- Family Tree
<<<. Miles. >>
I don’t want to get my hopes too high, but Isha did fairly well for her first day. She was professional, thoughtful at times, and gave me insightful suggestions when needed.
After reaching home, I cook myself dinner while glancing over some reports from the office. Sometimes I wish I had 25 hours per day. I could hire a cook for food and maybe some house help to save myself some time. But cooking eases my stress and I don’t like helpers swarming around in my house. A home loses its personal touch, if there are maids and servants swarming all around.
When I am about to eat my dinner, my phone buzzes with Mom’s call and I groan.
“Your step daughter did fairly well for her first day.” I tell her as soon as I pick the call.
“Oh..” she says, as if that’s not why she called me.
“I am sure dad would be proud.” I add, and she sighs.
“It is what it is, Miles. Stop complaining like a baby.”
“Yea, sure.” I huff. Mom doesn’t know how hiring Isha has created a mess in my office. Yes, I liked her work, but Liam literally avoided me today. I guess because he didn’t want to face Isha too much. I can only imagine how Emma would react if she knew about their history.
“She is a brat. I must tell you that.” I say as I take a spoon of unhealthy macaroni and cheese pasta I served myself. “She better be blood–related for me to put up with her.” I add and mom chuckles.
Although she was helpful, I could tell she was trying hard to stop herself from passing snarky comments. All this affection, my father has been pouring out for her, will be gone when he figures out she is as stubborn as Noah and
- me.
“How long do I need to keep her until you declare her to the media?” I frown and correct myself. “or when do you plan to tell her?”
She apparently doesn’t know anything.
“And how the hell did you and dad figure her out, Mom?” I shoot another question before she can answer the first
two.
“There are so many things, Miles. We plan to do some background checks on her to make sure she is indeed the one we are hoping for. And for that, we need to do one more DNA test.”
I roll my eyes.
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“Now don’t ask me to collect her saliva samples.”
She laughs.
“We already got that in our company’s pre–employment drug test. Don’t you remember we do that?”
“Yea whatever.” I stay quiet, then realize something.
“What do you mean, one more DNA test…. how did you find out about her exactly?” I demand.
Mom goes quiet for a moment, then says, “This DNA test is just for the sake of it. We know it will come back positive. And… There are two parts to answer your question. First, her mother contacted us. I mean, she tried to contact us, but we didn’t receive her message until she was dead.”
What?
“How long ago it happened? How exactly did she contact you?”
“She contacted us five years ago. But our security teams always sorted her mails thinking it was just some gimmick to extract money from us.”
It’s normal. Despite being anonymous about our money. It’s easy to figure us out. Media usually leaves us alone because they think we are not someone important or not rich enough. And if someone does try to cover us, we try to buy them out or suppress it before it gets out of hand. But those who have dealt with us know our real potential. We have received blackmails, absurd claims and whatnot in the mails. We don’t even see those, and these are usually sorted and destroyed by our security teams.
Mom takes a pause then continues, “We learned about her three years ago.”
I swallow hard. “Then what?”
“I forbade your father to reply to her.”
“Mom… She didn’t contact you for her whole life, but only five years ago. How much could she have asked?”
And what if she went to the media? She didn’t do that. Right? It was not fair to ignore her.
“It wasn’t about the Money, Miles. I was angry.” Mom tells me stiffly. “I am not proud of ignoring Isha for so long, but that’s what I did.”
I sit on the counter looking out of the window, stunned, and she continues.
“But I always kept an eye on her. Yes, her life was probably hard because by the time we knew about her, her mother was dead. She was alone, but she seemed fine.”
I stay silent. Waiting for her to continue.
“It’s odd, you know. I got affectionate towards her. Watching her reports and photographs every month. She looks like Noah.” She sniffs while talking.
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“Yea… I noticed.”
I don’t tell mom Noah thinks she is his replacement into the family. It will only make her feel worse.
“And what’s the second part of the story?”
She laughs.
“She did a DNA–ancestry test at our company a few months ago,” She tells me ruefully.
My eyes widen.
Our DNA–ancestry company–23Me and Family Tree. It is a website owned by our family.
It was a fun little project we started when I was barely a teenager. It offers family information, historical records and other genealogical information based on one’s DNA. People can use it to find distant or close relatives. Website gives them the option to contact their relatives if a match is found in our database..
“So it matched us? Are you saying data is publically available?” I exclaim.
“No. It isn’t. Of course, Miles, we are not that careless. As per company policy, if someone matches DNA with company heads, the data doesn’t show up on the website. Instead, a personal message is sent to us.”
I sigh in relief.
“So she doesn’t know…”
“Yes, she doesn’t know. Neither her mother told her, nor the DNA test was useful for her… because we withheld that
information.”
“She is looking for us…” I state. I feel bad about her.
“Yes…This is why I decided it’s time to see if she is a good fit for the family.”
I stay quiet.
“And the problem she was facing… what is it?”
“You don’t need to know about it…” Mom dismisses me.
I am glad she finally told me some details, so I didn’t push her and cut the call.
It’s unfair that my dad’s carelessness deprived Isha of a father figure in her life. I still don’t know so many things about her. But to be honest, I don’t want to know.
Not yet.
Despite being affectionate, mom is reluctant. There must be some reason. I load the dishwasher, still distracted, while thinking about the whole situation. When I am done, I turn and my eyes fall on the PI report among all the files. I have been procrastinating since this morning. Not exactly procrastinating… I have been too busy. I sigh and
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grab it to take a quick look, hoping I won’t find anything wrong, or the PI would have mentioned it.
I slowly read through the details and by the time I reach half of the report, my heartbeat quickens, and the earth moves under my feet. I turn the pages quickly and call Avery while trying to gasp the information.
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“Fucking hell!” I mutter and hastily change my clothes when she doesn’t pick up my call.
I have to see her.
Now.
