Chapter 9
Detective Harris arrived at the cabin before midnight.
This time, nobody argued when he said they were moving.
“If Victor knew Elena six years ago, we assume he knows more than we thought.”
Audrey packed while Poppy sat sleepily on the couch.
“Where are we going now?”
“A safer place.”
Poppy frowned.
“I liked this one.”
“I know.”
“Bad people ruin everything.”
Audrey stopped packing.
She sat beside her daughter.
“Bad people can make things harder.”
Poppy looked at her.
“But they don’t get to ruin everything unless we let them.”
“Can I ruin Grandma’s birthday?”
Audrey stared.
Then Elena choked on a laugh from the kitchen.
Even Harris almost smiled.
“We’ll discuss that later.”
They moved to a protected apartment used for witnesses involved in active investigations.
Nobody told Poppy that.
She called it “the secret house.”
The next morning, Harris interviewed Elena again.
Audrey listened.
“When you saw Victor at the hospital, what happened?”
“I asked what he was doing.”
“What did he say?”
“That Margaret wanted photographs for the foster family.”
“Did he touch Poppy?”
“I don’t know.”
Elena’s voice shook.
“I was medicated. I fell asleep again.”
“Did you tell anyone?”
“A nurse.”
“Name?”
“I don’t remember.”
Harris showed Elena old staff photographs.
After several minutes, she pointed.
“That woman.”
Harris checked the name.
Linda Mercer.
Retired.
Still living nearby.
By afternoon, they located her.
Linda remembered Elena.
And Victor.
“He wasn’t supposed to be there,” Linda told Harris over video.
“What happened?”
“I found him in the maternity corridor twice.”
“Did you report him?”
“Yes.”
“To whom?”
“Hospital security.”
“Were police contacted?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Linda looked uncomfortable.
“Margaret Bennett was on the hospital board.”
Audrey closed her eyes.
Of course.
“She said he was assisting with a private adoption.”
Harris asked, “Did you ever see him near the baby?”
Linda hesitated.
“Once.”
“What was he doing?”
“Taking a cotton swab from her mouth.”
Everyone froze.
“A DNA sample?” Harris asked.
“That was my assumption later.”
Audrey felt sick.
Why would Victor test Poppy’s DNA?
Harris asked the obvious question.
“Did Margaret know?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel arrived during the call.
When Harris explained, Daniel went silent.
Then he said, “Samuel.”
Audrey turned.
“What?”
“What if Victor was trying to determine whether Poppy was biologically related to someone in the Bennett family?”
“That makes no sense.”
Daniel looked at Elena.
“Who was Poppy’s biological father?”
Elena’s face tightened.
“A man named Michael.”
“Last name?”
She hesitated.
“Reed.”
Harris wrote it down.
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
“When did you last see him?”
“Before Poppy was born.”
Daniel opened his laptop.
“Michael Reed is common.”
Elena shook her head.
“That wasn’t his real name.”
Audrey stared.
“What?”
Elena looked embarrassed.
“I found out later.”
“What was his real name?”
“I don’t know.”
Audrey’s pulse began racing.
“How did you meet him?”
“At a hotel where I worked.”
“What hotel?”
“The Hawthorne.”
Daniel stopped typing.
Audrey noticed.
“What?”
“The Bennett company owned the Hawthorne.”
Elena looked confused.
“I didn’t know that.”
“When?”
“Six years ago?”
“Yes.”
Daniel turned the laptop.
“Grant was overseeing that property.”
Audrey’s stomach turned.
“No.”
Elena stared.
“What?”
Audrey looked at her carefully.
“When did you meet Michael?”
“Almost a year before Poppy was born.”
“Can you describe him?”
“Tall. Dark hair. Green eyes.”
Grant had dark hair.
Brown eyes.
Audrey hated where her mind was going.
“Do you have a picture?”
Elena shook her head.
“He hated photos.”
Harris leaned forward.
“Did he ever mention Grant Bennett?”
“No.”
“Margaret?”
“No.”
“Thomas Avery?”
Elena froze.
Audrey saw it.
“What?”
Elena looked confused.
“He used the name Tom once.”
Daniel went still.
“What do you mean?”
“He got a phone call. He answered, ‘Tom speaking.’ I asked why. He said it was a work joke.”
Harris and Daniel exchanged a look.
Audrey whispered, “Thomas Avery was dead by then.”
Daniel nodded.
Unless another Avery used the name.
Ethan?
No.
Ethan was younger than Grant.
Audrey’s phone rang.
Daniel answered before she did.
It was Ethan.
He had landed in New York.
He was on his way to meet Claire.
Daniel put him on speaker.
Audrey asked, “Ethan, did your father have other sons?”
A pause.
“What?”
“Thomas Avery. Did he have another son besides you and Grant?”
Long silence.
“Yes.”
Audrey’s heart slammed.
“What was his name?”
“Lucas.”
Daniel began searching.
“How old?”
“Forty-two now.”
“Where is he?”
“No idea.”
“When did you last see him?”
“Seven years ago.”
Audrey’s skin prickled.
“Why?”
“He disappeared after Dad died.”
“Do you have a photograph?”
“Yes.”
“Send it.”
The picture arrived seconds later.
Elena looked at the screen.
All color drained from her face.
“Oh my God.”
Audrey knew.
“That’s Michael?”
Elena began crying.
“Yes.”
Poppy’s biological father was Lucas Avery.
Grant’s half brother.
Audrey sat down.
That meant Poppy was biologically connected to Grant.
Not his daughter by blood.
His niece.
And biologically descended from Thomas Avery, Samuel’s former business partner.
Daniel stared at the documents.
“This changes the trust interpretation again.”
Audrey almost screamed.
“I don’t care.”
Everyone looked at her.
“I don’t care whose blood she has.”
She pointed toward the bedroom where Poppy was playing.
“She is my daughter.”
Daniel nodded.
“I know.”
“Then stop looking at her like she is a legal equation.”
“You’re right.”
Harris continued more carefully.
“But this may explain why Victor took DNA.”
Elena wiped her face.
“How?”
“Lucas Avery disappeared seven years ago.”
Audrey frowned.
“A year before Poppy was born?”
“No,” Ethan said through the phone. “I mean disappeared from the family. I learned later he was still in the country.”
“Did Victor know Lucas?”
“I don’t know.”
Harris asked, “What did Lucas do?”
Ethan became quiet.
“He worked around marinas.”
Audrey’s skin went cold.
“With whom?”
“Victor Cole.”
Silence filled the room.
Harris stood.
“Now we’re getting somewhere.”
Victor knew Poppy’s biological father.
Victor had photographed her.
Taken DNA.
Blackmailed Margaret.
Possibly threatened Poppy.
“Why would he care that Lucas had a child?” Audrey asked.
Ethan answered slowly.
“Because Lucas hated Grant.”
“Why?”
“Dad treated Lucas differently.”
“Thomas?”
“Yes.”
“Grant didn’t even know Thomas was his father.”
“Lucas did.”
Audrey frowned.
Ethan explained.
“Lucas found letters after Dad died. He learned Grant existed.”
“And?”
“He became obsessed.”
“With Grant?”
“With what Grant had.”
Audrey looked around the room.
Money.
Family name.
Samuel’s trust.
“Did Lucas know about the Bennett trust?”
“Probably.”
Harris’s phone rang.
He listened.
Then his expression sharpened.
“Where?”
He hung up.
“They found Margaret’s car.”
Audrey stood.
“Where?”
“Abandoned near the old Bennett marina.”
Everyone went silent.
The same marina where Richard Bennett died.
“Victor,” Audrey whispered.
Harris nodded.
“We think so.”
“What about Margaret?”
“No sign of her.”
Audrey’s phone buzzed.
A text.
Unknown number.
A video attachment.
Harris took the phone.
The video showed Margaret tied to a chair inside a dark building.
Her face was bruised.
She looked terrified.
Then a man stepped into frame.
Gray hair.
Heavy build.
Audrey recognized him from an old company photograph Harris had shown them.
Victor Cole.
He looked directly at the camera.
“Mrs. Bennett.”
Audrey’s skin crawled.
“You have something that belongs to me.”
He held up a photograph.
Poppy’s hospital picture.
“You have twelve hours.”
The camera moved.
Behind Margaret was another person.
A man tied to a second chair.
Thin.
Dark hair streaked with gray.
Elena screamed.
“Lucas.”
Poppy’s biological father.
Alive.
Victor smiled.
“Bring the contents of Samuel Bennett’s box to the marina.”
He leaned toward the camera.
“And bring Audrey alone.”
The video ended.
Harris cursed.
“You’re not going.”
Audrey barely heard him.
Elena was staring at the frozen image of Lucas.
“He’s alive.”
Her voice shook.
“He’s alive.”
For six years, Poppy had unknowingly had two biological parents somewhere in the world.
Now both had been found.
One stood beside Audrey.
The other was tied to a chair.
Audrey felt no jealousy.
Only rage.
Because Poppy’s entire life had been treated like property by people who believed secrets gave them ownership.
“No,” Audrey said.
Harris looked at her.
“No what?”
“I’m not bringing the box.”
“Good.”
“I’m bringing something better.”
Daniel frowned.
“What?”
Audrey looked at the files Samuel had left.
His journal.
His letters.
His repeated insistence that family was choice.
Then she thought of Victor.
A man who had survived for years by knowing everyone’s secrets.
“What does a blackmailer fear?”
Harris understood first.
“Exposure.”
Audrey nodded.
“We don’t give him the originals.”
Daniel’s eyes sharpened.
“We make him believe everything is already public.”
Harris crossed his arms.
“He may panic.”
“He already kidnapped two people.”
“He could kill them.”
“He could kill them if we do nothing.”
Silence.
Audrey looked toward Poppy’s room.
Her daughter appeared in the doorway.
“Is that my dad?”
Everyone froze.
Audrey turned.
Poppy pointed at the screen.
“Is that my first dad?”
Audrey walked to her.
“Yes.”
Poppy stared at Lucas’s image.
“Does he know me?”
Audrey’s throat tightened.
“I don’t know.”
“Can we save him?”
Audrey hugged her.
“We’re going to try.”
Poppy whispered against her shoulder.
“Save Grandma too.”
Audrey closed her eyes.
After everything Margaret had done—
Poppy still said it.
Save Grandma too.
That was the difference.
May you like
Margaret believed family was blood.
Poppy understood family better than any Bennett ever had.
