Chapter Twenty-Two
Jayla
I read the birth certificate until the words stopped looking like language.
Father: Sebastian Alexander Devereaux.
Malachi stood several feet away.
The distance between us felt deliberate.
Necessary.
Painful.
“This is fake,” I said.
Nobody answered.
“It has to be fake.”
Asha took the certificate carefully.
“The seal appears authentic, but that doesn’t prove the information is accurate.”
“My mother told me my father was Marcus Bennett.”
“Marcus died before you were born,” Nia whispered.
I looked at her.
“How do you know?”
“Evelyn told me.”
“When?”
“Before Sebastian’s death.”
The room tilted.
Malachi reached toward me, then stopped.
That hurt too.
“Did your husband sleep with my grandmother?”
“No.”
“Then explain this.”
Nia closed her eyes.
“Sebastian helped Evelyn create false records for a child Lenora was hiding.”
“What child?”
“I don’t know. Evelyn refused to tell me.”
The pressure in my chest eased slightly.
“This certificate may not be yours,” Asha said.
“It has my name and birthday.”
“It may have been created as a legal identity for someone else.”
Malachi looked at Nia.
“Did my father have another child?”
“Not that I knew.”
“You didn’t know he survived for a year.”
Her face tightened.
“No.”
I looked down at the ring on my finger.
The possibility made me nauseous.
I removed it.
Malachi watched but said nothing.
“DNA test,” I said.
Asha nodded.
“We can arrange one immediately.”
“How long?”
“A private laboratory can provide preliminary results within hours.”
“Do it.”
Dorian approached Malachi.
“We still need to locate Imani.”
“I know.”
“I’m going with you,” I said.
Malachi’s gaze moved toward me before quickly shifting away.
“No.”
“Do not start.”
“This is different.”
“Because we might share a father?”
His jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
The word struck harder than it should have.
“We don’t know that,” I said.
“Until we do, I need distance.”
“From the investigation or from me?”
He didn’t answer.
Of course he needed distance.
We had kissed. Held each other. Built something fragile and new.
Now a piece of paper suggested it was wrong.
I understood.
Understanding didn’t make it hurt less.
“Fine,” I said. “Keep your distance. I’m still helping find Imani.”
“She was taken because of my family.”
“She is my family.”
“And if you’re Sebastian’s daughter, Lenora may want you for more than the archive.”
“She already did.”
“Jayla—”
“Stand beside me or move. I am going.”
His eyes closed briefly.
When they opened, Crown’s control had returned.
“Micah, trace the broadcast. Dorian, search the tunnels. Asha, arrange the DNA test. Nia remains under guard.”
“I can help,” Nia said.
“You’ve helped enough.”
She flinched.
Malachi left without looking at me.
The DNA technician collected samples in separate rooms.
Malachi’s siblings volunteered theirs as well. Asha explained that testing multiple relatives would produce a clearer result.
Noelle remained with me afterward.
“I remember when Mom was pregnant,” she said.
I looked at her.
“You were five.”
“I remember pieces. Dad painted the nursery yellow because he didn’t know whether the baby was a boy or girl.”
“What baby?”
Noelle’s eyes filled.
“Mom lost her before the explosion. At least, that’s what they told us.”
“When?”
“About six months before.”
I calculated the dates.
“I would’ve already been born.”
“Yes.”
“Then it can’t be me.”
“Unless the date on the certificate is false.”
Every answer produced another question.
Micah entered with his laptop.
“I traced the broadcast.”
“Where is Imani?”
“The signal bounced through twelve locations, but one used a physical Devereaux Maritime relay.”
“Which one?”
“The original maternity hospital.”
Noelle stared at him.
“The one where Mom delivered us?”
“It closed fifteen years ago. Lenora’s foundation owns it.”
The red door.
Everything returned to the women, their children, and the places where the Devereaux family had buried its secrets.
My phone rang.
Kenzie.
“Jayla, I heard about Imani.”
“How?”
“Berkeley called me.”
“What do you know?”
“Lenora spoke about a hospital whenever Darius mentioned Evelyn’s heir. She called it the birthplace.”
“Did she mean mine?”
“I don’t know. She said Sebastian’s greatest betrayal began there.”
Micah turned his computer toward me.
A photograph showed the abandoned hospital’s entrance.
Its doors were painted red.
“We found it.”
Malachi waited inside the equipment room wearing a protective vest.
He had prepared one for me.
He held it out without stepping closer.
“You remembered my size?”
“I remember everything about you.”
The words made both of us uncomfortable now.
I accepted the vest.
“When will the DNA results arrive?”
“Within four hours.”
“And until then?”
“We focus on Imani.”
Professional. Controlled.
Strangers with history.
I fastened the vest.
Malachi watched my hands struggle with the side strap.
“May I?”
I hesitated.
“Yes.”
He adjusted it without touching anything except the fabric.
When he finished, he immediately stepped away.
“Thank you.”
He nodded.
“I don’t believe you’re my sister,” I said.
“Belief isn’t evidence.”
“Grandma said your father used her credentials. He created false records before.”
“Yes.”
“Then why are you acting like this is already true?”
“Because I refuse to risk crossing a line I can’t uncross.”
“You think one document erased everything between us?”
“No.”
The answer came roughly.
“That’s the problem.”
He turned away.
I caught his sleeve, then released it.
“I’m frightened too.”
“I know.”
“You don’t have to become ice whenever you’re afraid.”
“It’s how I remain useful.”
“You’re allowed to be a person.”
“After Imani is safe.”
Always later.
He had postponed feeling for so long that I wondered whether he knew how to stop.
Dorian entered.
“Teams are ready.”
Malachi handed me an earpiece.
“Stay with Micah.”
“I know.”
“If anything changes—”
“Red door.”
His eyes held mine.
“Red door.”
The maternity hospital had been abandoned in a hurry.
Old beds remained inside patient rooms. Wheelchairs crowded the hallways, and faded cartoon animals peeled from the walls.
Micah and I entered through the eastern wing while Malachi and Dorian approached the main entrance.
The tracker hidden inside Imani’s work badge transmitted from the delivery floor.
“She still has her badge?” I asked.
“Your cousin plans ahead.”
“She’ll love hearing that.”
We climbed three flights.
A woman’s voice came through the speakers.
“Welcome home, children.”
Lenora.
The doors locked behind us.
Red emergency lights filled the corridor.
“Micah?” Malachi demanded through the earpiece.
“Electronic lockdown. I’m overriding it.”
“Get Jayla out.”
“No,” I said.
“Jayla.”
“Imani is above us.”
An image appeared on a nearby monitor.
Imani was tied to a hospital bed inside an old delivery room. A device sat beneath it with red numbers counting down from twenty minutes.
“Move,” I ordered.
Micah followed.
The stairwell door opened before us.
Grant Holloway stepped into the corridor.
I had watched Malachi shoot him in Saint Lucia.
Apparently, he was difficult to kill.
His weapon pointed toward my chest.
“You should’ve stayed inside the command vehicle.”
Micah shoved me behind a medication cart as Grant fired.
Bullets tore into the metal.
Micah returned fire.
“Go!” he shouted. “I’ll handle him.”
I ran toward the delivery floor.
Malachi’s voice filled my ear.
“Jayla, answer me.”
“I’m going to Imani.”
“Stop and wait for my team.”
“The timer says eighteen minutes.”
“Jayla!”
I removed the earpiece.
He was going to be furious.
He could add it to the list.
The delivery room waited at the end of the corridor.
Imani saw me through the glass.
“Jayla, don’t come in!”
I opened the door.
A wire ran from the device beneath her bed to a pressure sensor beneath my feet.
The timer accelerated.
Ten minutes.
“I told you not to come in!” Imani shouted.
“Nice to see you too.”
“The woman said entering the room activates the bomb.”
“She could’ve posted a sign.”
I examined the restraints around Imani’s wrists.
“Where is Lenora?”
“She left after setting the broadcast.”
“What broadcast?”
A screen switched on.
Lenora appeared before a wall covered in photographs of missing women.
“My father protected Victor because sons inherited empires while daughters inherited silence,” she began. “Sebastian claimed he wanted justice, but when forced to choose, he protected his family at Evelyn’s expense.”
The video cut to old hospital footage.
Evelyn stood inside a nursery holding a newborn.
Nia lay unconscious in a hospital bed.
Lenora entered and handed Grandma a document.
The same birth certificate we found.
“This isn’t about you,” Lenora said through the recording. “It was never about Jayla’s blood. It was about Malachi’s.”
The camera moved toward the newborn in Grandma’s arms.
A nurse entered and carried the child through a side door.
The infant’s hospital bracelet read:
BABY GIRL DEVEREAUX.
Nia’s supposedly miscarried daughter had survived.
The false birth certificate gave that child my identity.
My name.
My birthday.
The screen returned to Lenora.
“Sebastian allowed Victor to take his newborn daughter because exposing the child would reveal the archive’s existence. Evelyn helped me hide her beneath another name.”
Imani stared at me.
“If that baby isn’t you—”
“Then Malachi has another sister.”
Lenora smiled from the screen.
“And she has been beside him for most of his life.”
Photographs filled the monitor.
Malachi’s caretaker, Celeste.
Her daughter.
Simone.
My stomach dropped.
Simone was Sebastian and Nia’s missing child.
Lenora had placed her inside Malachi’s home.
Raised her beside her own siblings.
Turned her into a hidden heir without anyone knowing.
The delivery-room doors opened.
Simone entered carrying a weapon.
Tears streaked her face.
“I’m sorry, Jayla.”
I stepped between her and Imani.
“Are you Bishop?”
“No.”
“Did you help Lenora?”
“She raised me before Celeste took me in. I didn’t know who I was until after my mother died.”
“Celeste was your mother.”
“She was paid to lie to me.”
“She still raised you.”
Simone’s hand shook.
“Lenora promised to expose what the Devereaux family did.”
“By killing Imani?”
“The device isn’t real.”
Imani and I looked beneath the bed.
“You could’ve mentioned that,” I said.
“I needed Crown to come here.”
“Why?”
“Because Lenora wants him to witness the archive release.”
My phone vibrated.
The preliminary DNA results had arrived.
I opened them.
Malachi and I shared no biological relationship.
Simone’s uploaded sample, collected from a glass at the estate, showed a parent-child match with Nia and a sibling match with Malachi.
Relief struck me first.
Then guilt followed because our freedom meant Simone’s life had been built on a lie.
I showed her the results.
“You’re his sister.”
Simone stared at the screen.
“I know.”
“Does Malachi?”
“No.”
Gunfire sounded in the hallway.
Simone raised her weapon.
“I didn’t come to hurt you.”
“Then lower it.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
A red dot appeared against Simone’s chest.
A sniper laser.
Lenora was watching.
“If I don’t take you to the roof,” Simone whispered, “she kills all of us.”
The timer beneath Imani’s bed continued counting down.
Five minutes remained.
The bomb might be fake.
The sniper wasn’t.
I placed the earpiece back inside my ear.
“Malachi.”
His answer came immediately.
“Where are you?”
“Delivery room. I found Imani.”
“Is she alive?”
“Yes. But Simone is here.”
Silence.
“What did she do?”
“She’s your sister.”
The gunfire outside stopped.
“What?”
“Your mother’s baby didn’t die. Lenora gave her your family’s missing daughter and used my identity to hide her.”
Malachi’s breathing filled the connection.
“Simone,” he said quietly.
She began crying harder.
“Lenora has a sniper on her,” I continued. “She wants us on the roof.”
“No. Stay inside.”
The laser moved from Simone’s chest to mine.
“Choice has been removed.”
Malachi’s voice turned cold.
“Tell Simone to take you upstairs.”
I looked at her.
“He said we go.”
Imani pulled against her restraints.
“You aren’t leaving me.”
“We’ll cut you free.”
Simone lowered the weapon enough to help me.
“Malachi,” I said.
“I’m here.”
“The DNA results came.”
Another silence.
“We aren’t related.”
A breath left him.
I felt it through the earpiece.
“This is a terrible time to sound relieved,” he said.
“I know.”
“When this is over, we’re discussing you removing your earpiece.”
“If this is over, I’ll happily listen.”
“Jayla.”
“What?”
“Red door.”
The words no longer meant only safety.
They meant he was coming.
“Red door,” I whispered.
Together, Simone and I freed Imani and headed toward the roof, where Lenora waited to release enough secrets to burn the entire Devereaux empire down.