Beneath the Secret, Behind the Tears - Chapter 8

Ivan didn’t go back to the mansion until next morning. When he walked through the door, Kiera rushed to him, her face tear-streaked and desperate.

“Ivan, thank God you’re back! Your parents, they’re…”

He pushed past her, his face a grim mask. “Don’t touch me.”

The disgust in his voice was palpable. He looked at her, truly looked at her, and saw not the woman he thought he loved, but the architect of his ruin.

“What did you say?” She asked, her voice trembling.

“I said, get your hand off me,” he snarled. “This is all your fault. All of it.”

“My fault?” She shrieked. “I did this for us! You were the one who said she was a placeholder!”

Justin then, my parents walked into the room. They looked haggard, aged ten years in one night. Eleanor’s eyes red and swollen. Richard’s face was stone.

“Kiera,” Richard said, his voice devoid of all previous warmth. “We think it’s time for you to leave.”

“What?” Kiera looked from his face to Eleanor’s, searching for support. She found none.

“We have indulged your whims for five years,” Eleanor said, her voice cold.

“We have betrayed our own daughter for you. And for what? So you could humiliate us? So you could prove you had won? Get out of this house. We’re cutting you off. You and Leo. You will not see another dollar from us.”

Kiera’s face crumpled. “You can’t do this to me. After everything! You promised! You said you loved me like a daughter!”

“We were wrong,” Richard said flatly. He tons step toward her, his face contorted with a rage she had never seen.

“You poisoned our family. You made us monsters.” He raised his hand and slapped her, hard, across the face. The sound echoed in the silent room.

“You came to us five years ago, crying about how Aliana was a threat,” he seethed. “You framed her, and we helped you cover it up. We believed you. We pitied you. But we see you now. We see the venom.”

Eleanor pointed a shaking finger at the door. “Get out! Get out of our sight!”

Kiera stumbled backward, landing on the floor, her cheek blazing red. She looked at Ivan, her last hope. “Ivan, please. Help me. Think of Leo. Our son.”

Ivan had been silent, watching the scene unfold with a strange detachment.

But at the mention of Leo, something in his eyes shifted. He walked slowly toward her and crouched down, his expression unreadable.

“Leo,” he said softly. “You know, something has always bothered me about him.”

Kiera’s eyes widened in fear. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m a doctor, Kiera. Or did you forget?” He said, his voice dangerously quiet.

“I run a biomedical company. I know genetics. Leo is allergic to penicillin. A severe, life threatening allergy. It’s a trait that is almost genetically inherited. Neither you nor I have that allergy. Our family histories are clean.”

He stared into her eyes, the pieces of a final, devastating puzzle clicking into place.

“I ran his DNA against mine from a sample at my company lab months ago, just for a genetic health screening. I thought results were an error. I never imagined… But now, it all makes sense.”

He stood up, towering over her. His voice dropped a whisper, but it was filled with more menace than any shout.

“He’s not my son, is he?”

Kiera’s face went completely white. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Her silence was the only answer he needed.

The ultimate betrayal. He had thrown away his life, his integrity, and the only woman who had ever truly loved him, all for a lie.

He had protected and loved a woman who had been betraying him from the very beginning.

He looked down at her, crumpled on the floor, and felt nothing. No anger, no pity. Just a vast, hollow emptiness.

“Get out,” he said, his voice flat.

He turned his back on her and walked away, leaving her to the mercy of my parents, who now looked at her pure, unadulterated hatred.