Chapter 6 - The Bloodline Revealed
Victoria led Elena into the grand library, locking the heavy oak doors behind them. The roaring fireplace cast long shadows across the walls.
Elena was trembling. "Ma'am, I am so sorry. I will pay for the glasses. You can deduct it from my wages for the rest of the year—"
"Elena, stop," Victoria said, her voice cracking. She walked over to her desk and picked up the lab report. She handed it to the girl.
Elena looked at the paper. The medical jargon was confusing, but the bold letters at the bottom were impossible to misinterpret. PROBABILITY OF MATERNITY: 99.998%.
Elena looked up, her brow furrowed in utter confusion. "I don't... What is this? Who did you test?"
"Me," Victoria whispered, tears finally spilling over her lashes. "And you."
Elena backed away, dropping the paper as if it burned her. "No. No, that's impossible. My mother was Sarah Hayes. She adopted me in Brooklyn. I'm nobody."
"You are not nobody," Victoria stepped forward, her voice fiercely protective. "You are my biological daughter. You were stolen from me twenty-five years ago at the hospital. I have felt your absence every single day of my life, Elena. I looked at Isabelle and I knew, deep in my soul, she wasn't mine. You have my eyes. You have my mother's jaw. You are a Sterling."
Elena shook her head violently. "This is a trick. You're firing me. This is some cruel game Isabelle came up with!"
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"It is no game!" Victoria cried, reaching out and pulling Elena into an embrace.
Elena stiffened, but the warmth of Victoria's arms, the fierce, desperate love pouring from the billionaire—it broke down her walls. For the first time since her adoptive mother died, Elena felt completely safe. She buried her face in Victoria's shoulder, and the two women wept together as the storm raged outside.
