Chapter 3 - The Inheritance of SinsThe sharp crack of Robert’s hand hitting Logan’s cheek left a bright red imprint on the younger man's skin.
Logan stumbled back a half-step, clutching his face in sheer disbelief. For thirty-two years, Logan had been the golden child, the dutiful heir, the undisputed prince of the Wright medical and financial empire. His father had never raised a hand to him—not when he crashed his first sports car, not when he flunked his first college organic chemistry exam, not even when he signed the divorce papers to cast Joanna aside like a worn-out shoe.
"Father! Have you lost your mind?" Logan shouted, his voice cracking with humiliation as he glanced around to make sure no hospital staff were recording the spectacle. "What is wrong with everyone here? Are you all insane?"
Robert didn't yell. His voice was lower, deadlier, carrying the weight of a judge passing a sentence of execution.
"Get out," Robert whispered.
"What?"
"I said, get out of this room, you miserable, arrogant, blind fool," Robert stepped forward, his finger jabbing violently into Logan’s chest. "You walked out on her. You abandoned your wife because you were terrified of a little responsibility. You threw away everything our family has tried to build for a century, all because you were too blind to see the truth staring you in the face."
Logan’s eyes darted nervously between his weeping father and Joanna, who sat upright in the bed, her face a mask of cold, unyielding contempt.
"I don't know what kind of game she's playing," Logan sneered, trying to regain his composure as he adjusted his lapels. "She had a baby. Fine. There are thousands of babies born every day. Why are you acting like the world is ending? Some gold-digging diner waitress traps me with a pregnancy test, and suddenly you're auditioning for a Greek tragedy?"
"Gold-digging?" Robert laughed—a bitter, broken sound. "Look at the child, Logan. Just look at him."
Logan scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest. "I'm not looking at anything until security escorts her out and we settle this legally. I’ve already consulted with our corporate lawyers—"
"Shut your mouth and look at your son!" Robert roared, his voice shaking the medical charts on the wall.
Something in his father’s tone—a raw, primal terror that Logan had never heard before—finally pierced the armor of Logan’s arrogance. Reluctantly, feeling profoundly foolish, Logan turned his head and looked toward the nurse holding the white flannel bundle.
The nurse gently shifted the baby, turning his tiny face toward the light.
Logan’s eyes locked onto the infant’s left ear.
Then down to the small, distinct crescent-shaped birthmark just beneath the collarbone.
And finally, into the wide, luminous gray eyes that stared back at him with an eerie, inherited defiance.
Logan’s breath caught in his throat. The floor beneath his designer shoes felt like it was turning to ash. He took a staggering step forward, his hands trembling as he reached out toward the nurse.
"That... that's impossible," Logan whispered, his face turning the color of skim milk. "That's... that's the family mark. But... but we didn't... she couldn't..."
"She was six weeks pregnant when you filed the divorce papers, you idiot," Robert spat, his eyes burning with disgust. "The genetic markers skip a generation, but they never lie. That isn't just some random baby. That is the true heir to the Wright estate. And you threw him in the trash."
Logan looked from the baby back to Joanna, the arrogant CEO crumbling into a pathetic, sweating wreck of a man.
"Joanna..." Logan stammered, taking a desperate step toward the bed. "Joanna, please... I didn't know. How could I have known? You never said—"
"I told you I was pregnant, Logan," Joanna said, her voice cutting through the room like a scalpel. She reached out, gently taking her son from the nurse's arms and pulling him securely against her chest. "You didn't want to listen. You were too busy calculating your career trajectory and planning your future with the board member’s daughter in Philadelphia."
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Logan froze. "You knew about Caroline?"
"I knew everything, Logan," she replied softly, a thin, chilling smile touching her lips. "And now, you're going to learn what happens when you cross a woman who has nothing left to lose."
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