Chapter 10: The Daughter Nicole Buried
My father stared at Olivia's photograph for nearly a full minute.
Then he looked at Margaret.
“Where is she now?””
“I don't know,” Margaret replied.
“She came to my house three days ago. She'd been searching for Nicole for months. She found my name in an old newspaper clipping about Isabelle's funeral.””
“And you didn't think to call me?””
Margaret flinched.
“I was afraid.””
“Everyone in this family seems to be afraid of something!””
Dad's voice echoed through the hallway.
Ethan covered his ears.
I crouched beside him and pulled him against me while Dad paced toward the window. He kept looking at Olivia's photograph as if the woman's face might explain the last eight years of our lives.
Detective Hayes took the photograph from the table.
“Mrs. Shaw, do you have any documentation supporting Olivia's claims?””
“Some. Birth records, letters, and a payment receipt she found among documents belonging to the woman who raised her.””
“What kind of payment?””
Margaret glanced at Dad.
“A payment made to a private adoption agency shortly after Olivia was born.””
My father stopped pacing.
“Nicole paid someone to take her own daughter?””
“That's what Olivia believes.””
“Why?””
“Because the woman who raised her recently died. Olivia found a letter among her belongings. It said Nicole had been very young when she gave birth and that a wealthy family had offered money to keep the child out of the newspapers.””
Dad shook his head.
“Nicole wasn't wealthy when she was young.””
“No,” Margaret said.
“But her parents were.””
That was something I'd never known.
Nicole rarely spoke about her childhood. She'd told us her parents were strict, old-fashioned people who had disowned her after she married her first husband. She claimed she hadn't spoken to them in decades.
Now I wondered how much of that story was true.
Detective Hayes asked Margaret to write down everything she knew about Olivia's whereabouts. Then she returned to the interview room to speak with Nicole.
Dad remained beside the table, holding the photograph.
“Maya,” he said quietly, “I need you to understand something.””
I looked up.
“Whatever Olivia's relationship with Nicole turns out to be, none of this is your fault. You didn't cause any of it.””
“I know.””
But I didn't.
For years, I'd believed the worst thing about my family was that my stepmother didn't love me. I'd blamed myself for every argument, every cold dinner, every time Dad asked me to be patient with her.
Now I wondered whether Nicole had hated me because I was the living reminder of the woman whose inheritance she'd stolen.
And whether she'd tried to destroy my reputation because I was getting too close to the truth.
A few minutes later, Detective Hayes returned.
“Mrs. Bennett has agreed to provide a statement about Olivia, but she denies that any money was exchanged illegally.””
Dad gave a bitter laugh.
“Of course she does.””
“She also claims she hasn't seen Olivia in more than twenty years.””
Margaret shook her head.
“That isn't true. Olivia told me she spoke to Nicole last week.””
Detective Hayes looked up.
“Did she provide evidence?””
“She showed me a message.””
Margaret searched her handbag and produced a printed screenshot.
The message was short.
*Stop looking for me. You have no claim to this family. If you contact Richard, I'll tell him what happened to Isabelle.*
It had been sent from Nicole's phone.
Dad read it twice.
Then he handed it back to the detective.
“Find Olivia.””
“We'll make contact through the information Mrs. Shaw provides. But I need to be clear: we haven't established that Nicole committed a crime regarding the adoption, and we haven't established that her actions caused Isabelle's death.””
“Then establish it,” Dad said.
Detective Hayes held his gaze.
“We will investigate the evidence. We cannot promise a particular outcome.””
She left us with an officer while she made arrangements to contact Olivia.
Daniel sat alone at the end of the hallway, his hands clasped between his knees.
I walked toward him.
“Why didn't you tell Dad about the trust sooner?””
He looked up.
“Because I was selfish.””
“That's not enough.””
“No,” he admitted.
“It isn't.””
He rubbed his bruised cheek.
“I was afraid of losing everything I'd built. I told myself Nicole was the only person who could expose my involvement in the transfers. I thought I could recover the money quietly, but every time I tried, she found another way to threaten me.””
“You could have come to me.””
“You were nine when your mother died.””
“I wasn't nine forever.””
His eyes filled.
“I know.””
I looked at him for a long moment.
“Did you love my mother?””
Daniel swallowed.
“Yes. As a sister. She trusted me, and I betrayed that trust.””
“Then why did you let Nicole win?””
He had no answer.
I returned to Dad.
An hour later, a message arrived from Detective Hayes.
Olivia had agreed to meet us at the station.
Dad insisted on going immediately.
At the station, a uniformed officer escorted us into a small interview room. Olivia was already there, sitting with her hands wrapped around a paper cup.
Up close, the resemblance was even more startling.
The same dark eyes. The same narrow chin. The same faint crease between her eyebrows when she concentrated.
She stood when Dad entered.
“Richard Carter?””
He nodded.
“I'm Richard.””
She looked at me.
“You must be Maya.””
I swallowed.
“Yes.””
Olivia studied my face with a strange mixture of curiosity and sadness.
“I've seen pictures of you.””
“Where?””
“In a box of old photographs I found after the woman who raised me died.””
She hesitated.
“I'm not here to take anything from you. I don't want your inheritance. I don't want your house. I just want to know why my mother pretended I didn't exist.””
Dad pulled out a chair.
“Tell us what you know.””
Olivia opened a folder.
She showed us her birth certificate, several letters, and a photocopy of an old bank transfer.
Then she placed one final document on the table.
It was a letter written by Nicole more than twenty years earlier.
The first paragraph described Olivia as a child who deserved a better life than Nicole could provide.
The second paragraph promised that the adoption would remain confidential.
But the final paragraph was different.
It read:
If Olivia ever discovers who I am, tell her that I did what I had to do to protect myself. She must never learn what happened to Isabelle Carter.
Dad went completely still.
Olivia's eyes filled with tears.
“I don't know what that means,” she whispered.
“But I think my mother has been hiding something much worse than an adoption.””
She reached into her folder and pulled out a small envelope.
Inside was a photograph of Nicole standing beside a man in a hospital corridor.
Daniel.
The date printed on the back was October 14—the night my mother died.
And beneath their names, someone had written a sentence in black ink.
*The first secret died with Isabelle. The second one is still alive.*
Olivia looked at my father.
“Do you know what they were hiding?””
Before he could answer, Detective Hayes entered the room with another officer.
Her expression was grim.
“Richard, Maya, I need you to look at something.””
She placed a printed photograph on the table.
It showed a woman leaving a pharmacy the night Isabelle died.
In her hand was a small white prescription bag.
The woman was Nicole.
May you like
But standing beside her, holding the car door open, was someone none of us had expected.
My father.
