Chapter 13 - Anna’s Missing Twelve HoursAnna had no memory of the twelve hours after the twins’ birth.
Her medical chart blamed blood loss and emergency sedation.
Kane claimed she regained consciousness briefly and demanded the second baby be removed before her father’s representatives arrived.
“She believed one child was in danger,” he said.
“From whom?” Gabriel asked.
“Her father.”
Anna’s father controlled a company facing a succession conflict. Certain shares transferred only if a male grandchild survived.
Kane said Anna feared her father would use one boy as leverage against Gabriel.
She allegedly asked Candice to hide Baby B temporarily.
Temporary became sixteen years.
Gabriel returned to Cleveland and confronted Anna gently.
“Could you have asked Candice to move Wyatt?”
Anna’s eyes filled with fear.
“I asked her to help protect both babies.”
“Did you sign anything?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Did you believe your father was dangerous?”
“Yes.”
That answer changed the room.
Anna had never spoken openly about her father’s control. He monitored her finances, opposed her marriage, and threatened to disinherit any child raised under Gabriel’s name.
When the twins were born, his attorney appeared at the hospital before Gabriel arrived.
Anna overheard him discussing “separate custody.”
She asked Candice to remove one baby from the nursery until Gabriel could reach them.
“I did not give him away,” Anna said. “I wanted Candice to take him to you.”
Gabriel had been delayed by a staged car accident near the hospital.
He arrived four hours later and was told the second child died.
Candice had already disappeared with Wyatt.
Anna believed Candice betrayed the temporary plan.
But the missing twelve hours left room for forged documents and manipulated memories.
Evelyn searched Anna’s father’s old correspondence.
A letter written before the birth described a “dual-heir containment plan.”
The letter proposed raising one grandson publicly while placing the second under a trusted guardian. When both turned eighteen, the family company could reunite under controlled ownership.
Anna’s father had planned to separate the twins.
Candice may have carried out his plan while pretending to help Anna resist it.
Then the crash removed Anna.
Marriage gave Candice access to Gabriel.
Abuse and forged treatment records positioned her to control Lucas.
The scheme had unfolded over sixteen years.
Wyatt listened from the doorway.
“Did Mom choose Lucas?”
Anna reached toward him.
“No.”
“Did you choose me?”
“I tried to save you.”
“You let everyone think I was dead.”
“I was told Candice delivered you to Gabriel.”
Gabriel felt the full tragedy.
Anna believed Wyatt had reached him.
Gabriel believed Wyatt had died.
Candice entered his life later with a boy of the same age and claimed he belonged to another man.
She relied on grief making the obvious resemblance easier to dismiss.
The independent DNA laboratory completed the sibling analysis.
Lucas and Wyatt shared both biological parents.
They were twins.
Gabriel showed them the report.
Lucas began crying first.
Wyatt did not move.
Then Lucas crossed the room and held him.
Wyatt stood rigid for several seconds before returning the embrace.
The moment did not erase years of harm.
It gave them the truth required to begin.
Nora’s phone rang during the reunion.
Candice had contacted a television station and offered an exclusive interview.
She claimed Gabriel and Anna were attempting to steal her son through manipulated DNA.
She planned to appear live from an undisclosed location.
In the preview image, Candice sat beside the original hospital ledger.
May you like
And behind her stood Charles Morrow, the attorney who claimed he had acted only under orders.
👉 DNA confirmed Lucas and Wyatt were twins, but Candice prepared to broadcast a competing story with the one man who controlled the original trust records.
