Julian's POV
My father's rage was a living, breathing entity in the Ancestral Hall. I stood frozen, the torn fragments of the DNA report scattered at my feet like fallen snow. What had I done?
"You ungrateful, disrespectful pup!" Adrian roared, his face contorted with fury. "Have you lost your mind? You would tear up evidence and continue to claim a child who isn't yours?"
The weight of his disappointment crashed down on me, but I couldn't back down now. Isabelle was trembling behind me, her small hand clutching my jacket. DNA or not, I'd been her father for seven years.
"I raised her," I said firmly, though my voice betrayed my inner turmoil. "Blood doesn't change that."
My father's eyes flashed red. "And what of your true daughter? The one who died while you played house with this woman's bastard child?"
His words cut through me like silver blades. Violet. My daughter... the child I could barely remember. The guilt was suffocating.
