Chapter 2: The Secret Hidden in the Nursery

That night, Victor couldn't sleep.

The image of Ethan standing bravely in the center of the marble hall replayed endlessly in his mind.

Something about the boy felt strangely familiar.

The eyes.

The stubbornness.

The way he refused to surrender.

Victor had seen those traits before.

In his younger brother, Alexander.

Alexander had died three years earlier in a tragic car accident.

Or so everyone believed.

The next morning, Victor entered the mansion's nursery.

Ethan sat on the floor building a castle from wooden blocks.

The child looked up.

"Hi."

Victor smiled slightly.

"Hi."

Clara immediately stood.

"Sir."

Victor gestured for her to sit.

He watched Ethan play quietly.

Then something caught his attention.

Around the boy's neck hung a silver pendant.

Victor's heart nearly stopped.

He recognized it instantly.

The pendant had belonged to Alexander.

Only two identical pieces had ever existed.

One belonged to Victor.

The other belonged to his brother.

Victor's hands trembled.

"Where did he get that necklace?"

Clara looked confused.

"He's had it since I met him."

Victor slowly knelt.

"Ethan... who gave this to you?"

The child touched the pendant.

"My daddy."

Victor's pulse raced.

"Where is your father?"

The boy looked down.

"Mom says he went to heaven."

The room became silent.

Victor turned toward Clara.

"Bring me every document connected to this child."

Hours later, investigators began searching.

What they discovered shocked everyone.

Ethan's mother had once worked for a company secretly owned by Alexander.

Even more astonishing—

DNA records from a private hospital revealed an impossible truth.

Ethan was Alexander's son.

Victor stared at the report in disbelief.

The little boy was not a servant's child.

He was a Hawthorne.

The sole heir of Victor's beloved brother.

The news spread through the mansion like wildfire.

Family members who had ignored Ethan suddenly treated him differently.

But Ethan noticed.

And he hated it.

"They're fake," he told Clara.

Victor overheard those words.

For the first time in years, he laughed.

The boy was right.

Many of them were fake.

And now those same relatives wanted access to Ethan's inheritance.

Victor knew danger was coming.

Because someone inside the family would do anything to control the fortune Alexander had left behind.

Even murder.