Chapter 9: Brooke Hears the Truth
Brooke came downstairs slowly.
Nobody knew what to say.
She stopped beside me.
“Why does she know my name?””
Natalie wiped her eyes.
Claire stepped forward.
“Brooke, go upstairs.””
“No.””
“Please.””
“I’m not six.””
Brooke looked around the room.
“You’ve all been whispering since yesterday. Maya won’t look at me. Dad disappeared with some stranger. Mom keeps crying.””
Her voice cracked.
“Is this because of the Mustang?””
Maya came closer.
“It started because of the money.””
Brooke turned toward her.
“I’m sorry.””
“I know.””
“I told Mom to return the car.””
“I know.””
That small exchange hurt more than shouting would have.
Brooke looked at Claire.
“Tell me what’s happening.””
Claire opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
So Brooke looked at me.
“Dad?””
I wanted to lie.
For five more minutes.
Five more hours.
Maybe five more years.
But that was how this disaster had started.
Adults deciding lies were kinder.
I took Brooke’s hand.
“There are things about the night you were born that your mother didn’t know.””
“Like what?””
“You are our biological daughter.””
Brooke frowned.
“Obviously.””
Claire began crying.
Brooke’s face changed.
“Why would you need to tell me that?””
I pulled out the DNA report.
“Because your mother spent sixteen years believing you weren’t.””
Brooke stared at Claire.
“What?””
Claire stepped closer.
“When you were born, someone told me our baby had died.””
Brooke pulled her hand from mine.
“What are you saying?””
Claire’s voice trembled.
“My sister Rebecca had a newborn too. I believed she gave me her baby.””
Brooke stared at her.
“You thought I was somebody else’s child?””
“Yes.””
“And Dad?””
“He didn’t know.””
Brooke looked at me.
“You thought I was yours?””
“Every second of your life.””
That was the simplest truth I had.
Brooke’s eyes filled.
Then she looked back at Claire.
“You lied to Dad about me for sixteen years?””
Claire nodded.
Brooke backed away.
“And Maya’s college money?””
“I used it because someone threatened to expose everything.””
Brooke’s face crumpled.
“So you stole Maya’s future because you were scared Dad would find out I wasn’t his.””
Claire whispered, “Yes.””
“But I am his.””
“Yes.””
Brooke laughed once.
It was a terrible sound.
“So all of this was for nothing.””
Claire reached for her.
Brooke jerked away.
“Don’t.””
Natalie quietly moved toward the door.
Brooke noticed.
“Wait.””
Natalie stopped.
“Who are you?””
“Natalie Bennett.””
“Rebecca’s daughter?””
“Yes.””
Brooke swallowed.
“Then you thought I was your sister?””
“For years.””
Brooke stared at her.
“Is that why you were looking for me?””
Natalie nodded.
“When my mother died, she left me a letter.””
“What did it say?””
“That I had a younger sister named Brooke.””
Claire whispered, “Rebecca lied to you too.””
“Yes.””
Natalie looked at her.
“She lied to everyone.””
Brooke sat on the bottom stair.
“So you spent six years looking for a sister who never existed.””
Natalie gave a sad smile.
“Apparently.””
Silence settled over us.
Then Maya asked, “What about Thomas?””
Natalie’s expression changed.
“He found me because he knew I was searching for Brooke.””
“Did you tell him where we lived?””
“No.””
“But he found us.””
“Yes.””
I pulled out my phone.
“We need the police.””
Claire nodded immediately.
No resistance.
No excuses.
Finally.
Before I could dial, Natalie said, “There’s something else.””
I lowered the phone.
“What?””
“Thomas told me Rebecca’s hospital story wasn’t the only secret.””
Claire looked exhausted.
“What else could there possibly be?””
“He said Lydia helped switch the bracelets because Rebecca threatened her.””
“We know.””
Natalie shook her head.
“No. That wasn’t the real reason Lydia cooperated.””
Evan frowned.
“Then what was?””
Natalie reached into her bag.
She removed an old photograph.
It showed Lydia standing beside a man outside St. Matthew’s Hospital.
I recognized neither of them.
Claire did.
She stumbled backward.
“No.””
“Who is he?”” I asked.
Claire stared at the man.
“My father.””
Maya whispered, “Grandpa?””
Claire’s father, Robert Bennett, had supposedly died before Maya was born.
Natalie turned the photograph over.
A date was written there.
2012.
Three years after Claire told me he had died.
My mouth went dry.
“Claire.””
“I don’t understand.””
Natalie handed me another document.
It was a copy of a financial agreement.
Robert Bennett’s signature appeared at the bottom.
So did Lydia Cross’s.
The amount:
$250,000.
“What is this?””
Natalie answered.
“Payment for Lydia’s silence.””
“About the baby switch?””
“No.””
My chest tightened.
“Then about what?””
Natalie looked toward Brooke.
“About why Rebecca arrived at that hospital with a newborn in the first place.””
Claire whispered, “What are you talking about?””
Natalie’s voice became quiet.
“Rebecca didn’t choose St. Matthew’s randomly.””
She pointed at Robert’s signature.
“She went there because your father told her to.””
Claire looked like she might collapse.
“Why would my father be involved?””
Natalie took another paper from her bag.
This one was a birth record.
She handed it to Claire.
Claire read it.
Her hands began shaking violently.
I stepped beside her.
Under Lily Bennett’s original birth information was a field that had later been blacked out.
Father.
But beneath the marker, one name was still faintly visible.
Claire whispered it.
Then dropped the paper.
Maya bent down and picked it up.
She read the name.
Her face went blank.
“Mom…”
Claire covered her mouth.
Because the man listed as Lily’s father was someone none of us had expected.
May you like
Robert Bennett.
Claire and Rebecca’s own father.
