Chapter 273: Truth or lie

Words : 1672 Updated : Oct 5th, 2025

Chapter 273: Truth or lie Megan’s knees buckled as the world seemed to tilt under her feet. ’No... this can’t be happening.’ Panic surged through her veins, making it hard to breathe. Her trembling fingers dug into Oliver’s sleeve. "Please... Dad," she choked out. "You have to believe me. I didn’t do any of that. Someone is misleading Nathan. He has been manipulated—" "Still denying it?" Nathan’s voice thundered, his patience long gone. His glare could burn holes through steel. "Even now? After all this?" He stepped forward, pointing an accusing finger at her. "You didn’t just sabotage Anne’s place in this house; you tried to kill her." "K-Kill Anne?" Oliver’s voice wavered, disbelief etched into every word. "That’s... That can’t be true." But Megan had already begun to shake her head violently. "No! No, I didn’t. He is making things up—" "I have proof," Nathan cut in coldly. He turned toward the door and called out sharply, "Bring him in." The door opened, and a man in a black suit entered, dragging another man along with him. The second man was disheveled, his face pale, sweat clinging to his temples. He was pushed down to the floor in front of them. Megan’s breath caught. Her stomach sank when she recognized him. Nathan grabbed the man by the collar, dragging his face up to meet his eyes. "Tell the truth. You know what happens if you don’t." The man’s eyes darted toward Megan, who subtly shook her head, silently pleading for his silence. But when he looked back at Nathan, he flinched and made his choice. "I’ll talk," he stammered. "It was her—Miss Megan. She wanted Miss Anne gone for good. She was terrified Anne would take her place in the Granet family. And after she got fired from the office, she snapped. That’s when she came up with the plan." He paused, trembling as everyone’s eyes bore into him. Megan stood like stone, her face drained of all color. "She used Lorie to carry out the plan," the man continued. "She told me to arrange the poison, and I gave it to Lorie. She said Anne didn’t deserve to be part of this family, that she would destroy everything if she stayed." The room went dead silent. Oliver looked down at Megan as if seeing her for the first time. The woman he had raised... now seemed unrecognizable. Megan, on the other hand, stood frozen, exposed, disgraced, and utterly shocked. Nathan stepped back and said coldly, "I told you. This is the monster you brought into our family." "He is lying." Top of Form Bottom of Form Megan’s shrill voice cut through the tension like a blade. "I don’t even know him!" Her fingers trembled as she pointed at the man on the floor. But the man didn’t flinch. Instead, he retaliated, "I have proof." With a grim look, he pulled out his phone, tapped the screen, and held it up for everyone to hear. The room fell silent as Megan’s voice echoed from the device, chilling and unmistakably hers: ’Give this to Lorie. Anne will be meeting her today. And it will be her last day.’ The recording ended. Oliver’s face twisted in horror as he stared at Megan like she was a stranger. "You actually tried to kill her..." he murmured, disbelief breaking across his face. Megan’s throat constricted, her eyes welling with dread. "No... no. That’s not real. That recording is fake. It has to be," she cried out, grabbing his arm. "Dad, you know me. I would never do something like that." But her desperate denial only made her look more guilty. Nathan stepped forward. "Don’t waste your breath, Megan. You have been caught. That recording, those witnesses, the evidence—it all points to you. The only thing left to do is confess." Megan’s lips trembled, but she refused to back down. "Why are you all so eager to protect her?" she screamed, glaring at Nathan. "You don’t know what Anne is like. She is manipulative—she turned Augustine against me, made him fire me. She bullied me, she even hit me." Nathan’s face remained hard, unmoved. Megan, on the verge of collapse, pointed accusingly at the man kneeling on the floor. "And him—he is lying. Maybe he is working with Anne. Maybe she paid him to frame me. Patricia had already confessed. She is in prison. She said she tried to kill Anne." Megan turned back to Oliver, tears streaking down her face as she pleaded, "Please, Dad. You have to believe me. I’m your daughter. Not her." But Oliver, torn and silent, didn’t move. Confusion warred with dawning truth in his eyes, and his hand fell limply away from hers. "I’m not lying," the man said urgently. "She is the one who told me to silence Lorie. Megan feared Lorie would expose her, so she ordered me to finish her. She gave me a million for it." "No," Megan screamed, her face twisted in fury. "That’s a lie. Why are you all trying to destroy me?" With a sudden burst of rage, she lunged at the man and slapped him hard across the face. Her hand shot up again, ready to strike, but Nathan moved faster and grabbed her by the arm, yanking her back. "You really think you can keep lying your way out of this?" he snarled, shoving her aside. "One lie after another. But facts don’t lie. Bank records, testimonies from the doctors you bribed, and this man—they all tell the same story. You have run out of moves." Before Megan could retort, the police officers streamed into the room. "Megan Granet," the lead officer announced, stepping forward. "You are under arrest for conspiracy to commit murder, obstruction of justice, and multiple counts of fraud." "No—wait," Megan shrieked in panic, and in desperation, she rushed toward Oliver, grabbing at his sleeve with shaking hands. "Dad, please, you have to believe me. I didn’t do anything. Anne is framing me. She faked the DNA test, hired these people to frame me. You raised me, Dad, you know me well." Oliver didn’t move. He didn’t even blink. His eyes were fixed on the DNA results in his hand. Megan’s cries sounded distant now, drowned by the thunderous roar of his collapsing world. "Officer," Nathan cut in sharply, "Take them out of this house. I don’t want to see their faces around my family again." The officers grabbed Megan by the arms and locked the cuffs around her wrists. She thrashed wildly, screaming, "Dad... Say something. You can’t let them do this to me." But Oliver remained motionless, consumed by the silent storm inside him. Megan’s shrieks echoed down the hallway. The man who had knelt on the floor was cuffed and led out as well. Silence fell inside the hall. Oliver, drained, collapsed into the sofa, his shoulders shaking with the weight of it all. Nathan stood over him. "And you," he snarled, "you abandoned Anne on a whim. You never questioned that DNA test back then. You let my mother drown in grief, then you walked away when she needed you most." Oliver’s head remained bowed, unable to meet Nathan’s furious gaze. "I’ll never forgive you," Nathan continued with venom in his tone. "You betrayed her, abandoned her, and never tried to find Raya. You let her suffer for years while you turned your back. You are heartless, cruel." He paused, his fury still crackling in the air. Then, with one last look of contempt, Nathan strode from the house, leaving Oliver alone with his thoughts. Oliver sat motionless, Nathan’s parting words crashing again and again in his mind like relentless waves against a crumbling shore. Each accusation rang with truth, stripping him bare of every excuse he had clung to for years. The silence around him only magnified the noise in his head. He stared down at the DNA report clutched in his trembling hands, the truth etched in bold. Anne was Raya. She had always been his daughter. And yet, he had discarded her. His thoughts drifted to the past. From the very start, Oliver’s marriage to Margaret had been rocky. It was arranged, lacking warmth or affection, and to him, Margaret, the beautiful daughter of a respected family, was nothing more than a trophy wife. Over time, things between them started to resolve. But her closeness with Hugo, his nemesis, had shifted things between them. But everything truly unraveled after the kidnapping incident. The horror of that night had still haunted him, the image of his wife returned in shambles, broke something deep inside him. The thought of what those criminals might have done to Margaret, especially the possibility that she had been raped, tormented him. So when she became pregnant, he was convinced the child wasn’t his. Acting on that suspicion, he secretly ordered a DNA test, which confirmed his worst fear. That single test result had changed everything. He couldn’t love the child. He couldn’t even look at her. The hatred and shame inside him grew unbearable. One drunken night, seeking solace or perhaps just escape, he had fallen into bed with his secretary. He had trusted her with his deepest wound, and she had offered him a solution. His secretary had suggested staging a fake kidnapping and quietly getting rid of Raya without Margaret ever finding out. At the time, Oliver hadn’t considered the possibility that the DNA results might have been falsified or manipulated. All he had wanted to do was make Raya vanish, cover it with a staged kidnapping. But now... He blinked down at the report again. Anne was his daughter. She had always been his. His eyes darkened, a storm brewing in his chest. That same secretary, the one he had confided in, trusted, slept with, and had caused this misunderstanding. She was the one who insisted he abandon Raya. She was the one who told him to adopt Megan. Rage simmered beneath his skin. "You have to answer me," he muttered.

Chapter 273: Truth or lie

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