The drive back to Romero was cloaked in silence.
Rain tapped against the tinted windows as the convoy wound its way through the city. Bella sat in the backseat, Jessy asleep in her arms, Arabella drowsy against Chris's shoulder. The hum of the engine filled the air, but no one spoke.
Chris's profile was unreadable, his gaze fixed on the dark road ahead. Bella studied him from the corner of her eye, questions building inside her chest, pressing against her ribs until it hurt.
By the time they reached Romero, she felt like she might burst.
Later that night, when the house had quieted and the children were asleep, Bella couldn't hold it in any longer.
She padded softly down the hall, Jessy's baby monitor in hand, and stopped at the door of Chris's home office. The light inside was still on.
He wasn't there. His jacket hung neatly on the chair, his desk scattered with files and documents.
Bella hesitated only a moment before stepping inside. She told herself she only wanted to wait for him just to talk. But her eyes caught on a folder half-open on the desk, the bold black letters pulling her in.
DNA maternity Test.
Her breath caught. She reached for the papers, her fingers trembling as she turned the page. Her eyes landed on the result:
Probability of maternity between Bella Walter and Arabella Hampson: 99.9999%.
The paper slipped slightly in her hands. Her knees weakened, and she dropped into the chair.
"No..." she whispered. "That's not possible..."
Arabella. Her daughter? But she never...
Her mind spun back. The accident. The coma. Waking up and not remembering how long she was asleep for with nothing but a scar across her abdomen. A scar she had always been told came from "emergency surgery."
Her pulse pounded in her ears as she pulled out her phone. With shaking fingers, she dialed the number of the hospital where she had been admitted after the crash.
"Hello, this is Dr. Hamilton's office," a nurse answered.
Bella swallowed hard. "This is Bella Walter. Eight years ago, after a car accident, I was told I had abdominal surgery. I... I need to know. What type of surgery left that scar?"
There was a pause, the sound of typing on the other end. Then the nurse's voice came back, calm but firm.
"Miss Walter, your chart shows an emergency cesarean section. You were already pregnant when you were brought in unconscious, you were in the ICU till the baby was delivered. The procedure was performed to save the baby."
The phone nearly slipped from Bella's hand. Her chest rose and fell rapidly, the truth tearing through her.
She had given birth. Eight years ago. And her daughter, her daughter was alive. Right here, under this roof.
Arabella.
Her vision blurred as she set the phone down, tears slipping freely down her cheeks.
The office door clicked.
Chris stepped inside, freezing when he saw the open folder in her hands. His eyes darkened instantly. "Bella."
She lifted her gaze to him, her face wet with tears, her voice breaking. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Bella..."
"You knew!" she shouted, her hands shaking as she held up the test. "All this time...you knew she was mine. You knew she was ours. And you let me live in this house, raising Jessy, looking at that little girl without knowing she was my daughter!"
Her chest heaved as her voice cracked. "How could you do that to me? How could you take this from me?"
Chris closed the door quietly, his face pale but controlled. He stepped closer, every word measured.
"I didn't want you to find out this way." His voice was rough, almost hoarse. "I was waiting for the right time. For the proof. For a way to tell you without breaking you all over again."
Bella shook her head violently. "You don't get to decide how much truth I can handle, Chris. She's my daughter. I carried her. I gave birth to her. And I don't even remember holding her once."
Her voice collapsed into sobs, the weight of eight years crushing down on her.
Chris's jaw clenched, his eyes blazing with both fury and regret. "They stole her from you. From us. Cassandra ordered it. The Fredericks covered it up. I've been piecing it together for months, Bella. I didn't want to give you pieces of the truth...I wanted to give you everything."
He stepped closer, his voice dropping lower, rawer. "But you're right. I should've told you the moment I knew. And for that... I will never forgive myself."
Bella pressed the papers to her chest, her whole body shaking. Her eyes searched his face, desperate and broken.
"I want her," she whispered fiercely. "I want my daughter back. All of her. No more lies. No more waiting."
Chris nodded once, slowly. His voice was firm, steady now, but his eyes burned.
"Then we fight. Together. For Arabella. For Jessy. For us."
Bella closed her eyes, her tears falling harder, because for the first time, she felt both destroyed and whole.
The truth had finally surfaced, but the war to reclaim what was hers had only just begun.