Chapter 13: The Address
“Why would she want Ethan?””
Michael asked the question, but nobody answered.
I stared at the tiny strip of paper from David’s watch.
The address was handwritten beneath his warning.
I knew the street.
It was forty minutes outside the city, in a quiet lakeside town where David and I had once talked about buying a summer cabin.
But we never had.
At least, I thought we hadn’t.
Detective Morris was still on Michael’s phone.
I read her the address.
There was a pause.
“Do not go there.””
“What is it?”” I asked.
“I’m checking.””
Keys clicked in the background.
Then Morris said, “Property records show a small house at that address.””
“Owner?””
Another pause.
“David Mercer.””
My knees weakened.
“That’s impossible.””
Michael caught my arm.
Morris continued.
“The property transferred into a private holding trust after his death.””
“Whose trust?””
“I need more time.””
Peter’s voice sounded somewhere behind her.
“Tell her.””
Morris snapped, “Mr. Lawson, sit down.””
“Tell me what?”” I shouted.
Peter raised his voice.
“David bought the house for Ethan.””
My chest tightened.
“Why?””
“Because he was preparing for the possibility that Diane would come back.””
Michael stared at the phone.
“Come back from where?””
Peter went silent.
“Peter!””
Morris spoke calmly.
“We’re bringing Mr. Lawson in for a formal interview.””
“No. I need to know now.””
Peter suddenly shouted again.
“Ask Michael about his father!””
Michael froze.
“My father?””
Then officers moved Peter farther away.
The call became muffled.
I looked at Michael.
“What about your father?””
“I don’t know.””
Christopher, who had been standing near the kitchen doorway, suddenly sat down.
His face had gone pale.
Michael noticed.
“Chris?””
Christopher said nothing.
“Christopher.””
“I might know.””
Michael crossed the room.
“Know what?””
Christopher rubbed both hands over his face.
“When Dad was dying, he said something strange.””
Their father, Richard Bennett, had died four years earlier after a long illness.
“What did he say?””
“He said Mom had ruined two families trying to fix one mistake.””
The room went silent.
“What mistake?””
“He wouldn’t tell me.””
“Why have you never mentioned this?””
“Because he was on morphine! Half the things he said didn’t make sense.””
I stared at him.
“What else?””
Christopher swallowed.
“He said, ‘The boy belongs where he is.’”
Michael stopped breathing.
“The boy?””
“I thought he meant my son.””
“You never asked?””
“He died two days later.””
My phone buzzed.
Another message from Diane.
This time there was no photograph.
Only:
*You found the address. Good.*
A second message arrived.
*Bring Michael.*
Then:
*No police if you want the truth from me.*
Detective Morris immediately told us not to respond.
But Diane sent another message before I could put the phone down.
*Ask Michael why his father paid David too.*
Michael stared at it.
“My father?””
I looked at him.
“You knew nothing about this?””
“Nothing.””
Christopher stood abruptly.
“Dad had a private account.””
Michael turned.
“What?””
“Mom found it after he died. She went crazy.””
“How much?””
“I don’t know.””
“What did she find?””
“Payments.””
My heart began pounding.
“To David?””
Christopher nodded slowly.
“I saw his name once.””
“How much?””
“I don’t remember.””
“Try!””
“Twenty-five thousand. Maybe thirty.””
I closed my eyes.
David had received money from Michael’s father.
Then paid money to Michael’s mother.
This wasn’t random.
It was a chain.
And Ethan was at the center.
Detective Morris called again twenty minutes later.
“We checked the lakeside property.””
My stomach tightened.
“And?””
“Empty.””
“Diane?””
“Not there.””
“What did you find?””
“Children’s furniture.””
I stared at the phone.
“What?””
“A bedroom prepared for a young boy.””
Michael went rigid.
Morris continued.
“The furniture appears old. Probably seven or eight years.””
Ethan’s age.
My stomach turned.
“There are photographs too.””
“Of Ethan?””
“Yes.””
I couldn’t breathe.
“How would David have photographs there?””
“Some are normal family photos.””
“And the others?””
Morris hesitated.
“Surveillance-style photographs.””
Michael whispered, “Diane.””
“Possibly.””
“Anything else?””
“A locked filing cabinet.””
“Open it.””
“We’re obtaining authority.””
Then Morris lowered her voice.
“Claire, Peter has started talking.””
I gripped the phone.
“What did he say?””
“David discovered Diane had hired someone to investigate you after Michael’s Chicago trip.””
My eyes went to Michael.
“She knew about me before Ethan was born?””
“Yes.””
“How?””
“Michael apparently called his father from the hotel. Richard answered after Diane handed him the phone.””
Michael closed his eyes.
He remembered.
“I told Dad I’d done something stupid.””
Morris continued.
“Diane later found your first name on the hotel receipt Michael left at home.””
Michael whispered, “She kept my financial records back then.””
“She traced Claire,” Morris said.
“She followed the pregnancy. After Ethan was born, she became convinced he was Michael’s.””
I felt sick.
“So she blackmailed David?””
“Not initially.””
I froze.
“What?””
“According to Peter, Diane approached David and told him Ethan might not be biologically his.””
Michael stared at the floor.
“Why?””
“She wanted a paternity test.””
“And David agreed?””
“Eventually.””
I whispered, “He never told me.””
“The test excluded David.””
Pain cut through me.
Morris continued.
“Then Richard found out what Diane had done.””
Michael looked up.
“My father.””
“Yes. He confronted her. According to Peter, Richard believed biology didn’t give Diane the right to destroy another family.””
Christopher whispered, “The boy belongs where he is.””
Exactly.
“Richard paid David?”” I asked.
“Not to buy silence. To help him hire attorneys and protect Ethan’s legal status if Diane tried to interfere.””
The pieces shifted.
David hadn’t been hiding money from me.
He had been preparing for war.
“What about the seventy-five thousand David gave Diane?””
Morris paused.
“That wasn’t blackmail money either.””
“What was it?””
“Peter says David bought something from her.””
My heart hammered.
“What?””
“Every copy of the original paternity evidence she claimed to possess.””
Michael stared at me.
“But she kept copies.””
“Apparently.””
I looked at Ethan sleeping against Rachel.
All those years.
Diane had watched him grow.
Waited.
Then Michael and I met again by pure chance.
Or had we?
I turned toward him.
“How did you end up at that charity event?””
He frowned.
“Mom invited me.””
My skin went cold.
“What?””
“She had an extra ticket.””
Christopher whispered, “No.””
Michael understood at the same moment I did.
Our reunion had not been an accident.
Diane had put us in the same room.
Why?
My phone rang.
Diane.
Detective Morris told me to answer.
I put it on speaker.
“Why did you bring Michael and me together?””
Diane didn’t deny it.
“Because Ethan deserved his father.””
“You manipulated us.””
“I gave fate a push.””
“And Lily?””
Silence.
“What was Lily supposed to be?””
Diane’s voice hardened.
“An obstacle.””
Michael shut his eyes.
I nearly broke the phone in my hand.
“You hurt my daughter because she didn’t fit your fantasy.””
“I never meant for today to go this far.””
“You planted money in her backpack.””
“I needed Michael to see that keeping you meant keeping everything attached to you.””
Michael leaned toward the phone.
“Where are you?””
Diane ignored him.
I heard a sound behind her.
A train horn.
Then a station announcement.
Michael’s head snapped up.
“I know where she is.””
Christopher looked at him.
“Where?””
“The old Central Station.””
Diane went silent.
Michael grabbed his keys.
Detective Morris shouted through the phone, “Do not approach her.””
Then Diane whispered:
“Platform six, Michael.””
A pause.
May you like
“Come hear what David said before the police take that choice away from you.””
And the line died.
