I Raised the Heir He Tried to Steal

Anyone watching would have read it exactly the way she wanted: furious that Cole Graves had secretly swapped the babies, and at the same time thrilled, overjoyed to discover her own son had turned out so remarkable. That performance couldn't have been pulled off without rehearsing it a few hundred times. "Cole, how could you be so foolish!" "If you adored your nephew that much, you could have just been good to him and left it at that. How could you go and switch the children?" "To me, whichever child I raised is my son. But how is a businesswoman like Samantha supposed to accept something like this?" My mother-in-law, Moira Winters, was pinching her own thigh hard enough to keep from laughing out loud. "What's done is done. Arguing over right and wrong now is pointless." "If you ask me, this isn't even a bad thing. Samantha's boy has cerebral palsy, he can't inherit the company anyway. Clay is a clever child, so it's only fitting he takes it over." "Yes, the fortune belongs to the Hensons, but the Hensons and the Graves are joined by marriage. We were always one family. No need to draw such sharp lines." My parents were livid. They struck Cole across the face, several times. "Cole Graves, don't take us for fools." "Spare us the wounded innocence. You switched those babies on purpose, and what you were after was the Henson family fortune." "Otherwise, why would you say nothing all these years, and choose today of all days to speak up, the very day Clay inherits the company?" Three: Cole cupped his cheek. Years of my parents' authority kept him from talking back, but the impatience still bled through his voice. "Samantha, help me reason with your parents. You really can't misunderstand me like this." "I only wanted to do a good thing. I meant to wait until you and Clay had grown close before telling you. But I never expected our own child to have cerebral palsy, and back then you were still in your confinement after giving birth. If I'd told you then, how could you possibly have accepted it?" But now that it's out in the open. It's not just my parents and I who can't accept it. My son and daughter-in-law can't either. The two of them wore hard expressions, ignoring every word out of Cole's mouth, their faces full of open contempt for him. That was something Cole hadn't anticipated. All through Clay's childhood, he'd spoken well of Catherine Lawrence again and again in front of him. Every one of those kind words had been planted for this very day. Yet he'd never imagined Clay wouldn't buy a single one of them. So his tone turned ugly. "Clay, you may carry the Henson name, but the blood in your veins belongs to the Graves and the Lawrences." "You can't turn into some ungrateful traitor just because the Hensons have more money." "Don't forget, in all this, your birth mother and your adoptive mother are both victims. You're the one who came out ahead." "The Hensons answer to you now. There's nothing stopping you from claiming both mothers, honoring both mothers. The way you honor them can differ, that's all. Nothing in this world runs deeper than blood." The moment he finished. Catherine Lawrence dropped to her knees before me as well. "Samantha, to you Clay is nothing but a tool. But to me he's my own flesh and blood, my son." "All these years I believed my son had cerebral palsy. I stayed by her side and endured that torment, but every bit of it was suffering I bore in your place. I don't blame you. I only beg you, give Clay back to me." "As for the Henson company, you're free to take it back. Don't let Clay inherit it." Four: I let out one cold laugh after another. Nothing that happened today surprised me in the least. And Catherine saying all this didn't mean she truly wanted only her son and not the money. She wasn't a fool. Changing the head of a company isn't as simple as swapping out a table or a chair. Clay had been at the firm for years; I couldn't dismiss him with a sentence or two. Even if I really did throw Clay out of the Henson family, it would gut the company.

On top of everything, I'd have to bring my "real son" home. Then everyone would know: the next heir to the Henson family was brain-damaged. And I wasn't young anymore. I couldn't risk my life to give birth again. So no matter how capable I was, I couldn't stop the Henson family business from being swallowed by rival firms for lack of an heir. The best option now was for me to accept Clay as the Henson heir, or to beg Clay to have a second child who'd keep the Henson name and carry the family on, generation after generation. Either way, no matter how you looked at it. My family would take a devastating blow. But I didn't say a word. I only looked at Clay, standing off to the side. "Clay, what do you make of all this?" Clay couldn't hold back any longer. He'd been raised on my teaching since he was small. He was no fool, and of course he could see this was a scheme. Cole and the other two knew that swapping the head of a company wasn't like swapping out tables and chairs. That was exactly why they'd chosen today to spring it. And the way he saw it, he had only one mother. Me. So his words weren't gentle. "No matter what you say, I won't believe a word of it." "You're deliberately targeting my mom, going after the Henson family's fortune." "No wonder something always felt off to me. My mom thought you were still young and suggested you remarry, but you refused." "And all these years, you were so good to me. You knew about the swap all along. You were counting on me finding out I was your son so I'd help you go after my mom!" "You people are disgusting." Five: The moment Clay said it. He ripped the last shred of cover clean off the three of them. Catherine shook her head over and over. "That's not it." "I was only good to you because I thought my son was brain-damaged. Seeing you healthy, I always felt like I was looking at my own boy." "Now that I think about it, maybe that's what they call a mother and son's hearts being tied together." Not even a ghost would believe a word of it. Least of all me. Back then, during my confinement, I'd had a hard delivery, so I never learned much about how that child ended up brain-damaged. But once my confinement was over, my mother let something slip to me. "You and your sister-in-law gave birth at the same time. We deliberately arranged the same delivery room and postpartum nurse for her as for you. But your sister-in-law and your mother-in-law, who knows what got into them, wouldn't trust a soul. They insisted on caring for the baby themselves." "It was so hot out, and they still wouldn't turn on the AC. They gave that baby a raging fever, plain and simple." "We got people to try and save him, but it was too late. His brain was already damaged. There was no fixing it." Putting it together with what was happening now, I was even more certain: they'd done it on purpose. They'd wanted to cripple my child, to leave me no choice but to depend on theirs. But Moira had no idea what was running through my mind. She just looked at Catherine with a heartbroken face, taking Clay's hand and pleading with him. "Your birth mother isn't like your adoptive mother. Your adoptive mother sees nothing but profit, but your birth mother is simple and kind. Swap or no swap, she'd have been good to her child no matter what." "Clay, you've been a good boy since you were little. You can't side with the Hensons just because they have money." "Samantha may be pitiful, but she kept someone else's son for all these years. Whatever pity she deserves was drowned out long ago by how much she's to blame." "We don't care about the Henson money. But if the Henson money goes to you, at most it's just making up for what was done to you!" Six: The room fell into chaos in no time. My parents were livid. "Every last cent of the Henson family's money, we'd sooner give it all away to charity than hand it to people as vicious as you!"

Mom and Dad had always been in good health. But I was still afraid they might snap under the strain, so I called the family doctor at once to check on them. Clay and his wife wanted to come over too. Catherine and Moira held them back, though, one clinging to her son, the other to her grandson. "See? The Hensons don't care about you at all." "Don't listen to them. The Henson fortune is already yours anyway. Reclaim your true bloodline right now. Not only will your son take the Graves name, you'll take it back too, and let's see what they can do about it." Cole, meanwhile, made a show of apologizing, when all he was doing was pouring fuel on the fire. He even pinned the whole baby swap on me. "If you weren't so mercenary, why would I ever have worried about my own nephew?" "Besides, I swapped the child and you didn't even notice. That says it all about how little you cared. To you the boy was a tool. To his mother he's her whole life. Give him back to her!" In the middle of all this shouting. Clay couldn't hold back any longer. "Enough." "I don't care whether you mean well or you're doing it on purpose. The way I see it, this is a deliberate scheme to get your hands on the Henson holdings!" "Since you say I'm not my mother's child, then I'll only hold the Henson holdings in trust. I'll find a way for my cousin to have an heir, and I won't take a single cent of the fortune!" Hearing that. Something settled in my chest. It seemed these twenty-odd years of raising and teaching him hadn't been for nothing. Mom and Dad breathed easier too. Clay had kept his word since he was a boy, so at least we didn't have to worry about the fortune slipping into other hands. Still, no matter how you looked at it, what we felt most was anger. After all, we had raised Clay with our own hands, shaped him ourselves. Such a fine boy. Turned, out of nowhere, into someone else's. Who could bear that? 7: But while my heart was at ease, Cole, Catherine, and Moira had come completely undone. They didn't bother keeping up the act any longer. They dropped all pretense, gripped Clay's hand, sneered, and spoke in voices only the few of us could hear. "Clay, your cousin lost his ability to father children long ago. Either you let the child take the Graves name and take over the Henson holdings, or you stand by and watch the Henson empire fall to ruin." "And another thing. If you won't acknowledge your real mother, won't reclaim your true bloodline, we go to the media tomorrow." "I'll tell them you knew all along you were the Graves eldest son's child, and that you insisted on the Henson name purely for the money. By then everyone will think you're mercenary, that all you care about is cash!" "So if you don't do as we say, we've only got one road left. We'll take you all down with us!" Clay was too furious to speak. I let out a sigh. At last I spoke. "Cole, Catherine, well said." "But I can't agree to your terms, because..." Before I could finish. Catherine dropped to her knees at once, kowtowing and wailing. "I don't care what name the child takes, but he's the only child my husband and I ever had." "Just let the baby in your daughter-in-law's belly carry the Graves name." "We'll move in together from now on. We won't mistreat you, and the children will honor us together." Cole knelt again as well. He said in a low voice. "Samantha, think it through. Better we all rise together, or all go down together." I reached out. I helped them both to their feet. "At least give me the chance to say my piece, won't you?" "I've wanted to say this from the very beginning. This matter may not be as simple as you think." "Back when my elder brother-in-law passed, his widow was beside herself with grief, and Cole whispered in my ear ten thousand times a day, begging me to adopt the nephew." "The truth is, I would have been willing. But I was afraid my parents wouldn't allow it." "I didn't want to make my husband unhappy, and I didn't want to anger my parents." "So in a fog of confusion, I came up with a foolish plan." "On the second day after the two babies were born, when they were being bathed, I... secretly swapped them."