Chapter 794

"However, I've questioned the veteran staff at the orphanage," Jonathan continued. "When my wife was found, she was blue from the cold and weighed just over five pounds. She was probably a premature baby."

Steven sat back down across from Jonathan. He yanked at his collar, loosening it to allow his shallow, rapid breathing to finally steady.

"How did the White family manage to misidentify her back then?"

Steven didn't believe for a second that Jonathan hadn't investigated this.

The Whites had no logical reason to intentionally claim the wrong daughter, so who had manipulated the situation to lead them to Anneliese? And why?

Jonathan shook his head. "Years ago, Anneliese's adoptive parents took her to the police station to voluntarily enter her DNA into the national anti-trafficking database. When the Whites discovered their daughter wasn't biologically theirs, they registered their DNA as well. That's how the database flagged a match and established the initial parental link."

"But clearly," Jonathan's voice grew colder, "someone tampered with her DNA record. I eventually tracked down a clerk at the precinct who had altered the data the very day before the White family submitted theirs. Two months after Anneliese was 'recognized' by the Whites, the clerk took early retirement due to lung cancer and moved to Oceaton for treatment. Despite receiving top-tier medical care, he didn't pull through and passed away the following year.

"I looked into his finances, too. Whoever bribed him was incredibly cautious-likely using cash. No one in his circle noticed him meeting anyone suspicious. The trail went cold right there."

Steven frowned. "The White family didn't run a second paternity test on their own?"

While the Whites weren't a major powerhouse, they were a family of means in Oceaton. They shouldn't have been that careless with something as significant as identifying a child.

"They did. The test was conducted at a private lab in Oceaton. I pulled the surveillance footage from that day. It was White's secretary who went to pick up the results. The footage shows the secretary bumping into a man right at the lab's entrance. That must have been when the envelopes were swapped. But the man was heavily bundled up; the cameras never caught his face. It was a dead end."

"Someone really went to great lengths to orchestrate all of this," Steven remarked with a dark, hollow laugh, his eyes deepening.

Jonathan looked at him intently. "Anneliese was taken in by the Whites nearly five years ago. Did anything significant happen within the Malone family during that time?"

Steven's gaze sharpened, meeting Jonathan's eyes head-on.

He was indeed suspecting that Anneliese might be his biological sister-that the baby his mother gave birth to hadn't died but had been swapped and abandoned in far-off Baytree.

He wasn't surprised Jonathan had connected the dots either; the man was far too sharp to miss it i Jonathan hadn't harbored the same suspicion, he wouldn't have been this forthcoming with the details.

Steven thought back to the timeline Jonathan provided.

Suddenly, his expression shifted, and his hand clenched tightly against his knee.

He had clearly remembered something. Jonathan raised an eyebrow. It seemed their theory was gaining traction.

"Nothing happened to the family as a whole," Steven said slowly. "However, five years ago, my mother had to move to Baytree for work for about six months. I remember her tinerary included several charity events. I'll have to go back and check the specifics."

The study fell into a heavy, dead silence.

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Too many coincidences were stacking up, and when coincidences pile that high, they become a certainty. Both Steven and Jonathan visibly struggling to process the implications.

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Finally, Steven broke the silence. "Jonathan, let's confirm this. Right now."

He couldn't wait another second.

Jonathan shot him a look but said nothing. He simply stood up and headed toward the door.