“Is Dr. Atkinson’s real name Elliana?” Jenifer asked, curiosity sharpening her words.

Rita’s face lit up at the mention of the precious name.

“Yes. She told me I was the one who named her. She also said my husband is Arthur Campbell, the head of the Sun Group, and my son is Milton Campbell, the heir apparent.”

“What?” Jenifer gasped, utterly stunned.

Kaleb, Edgar, and Elsie stood frozen, thunderstruck. If Dr. Atkinson was Elliana Campbell, daughter of Arthur Campbell—the same Arthur who led the Sun Group—then the implications were enormous. Elliana’s connections reached far beyond the Thompson household. If what Rita claimed was true, Elliana was bound by blood and marriage to powerful families: the Campbells and, by association, to the Evanses through her marriage.

A heavy silence settled. The room brimmed with new, complicated questions: Why had Elliana hidden her identity? Why had she come disguised as a man? Was her sudden appearance merely coincidence, or part of something larger?

Kaleb’s jaw tightened.

“Fetch her,” he repeated to the butler, his voice low and controlled.

“Bring her here now.”

As servants scrambled to obey, eyes in the room darted between Rita and the doorway through which Elliana and Levi had departed hours before. The Thompson family had been rocked by truth upon truth, and the prospect that Elliana might be both their lost daughter’s savior and a scion of an influential house left them unmoored.

Rita swallowed, her hands trembling slightly as she recalled her daughter’s confident face.

“She found me today,” she said softly.

“She recognized me. She called me Rita.”

Those simple words—spoken with such certainty—hung in the air like a promise. The Thompsons prepared themselves for an answer that could either bind them to one more astonishing miracle or unveil yet another deception.

Even the Thompsons—one of the world’s most powerful clans—knew where their influence ended. Two empires commanded their respect: the Sun Group, led by Arthur Campbell, and the Evans Group, headed by Cole Evans. These were not houses the family could afford to cross.

Among the rising generation of heirs, Cole and Milton stood at the summit. Their names echoed through Thompson family conversations like mantras—admired, envied, and approached with caution. Only weeks earlier the Thompsons had been plotting ways to build bridges with those titans. The idea that the Evans president’s wife might walk through their doors claiming Thompson blood had never even crossed their minds.

Any lingering doubt that Dr. Atkinson was putting on an act vanished instantly. A woman of her reputation had no reason to deceive them; her account carried the weight of truth.

A spark of something like fire lit Kaleb’s, Edgar’s, and Elsie’s eyes as realization set in. Where they had once admired the idea of claiming such brilliance for their family, that vague wish had suddenly become reality.

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