Greg chuckled softly, completely missing the venom laced in my words. “Well, we are identical twins,” he said, adjusting the pink blanket. “It makes sense she’d look a little like Liam, too. But she\u2019s ours. My perfect little girl.”<\/p>\n
He leaned down to kiss my forehead, and it took every ounce of self-control I possessed not to flinch. If only he knew that the DNA wasn’t just similar\u2014it was an exact match to the brother he had spent his entire life trying to destroy.<\/p>\n
The plan had been in motion for nine agonizing months. It started the night I found Greg’s hidden accounts, the ones where he had been quietly draining my family\u2019s business funds to support his secret life with his assistant. He thought he was untouchable, playing the fiercely devoted husband while plotting to leave me with nothing. But I found out. And a week later, when his estranged twin brother Liam came to me\u2014heartbroken, bankrupt, and discarded by Greg’s ruthless corporate maneuvering\u2014grief and vengeance had forged an unbreakable bond between us.<\/p>\n
“I’m going to call Mom,” Greg beamed, pulling his phone from his pocket. “She’s going to be absolutely ecstatic. The first granddaughter of the family.”<\/p>\n
“Oh, I’m sure she’s already checking her mail today,” I said, my voice as smooth as glass. I had paid a premium for overnight certified delivery. It was guaranteed by noon. The clock on the wall read 12:15 PM.<\/p>\n
Greg frowned, his thumb hovering over the screen. “Mail? Why would she be checking the mail right now?”<\/p>\n
Before I could answer, his phone began to vibrate violently in his palm. The screen flashed his mother’s contact photo. He answered immediately, his triumphant grin returning. “Mom! Have you heard? You’re a grandmother to a beautiful\u2014”<\/p>\n
He stopped. The blood drained from his face so rapidly he looked like a corpse. The hospital room went dead silent, save for the tinny, hysterical shrieking coming through the earpiece. I couldn’t make out every single word his mother was screaming, but ‘Liam’, ‘test results’, and ‘lawyers’ echoed sharply into the quiet room.<\/p>\n
Greg slowly lowered the phone, his hand shaking uncontrollably. His eyes darted from the sweet, sleeping baby, to the edge of the Manila envelope peeking out of my purse, and finally, to me. The sheer joy that had illuminated his face moments ago shattered into a devastating, hollow realization.<\/p>\n
“What… what did you do?” he choked out, his voice a pathetic whisper.<\/p>\n
I sat up slightly, reaching over to gently take my daughter from his limp, trembling arms. I cradled her close to my chest, looking Greg dead in the eye with a terrifyingly calm smile.<\/p>\n
“I just made sure the right brother got the family legacy,” I whispered. “Now, I think it’s time you leave. My baby’s father is on his way.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Greg chuckled softly, completely missing the venom laced in my words. “Well, we are identical twins,” he said, adjusting the pink blanket. “It makes sense she’d look a little like … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":76744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/readupdatemystory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/readupdatemystory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/readupdatemystory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readupdatemystory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readupdatemystory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=76743"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/readupdatemystory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76784,"href":"https:\/\/readupdatemystory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76743\/revisions\/76784"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readupdatemystory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/76744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/readupdatemystory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=76743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readupdatemystory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=76743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readupdatemystory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=76743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}