The notification on Duncan Brown’s phone buzzed during a tense dinner. He sat at the head of the mahogany table, while his wife, Valerie, and her daughter, Catherine, picked at their salads. The house felt heavy with the same old gloom—the guilt Duncan carried for how he had treated Fiona before she "died" in that accident three years ago.

He glanced at the screen. It was an encrypted message from an unknown number. He opened the attachment, and his heart nearly stopped. It was a photo of a woman in a bed. She was thin and pale, but those were Fiona’s eyes.

The text below it read: The daughter you buried isn’t Fiona, she is alive in California. If you want her back, bring your passport and go to the helipad at Pier 7. Tell no one if you want her to stay safe.

"Duncan? Is everything alright?" Valerie asked, her eyes narrowing with suspicion. "You look like you’ve seen a ghost."

Duncan quickly locked his phone, his hands trembling under the table. He couldn’t trust Valerie. She had never liked Fiona, and Catherine had always been too happy to take Fiona’s place in the family. If they knew she was alive, they might call the press or the police, and the message had been clear: Stay silent.

"It’s just... work," Duncan lied, his voice sounding hollow. "The merger in Singapore is falling apart. I have to go to the office and handle a conference call. It might take all night."

"On a Tuesday?" Catherine sighed, rolling her eyes. "Can’t your assistants handle it?"

"No, this is big," Duncan said, standing up so fast his chair scraped the floor. "I have to go. Don’t wait up for me."

He didn’t pack a bag. He grabbed his passport from the safe in his study and slipped out the back door.

An hour later, the cool wind of the docks hit his face as he approached the black helicopter. A man in a dark suit stepped out.

"Mr. Brown?" the man asked. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"I have my passport," Duncan said, his breath hitching. "Is it true? Is she really alive?"

"Get in, sir," the pilot replied. "The boss is waiting for you."

Duncan Brown sat in the back of the helicopter, his hands shaking as he gripped his passport. He looked at the photo on his phone one more time—the one the anonymous sender had sent him. It was a blurry, candid shot of a woman in a hospital bed. She looked pale, but there was no mistaking those eyes. They were his wife’s eyes. They were Fiona’s eyes.

"We’re landing, sir," the pilot shouted over the roar of the blades.

They touched down at the California villa. Duncan stepped out, squinting against the warm wind. A man in a clean-shaven, expensive suit walked toward him. Duncan recognized him immediately.

"Nathan Keith?" Duncan gasped. "You... you were the one who sent the message? You let me believe she was dead! You let me bury her!"

Nathan didn’t flinch. "I thought she was dead too, Duncan. We were all lied to. But I found her. And I need you to help me bring her back."

Nathan led him inside to the medical suite. When Duncan saw Fiona lying there—looking so much like the girl he had once shouted at and blamed—he fell to his knees by the bed.

"Fiona..." he sobbed, reaching for her hand.

"Don’t wake her yet," Dr. Aris said softly, stepping forward with a sterile kit.

"She thinks she is someone else," Nathan warned, his voice low. "She’s been drugged for years to believe she is a Russian woman named Viktoria. She doesn’t remember anything from the last years, and her memories of us are scrambled."

Dr. Aris stepped forward, holding a medical kit. "Mr. Brown, I’m Dr. Aris. To break the brainwashing, she needs to see undeniable proof. We need to run a DNA test right now. It will prove to her—and the world—that she is your daughter and not Nikolai Volkov’s wife."

Duncan didn’t even blink. "Do it. I’ll do anything. I already failed her once; I won’t let her stay lost in a lie."

As Aris placed the samples into a high-speed machine, the room fell silent. Nathan stood by the window, his eyes on the monitors, while Duncan sat by the bed, weeping silently as he watched his daughter breathe.

"She looks so different," Duncan whispered, his voice cracking. "But it’s her. I can feel it."

Nathan stood by the wall, watching the older man with cold eyes. Nathan knew exactly what kind of father Duncan had been. He hadn’t forgotten how Fiona used to cry because her own father wouldn’t look her in the eye.

"You didn’t protect her then, Duncan," Nathan said, his voice hard. "You let Valerie and Catherine treat her like garbage. You stood by and did nothing while they broke her spirit. You’re only here because your DNA is the one thing Nikolai can’t fake."

Duncan winced as if Nathan had slapped him. "I know. I know I was a coward. I thought... I thought if I stayed quiet, the house would be peaceful. I was wrong."

Suddenly, the monitors began to beep a little faster. Fiona’s head moved on the pillow. Her eyes fluttered, then opened slowly. She blinked against the light, her gaze drifting around the room until it landed on the man sitting next to her.

"Dad?" she whispered.

Duncan froze. He hadn’t heard her call him that in years.

"Fiona," Duncan choked out, reaching for her hand but then pulling back, afraid she would shrink away from him.

Fiona’s brow furrowed. She looked confused, her mind still trapped in the "fake dating" days. "Why are you crying?"

She looked at Nathan, her eyes wide with a sudden, old fear. "Nathan, is my dad okay? Did something happen at the house? Why is he looking at me like that?"

Nathan stepped forward, his heart breaking for her. Even with her memory half-gone, her first instinct was to wonder if she was in trouble with her family.

"No one is in trouble, cupcake," Nathan said softly, glaring at Duncan to stay quiet for a second. "Your father just... he missed you. He came a long way to see you."

Fiona looked back at Duncan. She didn’t look happy; she looked wary, like a dog that expected to be kicked. "You came for me?"

Duncan sobbed openly now, covering his face with his hands. "I’m sorry, Fiona. I am so, so sorry for everything. For the silence. For all the times I didn’t speak up."

"I don’t understand," Fiona said, her voice trembling. "Why is everyone apologizing? Nathan, what’s going on?"