As soon as he was out of the house, Gina locked the door securely. Suddenly, her heart started racing with anxiety. Had her father been aware of Claudia’s plan to hurt Theodore?
This thought itself was disturbing. Gina didn’t want to believe that her father had any role in Claudia’s nasty plan. She mentally prayed that the video footage shouldn’t be in her father’s safe, but she couldn’t ignore the burning doubts.
Curious and anxiety coursing through her veins, she hurried into the study. ’No, Dad can’t be as cruel as Claudia,’ she reassured herself.
Gina’s fingers trembled as she turned the doorknob and pushed open the door, her gaze taking in the dimly lit room before stepping in. She reached out to turn on the switches.
The lights flicked on with a click, illuminating the room brightly. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the small, discreet safe tucked to the right of her father’s desk. With shaky steps, she approached, her pulse thudding louder with each step.
The safe was familiar; she had watched her father open it countless times. Taking a steadying breath, she worked the lock open, the small clicks resounding in her ears. When she finally opened the door, the neat stacks of files greeted her. But her eyes darted past them, and in the back corner, half-hidden lay a small pen drive.
Her heart skipped a beat.
’Could this be it?’ she wondered, her fingers shaking as she reached inside. Just as she pulled the pen drive out, her hand brushed against a stack of files, sending them to the floor with a dull thud.
She muttered under her breath, quickly kneeling to gather the scattered files. But as she picked up a loose sheet, something slipped out – a photograph, slightly crumpled around the edges. Curious, she held it up, her brow furrowing as she studied it.
It was a photograph of a much younger Claudia. She wore a hospital gown, cradling a newborn baby in her arms.
Gina’s initial thought was that it must be a photo of Franklin’s birth. But a strange pang of confusion twisted in her gut as she wondered, "Why would Dad keep this photo locked away?" She couldn’t shake the odd feeling creeping over her.
Gina’s curiosity quickly turned to shock as she sifted through the scattered files, finding even more photos of herself as a baby in Claudia’s arms. Her heart raced as she examined each image.
"These are my photos," she whispered, a tremor in her voice. She had never seen these before – had never even known they existed. Why had her father hidden them all this time? Why would he keep them locked away in the depths of his safe?
A strange unease settled over her, her mind teeming with questions. With trembling hands, she rifled through the rest of the file, hoping to find some sort of explanation. But what she found next froze her in place.
A birth certificate slipped out, neatly folded and yellowed with age. As her eyes scanned the details, each line sent a fresh wave of disbelief crashing over her. Her name was there, typed in bold letters. And beneath it, under "Mother," was Claudia’s name. Her breath hitched, and her gaze shifted to the line marked "Father." The name was unmistakable: Keith.
The document slipped from her hands, fluttering to the floor. She felt as though the ground beneath her was cracking open, dragging her into a dark chasm she couldn’t escape. "What...how?" Her voice was barely a whisper, her thoughts tangled and chaotic. "How is this possible?"
Claudia and Keith were cousins, weren’t they? How could they be her mother and father?
A storm of emotions surged within her – shock, confusion, betrayal – swirling together until she could hardly breathe. Everything she had ever known had been torn away in a single, brutal revelation. She pressed a hand to her chest, trying to steady her breathing, but nothing could still the rush of questions that clamored in her mind.
Dread coiled in her gut as she grappled with the shocking findings. Could it be that her father had been lying to her all the time? Was it possible that he had faked the birth certificate to hide his affairs with his own cousin?
’They lied to me!’ Gina sank to the floor, her eyes filling with tears. She hugged her knees tightly, her body trembling as the shock gave way to a raw, aching confusion.
She had grown up believing her mother had passed away while bringing her into the world. How could the hospital mention Claudia as her mother on the birth certificate? Besides, her mother’s name was Sarah, and it was also mentioned in the birth certificate she had.
How could Claudia be her mother?
Her mind wrestled with the glaring contradiction. The mother she had mourned, whose photograph she had held close, had never really been hers. Claudia – the cold, enigmatic Claudia – was listed as her mother on the birth certificate.
And the father? Her own father had hidden this truth, concealing his past with Claudia, who she had been led to believe was simply his cousin.
A knot of dread twisted in her stomach as realization dawned. It all seemed so clear now, each detail fitting together in a cruel, unthinkable pattern.
Keith and Claudia had secret affairs. When Claudia got pregnant with her and gave birth to her, she left her with Keith. The photos, the birth certificate – they had been hidden so that Gina would never know, so she would never suspect.
"Why would they do this to me?" she whispered, voice choked. A sense of betrayal clawed at her heart, and she felt as if she had lost something deeply, painfully personal. All her life, she had held on to her mother’s memory, finding comfort in the thought that her mother’s spirit watched over her, protecting her. But the harsh reality had shattered her fragile bond with the woman she thought was her mother.
"Ah!" A raw, guttural cry tore from Gina’s throat. "Why? Why did you lie to me?"
All those years, her mother was right in front of her, but she had referred to her ’Aunt’ for over the past two decades. She always longed for her mother’s love, but her mother was not there by her side, telling her the bedtime story, and comforting her when she was sad.
Claudia had been there, so close, but always holding back, keeping her distance, never revealing the truth. Gina’s heart twisted painfully.
"I hate you, Claudia," she screamed. "I hate you both." Her sobs grew louder, the floodgates of her anger and grief open. "You didn’t care about me at all! You were both so obsessed with the Reid fortune that you abandoned me – left me without a mother’s love. You don’t deserve to be my parents."
Out of fury, she tore the photographs. The edges of the pictures cut into her hands, but the sting barely registered. The pain she felt in her heart was deeper, consuming her, filling her with a rage that left her dizzy.
"You never cared," she choked out, throwing the fragments to the ground, her breaths ragged. "You were willing to leave your own baby just to protect your filthy secrets. I refuse to acknowledge you as my mother. You are nothing to me."
Desperation burned in her eyes as she grabbed the documents and tore through the birth certificate, shredding every piece as if somehow, she could erase the truth she had uncovered.
Her chest heaved with each ragged breath, her expression darkening as her gaze fell on the pen drive lying a few feet away. The very thing she had come looking for had revealed the cruelest deception of her life.
She snatched up the pen drive and stormed out of the study.
Back in her room, Gina’s hands shook as she turned on her laptop, inserting the pen drive with a sense of grim purpose. She braced herself, expecting to see the footage of Theodore beating O’Neil. But as the video began to play, she froze.
The screen showed a sterile hospital room, filled with the soft, muffled sounds of doctors and nurses moving around. In the center of it all was Claudia, her face contorted in pain, clutching the bed rails. And next to her, Keith was holding her hand, his expression filled with genuine concern and tenderness.
Gina’s breath caught, her hand flying to her mouth in disbelief. ’So they filmed the entire process of my birth!’ She watched, her heart twisting painfully as the scene unfolded.
When the doctor finally handed Claudia the baby and congratulated their baby girl, they both smiled with emotions, kissing the baby’s head.
Gina’s vision blurred with tears. She felt the walls closing in, the revelation suffocating her. Unable to bear any more, she slammed the laptop shut. Fury and grief warred within her. She didn’t want to stay there for a second. Grabbing her purse and her car keys, Gina stormed out of her room. She didn’t care where she was going – she only knew she had to get away.
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