Chapter 536: The Erased Heir
"Some truths were never buried—they were burned."
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Maggy stared at the photo. Her hands trembled. The image was old—faded—but unmistakable.
A baby.
Wrapped in a hospital blanket.
Label: Ochieng, Male. Born 2005.
Below, scribbled in shaky handwriting:
> "Switched. March 2006. Do not tell Jayden."
She looked up.
The man in the serpent pin was gone.
Only the faint scent of cologne remained—amber and blood.
She turned the photo over.
There was a second note:
> "Look beneath the school chapel. The truth was buried alive."
Tielen sat in the server room, fingers dancing over the keyboard.
He'd cracked into the school's black files—a locked database only the founders had access to. And what he saw made him pause.
One student ID had two birth certificates.
Jayden Omondi.
Jayden Ochieng.
Same photo. Different dates. Different signatures.
One… sealed by Chancellor Hugo himself.
He reached for his phone, dialing Jayden.
It didn't ring.
Because Jayden was already there—behind him.
"I need you to tell me the truth, Tielen."
Tielen spun around. "I just found it."
Jayden's voice was ice.
"Then tell me why my real birth certificate is signed a year after I was supposedly born."
--
Maggy moved fast. She knew the school's underground tunnels better than anyone. She'd explored them when they were kids—before everything got complicated.
At the far end of the crypt, beneath the forgotten chapel, she found a sealed stone slab.
A name engraved on it.
A. Ochieng
She pried it open.
Inside… a coffin. But no body.
Just ashes.
And an envelope.
She opened it.
A single sentence burned into the paper:
> "He was your brother. Until they decided you were more useful."
Behind her, a creak.
A figure in a priest's robes.
"I see you've come for the sins of the past," he said.
It was Chancellor Hugo.
---
Jayden and Tielen burst into the chapel. They heard voices—faint, echoing.
Maggy stood beside the open coffin, staring down Hugo.
"You knew," she said.
Hugo nodded, not denying it.
"We chose the stronger one."
"You stole a child's life!"
"We preserved the dynasty," Hugo snapped. "You think this is about identity? No, it's about survival. Jayden was engineered to endure what the other never could."
Jayden stepped forward.
"Tell me who I really am."
Hugo reached into his coat.
Pulled out an old key.
"Unlock the painting in the main hall," he said. "Behind it is the file. Your file. The one even I couldn't change."
Then he swallowed a hidden pill.
Collapsed before their eyes.
---
Jayden stood over Hugo's body. His expression unreadable.
Tielen cursed under his breath. "Another dead end."
Maggy walked up, placing the baby photo in Jayden's hand.
"I think this is you," she whispered.
He took it. Stared. Said nothing.
Then he turned to both of them.
"I'm done playing prince."
"What do you mean?" Maggy asked.
"I'm going to find the real heir."
"And if he's dead?"
Jayden looked her in the eye.
"Then I'll become him."
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