Mated To The Crippled Alpha-Chapter 207: Lost Child

Lately, every piece of news feels heavier than the last. When Lewis told me that Silas was a Hale, it hit me so hard that for a second I couldn’t breathe. It felt just as shocking as someone telling me Anna was truly my sister all along. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

I stared at him, my words stumbling over each other. "H–how is that even possible? Are you sure? Could the results be wrong? Could someone have interfered with the test?"

In my mind, Silas had always been a monster shaped by a cruel past. I thought his ruthlessness came from some dark bloodline, some criminal father who taught him how to kill without blinking. I told myself that no ordinary family could produce someone like him.

And now they were saying he belonged to the Hales?

It sounded insane.

Lewis’s voice was firm, even though his eyes were troubled. "I ran another DNA test between us personally. He is my blood relative. There’s no mistake."

My head spun. "Could he be a lost child from one of the side branches?"

"No," Lewis said quietly. "He’s from the direct line."

That only made things worse. My thoughts raced wildly. "Then... could he be Adam’s illegitimate son? Did Adam have another woman besides Vicky?"

Lewis frowned, and I could feel that he was holding something back. Big families always had secrets. Dark ones. The kind no one talked about openly. Lewis himself was born from an affair. I knew how complicated the Hale history was.

I squeezed his hand gently. "Lewis, is there something even I’m not supposed to know?"

He looked at me for a long moment, like he was fighting with himself. Finally, he said, "It’s connected to something shameful in the family."

"Tell me," I whispered.

He took a slow breath. "Adam has a twin brother."

I froze. "A twin? I’ve been around the Hales since I was eight. I’ve never heard that name. No one ever mentioned it. Not Julian. Not Jeffrey."

"That’s because he’s supposedly dead," Lewis replied.

I blinked, confused. "If he’s dead... how could he have a son?"

Lewis’s expression turned serious. "There are only two possibilities."

I waited, my heart pounding.

"First, Uncle Oliver isn’t dead. He survived somehow and fathered Silas. Second, Silas is Adam’s son... not Julian’s."

For a moment, I couldn’t even process what he was saying. "Are you serious? You think Silas could be Adam’s illegitimate child?"

Lewis shook his head slowly. "I know Adam well. He’s always been devoted. If he hadn’t been, Esther wouldn’t have suffered the way she did. After Esther died, he brought Vicky home almost immediately. I don’t believe he had a secret child."

I felt uneasy. "But Julian and Adam look so alike."

Lewis’s eyes darkened. "Elena, I just told you. Adam has a twin. You can’t judge this by appearance."

The idea slowly settled into my mind. "So you think... Oliver might still be alive?"

"It’s possible," Lewis said quietly. "If he is alive, he could have switched Adam’s son years ago to take revenge on the Hales."

The thought made my skin crawl. If Oliver had been pulling the strings all along, then everything Anna getting close to Julian, Silas infiltrating us suddenly made sense.

But another thought disturbed me even more.

If Silas was Adam’s son... then he was Lewis’s nephew.

And right now, Silas was barely alive. We were the ones keeping him that way.

He was the man who killed me.

Everything felt tangled and wrong.

Lewis stood there in silence, clearly weighed down by it all. If Oliver was alive, then this wasn’t just about destroying the Sanders. It was about tearing the Hales apart from the inside.

"Lewis," I said softly, trying to steady him and myself, "let’s not assume the worst. Let Adam and Silas do another paternity test. And include Julian too. We need clarity."

He nodded. "Alright."

I could see how complicated this was for him. "This is a grudge from the older generation," I added gently. "It’s not yours. You don’t have to carry all of it."

He had spent years away from the Hale family, avoiding their internal battles. If I hadn’t disappeared before... maybe he would have left for good.

But whether we wanted it or not, we were already inside this storm.

I pushed the plate toward him. "Enough thinking for now. Eat something. You haven’t eaten all day."

He barely touched the fork, clearly without appetite. I pretended to be annoyed. "I made this myself. You can’t waste it."

He gave me a helpless smile and patted my head. "Alright. I’ll finish it."

I wrapped my arms around his neck and pressed my cheek to his. "You’re not alone anymore, Lewis. Whatever this turns into, we face it together."

After a little more coaxing, he finished the food and left to arrange the new paternity test with Adam. Then he went to Jeffrey’s study.

I was curious about Oliver. Desperately curious. But even in marriage, there are lines you don’t cross. If Lewis didn’t want to speak more about it yet, I wouldn’t force him.

Still, my mind wouldn’t rest.

I went outside to trim the flowers in the yard, trying to clear my head. But I was so distracted that I nearly sliced my own finger.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Julian’s voice startled me. "You’re not even looking."

He studied me carefully. "I’ve been watching you for a while. You’re somewhere else. What’s going on?"

I hesitated. What if Silas wasn’t Adam’s son at all? What if everything was even more twisted?

"Why are you staring at me?" Julian asked, touching his face. "Is there something on it?"

"No," I replied quickly. I couldn’t tell him anything yet. The test results hadn’t come back. Everything was still uncertain.

He glanced toward the house. "Uncle Lewis’s been in the study for over an hour. Is something wrong?"

"Why do you care?" I snapped, irritation spilling out.

His eyes lit up in a way that annoyed me. "Did you two fight?"

I rolled my eyes. "Mind your own business. Focus on your treatment and stop poking into other people’s matters."

At that moment, Lewis came out in his wheelchair, and I walked toward him immediately.

Jeffrey’s study door was slightly open. I glanced inside and saw him standing by the window, leaning on his cane, his back facing us. Even from a distance, I could feel the loneliness around him. It hung in the air like something heavy and unspoken.

Lewis looked at Julian and said calmly, "Your grandfather is in a bad mood. If you have time, go play chess with him."

"Got it," Julian said.

Lewis’s eyes moved between us briefly, almost as if he expected some tension between me and Julian. Julian, however, seemed clueless. Completely unaware of the storm gathering over his head, still stuck on small dramas and curiosity.

If he was part of Oliver’s plan, then what role was he playing?

If he was Oliver’s son... then were his kidney failure and early stomach cancer really just bad luck?

Nothing added up.

The more I thought about it, the more tangled everything became. My mind felt like it was overheating, trying to connect pieces that refused to fit together.