Chapter 13: The Wrong Baby
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Nathan stared at the photograph in Rachel Whitmore's hands.
Edward was holding a newborn baby. Beside him stood a younger woman with dark hair, wearing a hospital bracelet.
Harlow's mother.
I recognized her immediately.
Her name was Patricia. She had attended our wedding anniversary celebrations, visited our home occasionally, and always seemed unusually interested in Nathan's childhood.
But I had never known she had been involved in his adoption.
Nathan took the photograph.
"Why was Patricia with my father?""
Rachel placed the envelope on the desk.
"Because she was the person who arranged the original adoption.""
I felt my stomach tighten.
"That isn't possible. Eleanor arranged everything.""
Rachel shook her head.
"My grandmother believed she was helping a family friend. But she discovered something years later that changed everything.""
Nathan looked at her.
"What?""
Rachel took a breath.
"Your biological mother wasn't Eleanor Whitmore.""
Silence.
Nathan slowly lowered the photograph.
"Then who was she?""
Rachel pointed to the woman standing beside Edward.
"Patricia Bellmont.""
I felt the room tilt.
"No.""
Rachel nodded sadly.
"Patricia was seventeen when she gave birth. Her family was facing financial difficulties, and her father was involved in a bitter dispute over the vineyard inheritance. He believed a child born outside marriage would damage the family's reputation.""
Nathan stared at her.
"You're saying Harlow and I have the same mother?""
Rachel nodded.
"Yes.""
Nathan stepped backward.
"No. That's impossible.""
I gripped the edge of Edward's desk.
"Edward would have told us.""
Rachel opened another envelope.
"My grandmother kept the original hospital records. She discovered that Patricia had given birth to a baby boy on the same night Eleanor delivered a stillborn child.""
I covered my mouth.
Rachel continued.
"Patricia's family arranged for the babies' identities to be switched. Eleanor was told her child had died. Patricia's baby was registered under Eleanor's name and eventually adopted by you and Edward.""
Nathan looked as though he couldn't breathe.
"Why would they do that?""
"Because Patricia's father wanted the child to disappear from the family records. He believed the boy had a claim to the vineyard inheritance.""
Michael stepped closer.
"That would explain the altered beneficiary documents.""
Rachel nodded.
"My grandmother found evidence of the switch twenty years later. She tried to contact Patricia, but Patricia threatened her.""
I looked at the photograph again.
Edward had known.
He had known from the beginning.
"Why didn't he tell Nathan?""
Rachel removed another document.
"Because Edward discovered the truth only after the adoption was finalized. He was afraid the family would use Nathan's biological identity to take control of his inheritance.""
Nathan sank into Edward's chair.
"And Harlow?""
Rachel hesitated.
"She's your biological half-sister.""
I watched my son close his eyes.
For years, he had believed Harlow was the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.
Now he was learning that their marriage had been built on a lie neither of them had fully understood.
"Did she know?"" Nathan asked.
Rachel nodded.
"Patricia told her shortly before Edward died.""
Michael opened the adoption file.
"That means Harlow knew Nathan was connected to the original vineyard inheritance.""
Rachel pointed to a handwritten note.
"She knew more than that.""
I read the note.
Patricia instructed Harlow to obtain the original trust certificates before Nathan discovered his biological identity.
Nathan looked up.
"So she married me knowing?""
Rachel nodded.
"She had been told the truth before your wedding.""
The room went silent.
I felt sick.
Harlow hadn't simply married my son for money.
She had married him while hiding a secret that could destroy both their lives.
Then Michael noticed something in the file.
"There's a date here.""
He pointed to a medical record.
The original hospital registration had been amended twenty-nine years earlier.
The correction was signed by a doctor named Samuel Whitmore.
Rachel looked up.
"That's my grandfather.""
"Is he alive?"" Michael asked.
"No. But he left a recorded statement.""
She removed a small flash drive.
"My grandmother made him record everything before he died.""
Michael connected it to the laptop.
An elderly man's voice filled the study.
"My name is Samuel Whitmore. I participated in the falsification of two birth records. I did so under pressure from Patricia Bellmont's father.""
He paused.
"I was told the arrangement would protect both families. I now understand it destroyed two lives.""
The recording continued.
"Eleanor's baby did not die. The child was taken from her and given to another family.""
Nathan stood.
"Where is that child?""
Rachel looked directly at him.
"That's what my grandmother spent the last twenty years trying to discover.""
She opened the final document.
It was a hospital discharge record.
The baby had been placed temporarily with a family in Oregon.
A handwritten name appeared beside the placement.
*Daniel Reeves.*
Michael stepped backward.
"No.""
Rachel nodded.
"Daniel was the baby who was supposed to be yours.""
The room erupted.
Michael grabbed the desk.
"That's impossible. Daniel is my brother.""
Rachel looked at him.
"Not biologically.""
I stared at the screen.
The man who had manipulated the wine transfers, stolen millions, and possibly helped poison Edward had been raised under a false identity too.
Nathan looked at me.
"Then who am I?""
Rachel opened the final page.
It contained a DNA comparison prepared by an independent laboratory.
Nathan was biologically related to the Whitmore family.
Daniel was not.
And the final line revealed something that made my blood run cold.
*Nathan Bellmont was the rightful heir to the original Whitmore vineyard trust.*
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Then Rachel quietly added:
"There's another reason Harlow wanted those certificates destroyed. She knew that once Nathan's identity was confirmed, the trust would become legally untouchable by her.""
