Chapter 3 - THE RECORDING DANIEL COULD NOT EXPLAIN.

The recording continued while Daniel stared at the tablecloth.

Claire’s voice sounded frightened.

She asked what would happen if Ethan discovered the truth.

Daniel answered that his younger brother would be removed from the Price board before the baby was born.

He said Victoria had already prepared documents declaring Ethan emotionally unfit to manage family assets.

Then came the sentence that changed the room.

“Once the child is recognized as mine, I control the trust.”

The message ended with the sound of a door opening.

No one spoke.

Ethan Price was Claire’s husband and Daniel’s younger brother.

He had spent six months overseeing a struggling Price manufacturing plant in Michigan while Daniel remained in New York, attending galas and negotiating investments.

The family praised Daniel as the natural leader.

Ethan was described as too sympathetic to workers and too cautious with money.

Now it appeared Daniel had betrayed him in the most personal way possible.

Claire began to cry.

Victoria immediately turned the full weight of the scandal against her.

She called Claire an opportunist who had entered the family through marriage and reached for the more powerful brother.

Claire came from a middle-class nursing family in Pennsylvania.

Victoria had never forgiven her for wearing a rented dress to her first Price charity dinner.

The matriarch spoke as though Daniel’s wealth made him vulnerable and Claire’s background made her guilty.

Daniel remained silent while his mother blamed the pregnant woman sitting beside him.

Lily watched the adults rearrange the truth to protect the favorite son.

Emma asked Daniel why he deleted the message from her phone.

He denied touching it.

Mr. Bennett examined the house access log.

The deletion had been authorized using Daniel’s private security code.

Daniel insisted someone had stolen it.

Then Claire raised her head.

“There was another message.”

Daniel looked at her for the first time.

Claire explained that Victoria had contacted her before the gala and ordered her to deny everything if Lily spoke.

Victoria called the accusation absurd.

Claire reached into her cream handbag and removed a printed screenshot.

The message came from Victoria’s private number.

May you like

THE TEDDY BEAR SAW EVERYTHING.

THE BEGGAR WHO CAME HOME.

SHE HEARD MOMMY UNDER THE FLOOR.

At the bottom were four words:

“Daniel must remain the heir.”