.
For fifteen years, Rebecca Sloan had been the sister I never had. She stood beside me when my mother died, celebrated every business success, and held my hand through years of failed fertility treatments.
And now I was being told she had secretly given birth to my husband’s daughter.
But one question hurt more than all the others.
“Why does Sophie think I’m her mother?”
Before Dad could answer, Nathan knocked again.
“Harper! Open the door before you make everything worse!”
My father stepped toward the hallway, but I grabbed his arm.
“No more secrets. Tell me everything.”
He looked at me for a long moment.
“Eight years ago, Rebecca gave birth to Sophie in a private hospital outside Manhattan. Landon paid for everything through a company account. They planned to keep the child hidden.”
My chest tightened.
“But why tell Sophie I’m her mother?”
Dad swallowed.
“Because Rebecca didn’t want Sophie knowing the truth about her father. And Landon wanted someone the little girl could love without asking questions.”
I shook my head.
“That makes no sense.”
“Harper, Sophie has seen your photographs for years. Landon told her you were her mother but that you were too busy running your company to visit.”
I felt as though someone had struck me.
A little girl had spent eight years believing I had abandoned her.
And my husband had used my name to explain why.
My phone suddenly rang.
Unknown number.
I answered without thinking.
“Hello?”
A tiny voice whispered, “Mommy?”
My entire body froze.
“Who is this?”
“It’s Sophie.”
My father turned sharply.
I could barely breathe.
“Sweetheart, where are you?”
The little girl sniffled.
“Aunt Rebecca said I should call you if something bad happened.”
My heart began pounding.
“What happened, Sophie?”
“Two men came to our house. They were yelling. Aunt Rebecca told me to hide.”
I pressed the phone tightly against my ear.
“Where are you now?”
“In the laundry room. I’m scared.”
I looked at Dad.
He immediately reached for his phone to contact the police.
“Sophie, listen carefully. Stay quiet, okay? I’m going to get you help.”
There was a pause.
Then she whispered something that nearly broke my heart.
“Mommy, are you finally coming to get me?”
Tears filled my eyes.
“Yes, sweetheart,” I whispered. “I’m going to make sure you’re safe.”
Suddenly, a man’s voice sounded in the background.
“Sophie? Come out, sweetheart.”
The little girl gasped.
“That’s Uncle Nathan.”
My blood turned cold.
Nathan.
My divorce attorney.
The man standing outside my father’s house.
I looked toward the front door.
The knocking had stopped.
Then the little girl whispered, “Mommy, he found me.”
The call disconnected.
I screamed her name.
“Sophie!”
Dad was already speaking to the police, giving them the address he had found in Rebecca’s records.
I grabbed my coat.
“We have to go!”
“Harper, the police are going there. You need to stay somewhere safe.”
“No! That child is alone because of what Landon did. I’m not abandoning her again!”
Dad caught my shoulders.
“You didn’t abandon anyone. They lied to her.”
“Then someone needs to tell her the truth!”
His expression softened, but before he could respond, another message appeared on my phone.
This one came from Landon.
“If you want the girl alive, stop digging into the company accounts.”
I stared at the words.
Then another message arrived.
“And tell your father to return the $900,000. He knows what it’s for.”
I slowly turned toward Dad.
“What exactly did you do with that money?”
He lowered his eyes.
Then he opened his laptop and showed me a bank receipt.
The entire $900,000 had been transferred into a legal escrow account controlled by an independent attorney.
“I received the money because Nathan tried to bribe me into abandoning the investigation,” Dad explained. “I documented the payment and preserved it as evidence. Rebecca knew, but she was afraid someone would use it against me.”
“Then why did she warn me not to trust you?”
“Because Nathan had access to Rebecca’s phone and messages. She told me someone was forcing her to send warnings that would turn us against each other.”
I stared at him.
For the first time, the pieces began fitting together.
Someone wanted me frightened.
Confused.
Suspicious of everyone who could help me.
And while I was distracted, $4.7 million would disappear from my company.
Then I remembered something.
“The transfer is scheduled for nine tomorrow morning.”
Dad nodded.
“If we stop it, their entire plan collapses.”
I picked up my phone and called Bellstone Holdings’ bank fraud department.
Within minutes, I had reported the forged authorization and requested an emergency freeze on the disputed transfer.
The representative confirmed the transfer had been placed on hold pending investigation.
For the first time all night, I felt a little hope.
Until she said something strange.
“Ms. Bell, there’s another authorization we need to discuss.”
My stomach tightened.
“What authorization?”
“A corporate ownership transfer submitted yesterday.”
I frowned.
“To whom?”
She hesitated.
“According to the documentation, fifty-one percent of Bellstone Holdings was assigned to a newly established trust.”
My heart stopped.
“That’s impossible. I never approved that.”
“The paperwork contains your digital signature, ma’am.”
I gripped the phone.
“Who controls the trust?”
There was a brief silence.
Then she answered.
“The named beneficiary is Sophie Pierce.”
I couldn’t speak.
Sophie.
The little girl everyone had hidden from me.
The little girl who believed I was her mother.
Somehow, her name had become attached to the controlling interest in my company.
Dad looked as stunned as I felt.
“Harper,” he whispered, “this wasn’t just about stealing money.”
I slowly lowered the phone.
“What was it about?”
He looked at the trust document on his laptop.
“Landon needed Sophie to become the legal beneficiary. Someone planned to control those shares through her until she turned eighteen.”
I felt sick.
They weren’t simply using a child to hide an affair.
They were using her identity to take my company.
And if Nathan controlled the trust…
He could control everything.
Suddenly, my father’s phone rang.
A police detective.
Dad answered immediately.
I watched his expression change.
“What do you mean she’s gone?”
My knees weakened.
He put the call on speaker.
The detective explained that officers had arrived at Rebecca’s home.
The front door was open.
Furniture was overturned.
Rebecca’s phone lay broken on the kitchen floor.
But Rebecca and Sophie were nowhere to be found.
Then the detective added something unexpected.
“We recovered security footage from a neighboring property. A woman escorted the child into a vehicle approximately twenty minutes before officers arrived.”
I grabbed the phone.
“Was the woman Rebecca?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Then who?”
The detective hesitated.
“The footage shows a blonde woman wearing a cream-colored coat. We’re trying to identify her.”
A cold feeling spread through my chest.
Blonde.
Cream-colored coat.
I had seen that coat earlier that day.
Outside the courthouse.
On Tessa Blake.
My phone vibrated again.
A photograph appeared.
Sophie sat in the back seat of a luxury SUV, clutching a stuffed rabbit.
Beside her was Tessa.
And underneath the photograph was a message.
“Your husband chose me, Harper. Now you can choose what matters more: your company or the little girl.”
I stared at the screen, trembling with anger.
Then another message arrived.
“Come alone to the old Bellstone warehouse at midnight. Bring the flash drive. No police.”
Dad read the message and immediately shook his head.
“It’s a trap.”
“I know.”
“Then you’re not going.”
I looked at Sophie’s frightened face.
For twelve years, I had allowed Landon to decide what I deserved.
He had taken my trust.
My marriage.
My dignity.
And now he was threatening an innocent child.
I wiped the tears from my cheeks.
“Dad, I’m done being afraid of him.”
I forwarded the messages to the detective.
Then I opened the flash drive Rebecca had given my father.
There were dozens of documents.
Bank statements.
Recorded conversations.
Secret agreements.
But one folder caught my attention.
It was labeled:
“SOPHIE: ORIGINAL BIRTH RECORDS.”
I opened it.
Inside was a scanned birth certificate.
Father: Landon Pierce.
Mother: Rebecca Sloan.
But attached to the certificate was a second document.
A sealed medical report dated eight years earlier.
I read the first paragraph.
Then the second.
My hands began shaking so violently that Dad reached for me.
“Harper? What’s wrong?”
I couldn’t answer.
Because the medical report contained something that changed everything I thought I knew.
Eight years ago, Rebecca had undergone an embryo transfer.
And the embryo used in that procedure had come from a fertility clinic where Landon and I had stored our embryos during our marriage.
I stared at the final page.
The genetic parent information was clearly listed.
Biological Father: Landon Pierce.
Biological Mother: Harper Bell.
Rebecca hadn’t been Sophie’s biological mother.
She had carried my daughter.
My daughter.
The little girl who had called me Mommy.
I covered my mouth as tears streamed down my face.
“Dad,” I whispered, “Sophie really is my daughter.”
He stared at the document, speechless.
Then I noticed the signature authorizing the embryo transfer.
My name was written at the bottom.
But I had never signed it.
Someone had stolen my chance to become a mother eight years ago.
And now that same person was threatening to take my daughter away again.
I slowly closed the laptop.
There was only one thing I knew for certain.
At midnight, Landon was expecting a frightened ex-wife to arrive at that warehouse.
But he had no idea he was about to face a mother who had just discovered what he stole from her…….
TO BE CONTINUED IN LAST PART...