In a hospital waiting room thick with anxiety, Eric Forrester sat frozen, gripping a sealed DNA envelope that felt as heavy as a tombstone. His hands shook. His pulse thundered. And when he finally tore open the report inside, his world collapsed.
Steffy Forrester… is not Ridge’s biological daughter.
The clinical line —
“No biological relation detected.”
— hit him like a dagger straight to the heart.
Hours earlier, Steffy had approached him with a trembling voice, her eyes hollow, her breath barely steady:
“Granddad… I’m not Ridge’s daughter. I’ve known for weeks.”
Eric’s world went silent.
He stared at her, unable to process the words. She was terrified — terrified of losing her father, terrified of tearing the family apart, terrified of the truth becoming a weapon in the wrong hands.
As Eric replayed her confession, the DNA report blurred in front of him. Decades of memories — Ridge cutting her first dance recital ribbon, teaching her to swim, comforting her after her mother’s disappearance — now flickered like shattered glass.
None of it made sense.
None of it felt real.
But the agony didn’t end there.
The report contained something even more explosive — a confidential second page naming a potential biological father. The moment Eric’s eyes landed on the name, he felt his heart stop.
It wasn’t a stranger.
It wasn’t a forgotten fling.
It was someone inside their circle — someone whose involvement could obliterate the Forrester family from within.
His voice cracked as he whispered the name aloud.
Outside the waiting room, Steffy sobbed uncontrollably, knowing Ridge would soon learn the truth. She feared the day he would look at her and no longer see his daughter — the little girl he had raised, loved, and protected.
Eric staggered to his feet, clutching the report like a ticking bomb.
How would Ridge react?
How would Taylor survive this?
How would Steffy keep breathing if the man she called “Dad” no longer recognized her as his own?
The Forrester legacy — their empire, their unity, their bloodline — now hung by a single, fraying thread.
