I Returned as the True Heir

Ch-7 this wasn't in the novel

Ethan was watching them.

Ryan noticed it eventually.

Not immediately.

His attention was still on the anonymous messages glowing on his phone.

You saved her this time.

But how many of them can you save before you forget what happens next?

Ryan read the words once more.

A cold feeling settled in his stomach.

Someone knew too much.

Not just that Victoria’s accident had been supposed to happen.

The sender knew Ryan had remembered it.

That should have been impossible.

Ryan had told no one about the novel.

No one knew he had lived another life.

No one even knew he wasn’t truly the Ryan Harrington who had disappeared fifteen years ago.

At least…

That was what he had believed.

“Ryan?”

Victoria’s voice pulled him back.

He locked the phone.

“I’m fine.”

“You don’t look fine.”

“I haven’t looked fine since I arrived here.”

Under normal circumstances, Sophia would have laughed.

She didn’t.

Richard was still speaking to the security team.

Catherine stood beside Victoria, holding her daughter’s hand tightly.

Emma had gone unusually quiet.

And Ethan—

Ethan wasn’t looking at Ryan anymore.

He was looking at Richard.

Then Catherine.

Then Victoria.

Then the sisters.

Studying them.

Ryan frowned.

What’s his problem?

Victoria’s eyes moved toward Ethan before she could stop herself.

Ethan caught it.

His gaze sharpened.

Ryan missed the exchange.

He was thinking about the sender.

They knew I would remember Victoria’s accident.

Richard heard him.

So either they know the novel…

Catherine’s fingers tightened around Victoria’s.

Or they know me.

Nobody spoke.

Ryan hated both possibilities.

⸻

An hour later, the family gathered in Richard’s study.

The security chief, Daniel Moore, stood near the desk with a tablet.

“The preliminary inspection confirms that the brake line was damaged.”

Victoria’s face went pale.

Catherine inhaled sharply.

Richard’s expression hardened.

“Damaged how?”

“Cut.”

Silence.

Ryan leaned back.

There it was.

Not an accident.

Murder.

Or attempted murder now that Victoria was alive.

“Could it have happened outside the property?” Richard asked.

Daniel shook his head.

“The vehicle hadn’t left the estate since yesterday evening.”

“So someone did it here.”

“Yes.”

Emma looked toward the windows.

“In our house?”

“On the estate,” Daniel corrected.

“That doesn’t make it better.”

No one disagreed.

Ryan rubbed his thumb against the arm of his chair.

Who had access to the garage in the original novel?

He searched his memory.

Nothing.

Come on.

Still nothing.

He remembered reading about Victoria’s funeral.

Catherine had been devastated.

Richard had become colder.

Sophia and Emma had changed.

The family had started falling apart.

But the actual investigation?

Barely mentioned.

Or Ryan had skipped it.

Probably the second.

Fantastic.

Sophia heard him and lowered her gaze.

Daniel continued.

“We’re reviewing footage and access records.”

Richard asked, “Was the garage camera working?”

A pause.

“Yes.”

Ryan immediately looked up.

“And?”

Daniel’s jaw tightened.

“Someone erased twenty-three minutes of footage.”

Ryan laughed once.

There was no humor in it.

“Of course they did.”

Ethan spoke from across the room.

“Using whose access code?”

Everyone looked at him.

Daniel hesitated.

Ethan’s expression remained calm.

“Well?”

“Yours.”

The room went still.

Again.

Ryan slowly turned toward Ethan.

Ethan didn’t move.

“My code?”

“Yes.”

“The same one used to disable Ryan’s hallway camera?”

“Yes.”

Ethan laughed.

This time he sounded genuinely angry.

“So now I’m supposed to have stolen Mom’s necklace, framed Ryan, hidden the necklace in my own room, and tried to kill Victoria?”

“No one said that,” Catherine replied.

“They don’t need to.”

Ethan stood.

His chair scraped against the floor.

“Someone is using my security credentials.”

Richard nodded.

“That appears likely.”

Ethan seemed surprised.

“You believe me?”

“Your code being involved twice makes it less convincing, not more.”

Ryan almost smiled.

Exactly.

Ethan’s eyes moved toward him.

Ryan’s expression remained neutral.

If Ethan were doing this himself, he’d have to be unbelievably stupid.

Richard’s mouth twitched.

And annoyingly, he doesn’t seem stupid.

Sophia looked down quickly.

Ethan watched them again.

Ryan noticed this time.

“What?”

Ethan turned toward him.

“What?”

“You keep staring at everyone.”

“I could say the same about you.”

“I stare because you’re acting weird.”

Emma made a tiny choking sound.

Ethan looked toward her.

Then something shifted in his expression.

Suspicion.

Ryan narrowed his eyes.

He’s noticed something.

Five members of the Harrington family immediately became more careful.

Ryan didn’t know why.

Ethan sat again.

“Nothing.”

Ryan stared at him another second before looking away.

⸻

Daniel left to continue the investigation.

Richard ordered Victoria to work from home until they knew who had sabotaged her car.

She argued for exactly thirty seconds.

Then Ryan thought—

Does she have a death wish?

Victoria stopped arguing.

Ryan blinked.

“That was easy.”

Victoria gave him a flat look.

“I changed my mind.”

“Good.”

He stood.

“I need air.”

Catherine immediately said, “Take security.”

Ryan sighed.

“I’m walking in the garden.”

“Take security.”

“Mom.”

Catherine froze.

Ryan did too.

It was the second time he’d called her that naturally.

He looked away.

“Fine.”

Her expression softened.

“Thank you.”

Ryan left before the moment became uncomfortable.

Two security guards followed him at a distance.

The Harrington estate was enormous.

He walked toward the rear garden, hands in his pockets.

He needed to think.

Someone had targeted Victoria.

Someone was using Ethan’s credentials.

Melissa had disappeared.

Someone knew Ryan remembered events from the novel.

And his family had been behaving strangely since the moment he arrived.

One problem at a time.

He reached a stone fountain.

His phone buzzed.

Ryan stopped.

Unknown number.

His heartbeat changed.

He opened the message.

You are looking in the wrong direction.

Ryan stared.

Another arrived.

The accident wasn’t meant for Victoria.

His brows pulled together.

“What?”

A third message.

Check who was originally supposed to use that car today.

Ryan went still.

Victoria.

Obviously.

It was her car.

Unless—

He turned around.

One of the guards was speaking into his earpiece.

The other stood near the path.

Ryan searched his memory of breakfast.

Victoria had planned to go to work.

Her driver had taken the car after she canceled.

Nothing unusual.

Then a detail surfaced.

Yesterday.

At dinner.

Someone had mentioned a meeting.

No.

Wrong memory.

Ryan pressed his fingers to his temple.

Think.

A flash.

The novel.

The biological heir.

A car.

Not Victoria.

Ryan’s eyes widened.

Was the original Ryan supposed to borrow her car?

His phone buzzed.

Now you remember.

Ryan’s blood turned cold.

He looked around the garden.

Someone was watching.

Right now.

“Daniel!”

One of the guards immediately approached.

“Young Master?”

“Get me inside.”

The guard frowned.

“Is something wrong?”

“Now.”

They moved.

Ryan’s eyes scanned the trees.

Nothing.

Then he saw movement beyond the hedge.

A figure.

Black jacket.

Ryan stopped.

The figure ran.

“There!”

Both guards reacted instantly.

One chased the stranger.

The other stayed beside Ryan.

Ryan ignored the order to remain still and moved toward the hedge.

“Sir!”

“I can see him.”

“You need to go inside.”

Ryan reached the edge of the path.

The figure disappeared behind a maintenance building.

Then—

A sharp crack.

Ryan froze.

The security guard grabbed him and pulled him down.

Something struck the stone fountain behind them.

A piece of marble shattered.

Gunshot.

Ryan’s pulse exploded.

“Inside!” the guard shouted.

More security rushed from the mansion.

Ryan was dragged behind a stone wall.

For several seconds, everything became noise.

Shouting.

Running footsteps.

Commands through radios.

Ryan stayed low.

His breathing remained controlled.

But his mind was racing.

This never happened.

Inside the mansion, five Harringtons heard him.

Catherine stood so fast her chair fell backward.

There was no shooting in the novel.

Richard was already moving toward the door.

I don’t know this scene.

Catherine went white.

Those words frightened her more than anything Ryan had thought before.

Because until now, even incomplete, Ryan had known pieces of what was coming.

This time he knew nothing.

⸻

Security locked down the estate.

The shooter escaped.

They found a motorcycle abandoned near a service road.

No plates.

No fingerprints.

Ryan sat in Richard’s study thirty minutes later while Catherine inspected him for injuries for the fourth time.

“I’m fine.”

“You could have been shot.”

“But I wasn’t.”

“That isn’t comforting.”

Ryan looked at Victoria.

“Tell her.”

Victoria crossed her arms.

“I agree with Mom.”

“Traitor.”

For the first time since the accident, Victoria smiled.

Sophia handed Ryan water.

Emma stood unusually close to him.

Richard entered.

His expression was grim.

“They found this near the maintenance building.”

He placed something on the desk.

A photograph.

Ryan picked it up.

It showed him.

Not twenty-year-old Ryan.

A child.

Five years old.

Standing beside his nanny.

This time her face wasn’t scratched out.

She was young, perhaps twenty-five, with dark hair and gentle eyes.

On the back was a handwritten sentence.

Ryan turned it over.

HE WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO COME BACK.

Catherine gasped.

Ryan stared at the handwriting.

Something inside him shifted.

A memory.

Rain.

The nanny gripping his shoulders.

Her terrified face.

“Run, Ryan.”

A car approaching.

“Don’t let them take you back.”

Ryan’s breath stopped.

Catherine grabbed his arm.

“What did you remember?”

Ryan looked at her.

“She wasn’t taking me away from this family.”

Richard went still.

Ryan looked down at the photograph.

“She was running away with me.”

“From whom?” Victoria asked.

Ryan closed his eyes.

The memory returned for half a second.

A man standing beside a black car.

A familiar voice.

A hand wearing a silver ring.

Then darkness.

Ryan opened his eyes.

“I don’t know.”

His phone vibrated.

Everyone stared at it.

Ryan opened the newest message.

Good. You’re finally remembering.

Then another.

But your memories aren’t the only thing changing.

Ryan frowned.

A final message appeared.

Ask yourself why the people around you suddenly know exactly when to believe you.

Ryan stopped breathing.

Across the room, Richard’s face changed.

Catherine went pale.

Victoria, Sophia, and Emma became completely still.

Ryan slowly raised his head.

For the first time, he looked at his family differently.

And Ethan, standing unnoticed outside the half-open study door, saw every one of their frightened faces.