She threw me into the hospital’s glass door when I noticed my son’s record — but the director suddenly began to turn pale

My newborn son was still crying when the glass door shattered into pieces and my body fell onto the marble floor.

My shoulder burned. Blood was running down from my elbow and spreading into red stains on the white coat. For several seconds I could not understand what had happened. I only saw that my mother-in-law, Victoria Ashford, was standing at the computer and holding a small silver bracelet on which my father had engraved a miniature image of a compass for my son.

“Don’t get up,” she told me calmly. “You have just given birth and you are confused.”

My son, Alexander, was crying loudly in the cradle.

“You pushed me,” I barely said.

“You lost your balance yourself.”

A nurse rushed into the corridor and knelt beside me.

“Don’t move. The wound is deep.”

“Look at the computer,” I told her. “She deleted my son’s record.”

Victoria suddenly blocked my way.

“No one touch this device.”

The nurse looked at her.

“Mrs. Ashford, this is the patient’s medical record.”

“This hospital wing belongs to my family.”

“And the bloody woman here needs treatment.”

The smile disappeared from Victoria’s face. At that exact moment security arrived. And behind them appeared the hospital director, Doctor Martin Reyes. He was holding a thick folder.

Victoria saw the folder and turned pale for the first time.

“Martin, what are you doing here?”

“That is what I should ask you,” he replied.

He looked at my cradle, and then at my bloody hand.

“Did you change the child’s record?”

“It was an administrative correction,” Victoria said quickly.

“Then why did you demand that the cameras be turned off?”

Silence fell in the corridor.

My heart began beating as if it were trying to escape from my body. Alexander’s bracelet was lying on the floor. I picked it up and enclosed it in my fingers. The needle of the little compass glittered in the light.

“You erased my son’s surname,” I told Victoria. “You removed his father’s name too. Why?”

She slowly turned her head.

“Because he was not supposed to be an Ashford.”

“He is your grandson.”

“No,” she said quietly. “He is a problem.”

Doctor Reyes opened the folder. At the top of the first page it said that the matter concerned the inheritance of the Ashford family. On the second page my son’s name was indicated.

“Alexander’s DNA examination was completed this morning,” he said.

“No one asked me.”

“Your husband left his signature before the birth.”

“Why?”

Reyes looked at Victoria.

“Because he was afraid someone would challenge the child’s inheritance.”

Victoria clenched her teeth.

“Martin, be quiet.”

“It is already too late.”

He took a page marked with a dark red seal from the folder and came toward me. Victoria stepped in front.

“You cannot touch that document.”

“Why?” I asked.

The director put the page on the table. Three names were visible above it, but Victoria’s hand covered the lower part.

“Because before I read this answer aloud, you need to know whom you are standing against…”

Victoria reached toward the page, but the security officer grabbed her by the wrist.

“Step back.”

“It is a family secret,” she whispered.

“It is in my son’s record,” I told her. “Now it is my matter too.”

Reyes lifted the page. For the first time I heard fear in his voice.

“The result is final. Alexander Ashford’s paternity is confirmed.”

“I already knew that,” I answered.

“No, Emily. It is not only about paternity.”

He turned over the second page. Ethan’s name was marked there with a special sign.

“Your husband does not correspond with the family’s genetic line.”

Victoria lowered her eyes.

“Impossible.”

“Then why did you erase the child’s name?” I asked.

She looked at me.

“Because if the system recognized him, everything would change.”

Suddenly a telephone rang in the corridor. Reyes answered, listened to several words, and lost color in his face.

“What happened?” I asked.

He turned the screen toward me. A new message said: Confirmation of heir received. Guardianship rights suspended.

Victoria stepped back.

“It has already begun,” she said.

“What has begun?”

She looked at my son and added almost soundlessly:

“The thing that only one person will be able to stop…”

Reyes did not let go of the folder. Security officers stood on both sides of Victoria, but she was no longer looking at them. Her gaze was fastened only on Alexander’s cradle.

“Say it to the end,” I ordered her.

“First calm down,” Reyes told me.

“My husband is not Victoria’s biological son. Then why was my child still recognized as the heir?”

Reyes exhaled and took three genetic profiles from the folder.

“This is Alexander. This is Ethan. And the third is your father, Jonathan Mercer.”

I thought my blood froze all at once.

“My father? Nothing connects him with the Ashfords.”

“On the contrary,” Reyes said. “The test showed that Jonathan is the first biological son of Charles Ashford Senior.”

Only the baby’s crying could be heard in the room.

“No,” I laughed, but my voice came out empty. “My father was a school principal. He has an old car. He never spoke about this family.”

“Because he did not know,” Reyes said.

Victoria lost her composure for the first time.

“This connection was supposed to remain hidden.”

“You knew?” I asked.

She did not raise her head.

“For thirty-six years.”

The words proved more painful than the shards of glass.

“My father is Charles’s eldest son?”

“Yes,” Reyes said. “According to the old will, his branch possesses the first right. That is why Alexander is now the only legally recognized heir to a trust of four billion eight hundred million dollars.”

Victoria chuckled.

“For the family of one unknown schoolteacher? I protected this empire.”

“You erased my father’s existence,” I told her.

“I saved everyone! If Jonathan appeared, everything would fall apart.”

Reyes looked at the telephone.

“It has already fallen apart. The system received the child’s genetic confirmation. Victoria, your temporary guardianship rights have been revoked.”

Victoria lunged toward me.

“You will not be able to keep this power for long.”

“What does that mean?”

She smiled for the first time.

“You still do not understand? There is not only one hidden branch in the Ashford bloodline.”

Reyes’s computer gave a high-pitched sound. A new message appeared on the screen: Second genetic claimant confirmed. Relationship — Jonathan’s unknown brother. Status — alive. Location — Ashford private hospital.

Everyone looked toward the corridor.

At that same moment the doors of the maternity ward locked by themselves.

My telephone rang. It was Ethan.

“Emily,” his voice could be heard faintly. “Mother knows that I found the adoption documents. Someone hit the car. I was coming toward the hospital, but…”

The voice of an unfamiliar man joined the call.

“Your husband is not the heir. Your son is.”

“Who are you?”

“The person to whom this trust has belonged for forty years.”

The call ended. Heavy footsteps sounded beyond the door and the hospital lighting flickered several times simultaneously…