Chapter 2: The Name on the Paper
“Why does this say Samantha Collins is my—”
Nathaniel stopped.
His voice had gone so quiet that the last word barely existed.
Victoria lunged toward the envelope.
“Give that to me.””
Nathaniel stepped backward.
“No.””
The single word changed the room.
Olivia's smile vanished.
Charlotte's fingers froze against her necklace.
Even Samantha stopped breathing.
Nathaniel unfolded the document completely. The paper trembled slightly between his fingers.
His eyes moved across the lines again.
Then once more.
He looked at Victoria.
“Tell me this is a mistake.””
Victoria's face had lost all its color.
“It is complicated.””
“That's not an answer.””
“Nathaniel—”
“Who is Samantha Collins?””
The question sounded strange coming from him.
Because Samantha was standing six feet away.
She looked at him, confused and terrified.
“I’m Samantha.””
Nathaniel slowly turned toward her.
“I know.””
Something in his expression made Samantha's chest tighten.
She had spent twenty years being treated like she didn't belong in that house.
Now a complete stranger was looking at her as if he had discovered something impossible.
Nathaniel looked down at the document again.
“Your full name is Samantha Elise Collins?””
She nodded.
“Yes.””
“Your birthday is June seventeenth?””
“Yes.””
Nathaniel's fingers tightened around the paper.
“And you were born in 2006?””
“Yes.””
Victoria suddenly moved between them.
“That's enough.””
Nathaniel stared at her.
“No. It isn't.””
Victoria lowered her voice.
“You came here tonight because I invited you to meet my daughters.””
Nathaniel glanced at Olivia and Charlotte.
“And apparently you forgot to mention the third.””
Victoria's jaw clenched.
Samantha looked from one face to another.
“What's happening?””
No one answered.
She took one step forward.
“What does that paper say?””
Victoria snapped.
“Go back to the kitchen.””
Samantha flinched.
Nathaniel's face hardened.
“Stop talking to her like that.””
Victoria stared at him.
“You don't understand this family.””
“Then explain it.””
“There is nothing to explain.””
Nathaniel held up the document.
“Then why does this have my father's signature?””
Samantha's eyes widened.
His father's signature?
Victoria looked toward the hallway.
“Everyone out.””
Olivia immediately obeyed.
“Mom—”
“Now, Olivia.””
Charlotte grabbed Olivia's arm.
The sisters disappeared into the next room, but they didn't go far.
Samantha remained rooted to the floor.
Nathaniel folded the document carefully.
He didn't take his eyes off Victoria.
“My father died nine years ago.””
Victoria swallowed.
“I know.””
“He signed this document twenty years ago.””
“Yes.””
Nathaniel's voice became colder.
“And it says he was Samantha's biological father.””
Samantha's knees nearly gave out.
“What?””
Victoria closed her eyes.
Just for a second.
But Samantha saw it.
That tiny moment of fear.
A fear she had never seen on her mother's face before.
Samantha stepped forward.
“You said my father died before I was born.””
Victoria immediately looked at her.
“I said what you needed to know.””
“You said I didn't have a father.””
“You were a child.””
“I’m twenty.””
Nathaniel looked at Samantha.
“Did your mother ever show you your birth certificate?””
Samantha shook her head slowly.
“No.””
“Did you ever meet your father?””
“No.””
Nathaniel inhaled sharply.
Samantha looked at Victoria.
“Who was he?””
Victoria said nothing.
“Who was my father?””
Victoria's lips pressed together.
“Marcus Hayes.””
The room seemed to tilt.
Nathaniel's eyes closed.
“My father.””
Samantha stared at him.
Then at Victoria.
Then back at Nathaniel.
“No.””
Her voice cracked.
“No, that's impossible.””
Nathaniel whispered, “I think I'm your brother.””
Samantha stepped backward.
Her hand caught the edge of the counter.
The word brother echoed inside her head.
Brother.
Not stranger.
Not billionaire.
Brother.
She looked at his face again.
Suddenly she understood why Victoria had been so afraid.
“Why didn't you tell me?””
Victoria's eyes hardened.
“Because you didn't need to know.””
“I'm his daughter!””
“You were never part of that family.””
Samantha's voice rose.
“Then why is his name on my birth certificate?””
Victoria didn't answer.
“Why?””
“I made a choice.””
“What choice?””
Victoria took a breath.
“To protect Olivia and Charlotte.””
Nathaniel's face darkened.
“From what?””
Victoria looked at him.
“From you.””
A stunned silence followed.
Nathaniel gave a humorless laugh.
“That makes no sense.””
“Your father was powerful. His family was powerful. When I became pregnant, everything changed.””
Samantha stared at her.
“You were pregnant with me.””
“Yes.””
“You knew who my father was.””
“Yes.””
“And you hid him.””
Victoria looked away.
“I was seventeen.””
Samantha's eyes filled.
“So was I.””
Victoria looked back at her.
“What?””
“You were seventeen when you got pregnant.””
Samantha's voice shook.
“And you still had me.””
Victoria didn't respond.
“You could have told me.””
“I couldn't.””
“You could have loved me.””
That sentence landed harder than any accusation.
Victoria stared at her daughter.
For the first time, there was something close to regret in her eyes.
But Samantha didn't want regret.
She wanted the twenty years back.
She wanted the birthday mornings.
The school photographs.
The Mother's Day cards she had made by hand.
The moments she had stood at the edge of family celebrations while Olivia and Charlotte opened gifts.
She wanted the simple things she had never been allowed to ask for.
Nathaniel looked at the document.
“There are more pages.””
Victoria immediately moved toward him.
“Don't.””
He ignored her.
He turned the second page.
His expression changed.
“What is this?””
Samantha looked at the paper.
She could barely read the words from where she stood.
Nathaniel read aloud.
“Transfer of inheritance rights…”
He stopped.
Victoria whispered, “Nathaniel.””
“Why does this say Samantha was supposed to receive half of my father's private estate?””
Samantha stared.
“What?””
Olivia suddenly appeared in the doorway.
“Half?””
Charlotte stood beside her.
“That can't be right.””
Nathaniel looked at both sisters.
“Apparently it is.””
Olivia's face went pale.
“But Mom said Dad's company and everything else would belong to us.””
Victoria turned sharply.
“I said what I had to say.””
Charlotte looked betrayed.
“You lied to us?””
Victoria ignored her.
Nathaniel kept reading.
“Under the terms of the settlement, Samantha Elise Collins shall receive the trust established by Marcus Hayes upon her twenty-first birthday, provided her identity is confirmed.””
He looked at Samantha.
“Your twenty-first birthday is in eight months.””
Samantha couldn't speak.
She had never known about a trust.
She had never known she was a Hayes.
She had never known she was entitled to anything.
She looked at the room around her.
The marble.
The chandeliers.
The ocean view.
For twenty years, she had been washing dishes beneath all of it.
And all this time, she had apparently been the daughter of the man whose fortune had built half of Victoria's world.
Nathaniel slowly lifted the final page.
There was another signature.
His father's.
But underneath it was Victoria's.
And beside Victoria's signature was one more line.
A condition.
Nathaniel's eyes narrowed.
“Victoria…”
She didn't answer.
“What did you agree to?””
Samantha stepped closer.
“What?””
Nathaniel read the final paragraph.
“Upon confirmation of Samantha's identity, her inheritance may be released only if she accepts the marriage arrangement established by her mother prior to the creation of the trust.””
Silence.
Charlotte's hand flew to her mouth.
Olivia whispered, “Marriage arrangement?””
Nathaniel looked at Victoria.
“You arranged a marriage for her?””
Victoria's face hardened.
“She was supposed to marry into a respectable family.””
Samantha stared at her.
“You arranged my marriage too?””
“You had no idea how complicated your future would be.””
“You didn't even ask me.””
Victoria's voice sharpened.
“Because you are impulsive.””
“I am your daughter!””
Victoria slammed her hand against the table.
“Enough!””
The sound echoed through the mansion.
Then she pointed toward the hallway.
“You've always had a talent for turning everything into a tragedy.””
Samantha's eyes filled with tears.
“A tragedy?””
She laughed once, but there was no humor in it.
“Washing dishes while my sisters tried on diamonds was a tragedy?””
Victoria looked away.
“Being told my own mother didn't have another child was a tragedy?””
“Samantha—”
“Being called a maid in my own home was a tragedy?””
Olivia suddenly spoke.
“You were treated differently because you weren't like us.””
Samantha turned.
“What does that mean?””
Olivia hesitated.
Charlotte grabbed her arm.
“Don't.””
But Olivia was already angry.
“You think Mom did all this because she hated you?””
Samantha stared at her.
“Didn't she?””
Olivia's eyes were wet now too.
“She was scared.””
“Of what?””
Olivia looked at Victoria.
Victoria shook her head.
But Olivia whispered the answer anyway.
“Grandfather.””
Nathaniel's expression changed.
“Who?””
Olivia looked at him.
“Your grandfather.””
Nathaniel stepped closer.
“My grandfather died years ago.””
“Yes,” Olivia whispered.
“But before he died, he made Mom promise something.””
“What?””
Olivia looked at Samantha.
“He told her that if Samantha ever discovered who her real father was, the Hayes family would come looking for her.””
Samantha's heart pounded.
Nathaniel frowned.
“That doesn't explain the marriage clause.””
Charlotte suddenly spoke.
“It does.””
Everyone looked at her.
Charlotte's face had gone pale.
“She wasn't supposed to inherit anything.””
Nathaniel stared at the document.
“Then why was the trust created?””
Charlotte swallowed.
“Because Grandfather didn't trust Mom.””
The room fell silent.
Samantha felt cold all over.
Victoria suddenly rushed forward and snatched the document from Nathaniel's hand.
“That is enough.””
Nathaniel didn't fight her.
Instead, he looked at Samantha.
“There's something else you need to know.””
Victoria froze.
Nathaniel reached into his jacket.
He pulled out his phone.
“I called my attorney before coming here.””
Samantha stared at him.
“Why?””
“Because the moment I saw my father's signature, I knew something was wrong.””
Victoria's face changed.
“You called someone?””
Nathaniel nodded.
“My attorney is on his way.””
“No.””
Victoria's voice cracked.
Nathaniel looked at her calmly.
“He should arrive in about twenty minutes.””
Victoria stepped toward him.
“Don't do this.””
“You hid my sister for twenty years.””
“I protected her!””
“You erased her.””
Victoria's eyes flashed.
“You have no idea what I sacrificed.””
Nathaniel's reply was immediate.
“Then tell us.””
Victoria opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
At that exact moment, the mansion's front gate buzzer rang.
Once.
Twice.
Then the security intercom came alive.
“Mrs. Collins, there are two visitors at the gate.””
Victoria went completely still.
Nathaniel looked toward the entrance.
“Who?””
The guard hesitated.
Then answered.
“They say they're from the Hayes family.””
Samantha's blood ran cold.
Victoria whispered one sentence.
“They weren't supposed to find her this soon.””
Nathaniel turned toward her.
“Find who?””
May you like
Victoria looked directly at Samantha.
And for the first time that night, Samantha saw genuine terror in her mother's eyes.
