Chapter 7
Ryan took Lily back to the hospital.
He refused to leave either daughter alone again.
Claire’s room had been moved to a secured floor.
Mia slept curled beside her mother.
Lily climbed onto the other side of the bed.
Claire looked at Ryan.
“Emma?”
“With police.”
Claire nodded.
She did not look pleased.
Only tired.
Ryan sat near the window.
“My mother knows who my biological father is.”
Claire’s eyes widened.
“Victor told you?”
“Yes.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know.”
Claire watched Lily and Mia.
“You should find out.”
Ryan laughed quietly.
“I’m not sure I can survive another family truth tonight.”
Claire almost smiled.
“You always hated surprises.”
“I liked birthday surprises.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“I liked cake.”
“That’s different.”
For one brief second, they were twenty-four again.
Then the weight returned.
Ryan looked at Claire.
“Why didn’t you hate me?”
She stared at him.
“For five years.”
Claire looked toward Mia.
“I did.”
Ryan nodded slowly.
“At first.”
“What changed?”
“I found one of the letters I sent you.”
He frowned.
“What?”
“Returned mail. Three years ago.”
Claire explained.
One of the first letters Emma claimed to send had been returned to a postal box after months.
The envelope had a Mercer Development mailroom stamp.
Claire realized the letter had reached Ryan’s company.
Someone there had intercepted it.
“That was when I started wondering whether you really knew.”
Ryan looked away.
“I never did.”
“I know now.”
He swallowed.
“I’m sorry.”
Claire’s eyes filled.
“For what?”
“For not finding you.”
“You thought I was dead.”
“I should have questioned it.”
“Ryan.”
“I never saw a body.”
“You saw a coffin.”
“I let people tell me what was true.”
Claire gave him a sad smile.
“So did I.”
They sat silently.
A nurse entered.
Behind her was Detective Alvarez.
“The preliminary DNA result came back.”
Ryan stood.
Claire squeezed Mia’s hand.
Alvarez handed Ryan a paper.
Probability of paternity: greater than 99.99%.
Ryan read it twice.
Then looked at Mia.
His daughter.
No uncertainty.
No maybe.
Mia opened sleepy eyes.
“Daddy?”
Ryan cried.
He did not even try to stop it.
He walked to the bed.
Mia sat up.
Ryan hugged her.
“I’m your daddy.”
Mia looked confused.
“I know.”
Claire laughed through her tears.
Ryan laughed too.
It was the first honest laugh inside that nightmare.
Then Alvarez cleared his throat.
“There’s another result.”
Ryan looked up.
“What?”
“We expedited a comparison requested by Victor Mercer.”
Ryan’s expression changed.
Alvarez handed him a second paper.
“Victor submitted a sample.”
Ryan read.
Excluded as biological father.
He already knew.
Still, seeing it hurt.
Claire touched his arm.
Ryan looked at Alvarez.
“My mother is coming here.”
“Police want to speak with her too.”
Ryan nodded.
Forty minutes later, Eleanor Mercer arrived.
Ryan’s mother was sixty-six.
Beautiful.
Controlled.
She entered Claire’s hospital room and stopped.
For the first time in five years, she saw the woman everyone had pretended was dead.
Eleanor covered her mouth.
“Oh, Claire.”
Claire stared at her.
“You knew.”
Eleanor began crying.
“Yes.”
Ryan’s heart hardened.
“Sit down, Mom.”
She did.
Ryan stood across from her.
“Who is my father?”
Eleanor looked at Victor, who had arrived minutes earlier.
He stood by the door.
She turned back to Ryan.
“His name is Michael Grant.”
Ryan frowned.
“I don’t know him.”
“No.”
“Is he alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Colorado.”
Ryan stared.
“Does he know about me?”
Eleanor hesitated.
“Yes.”
Another betrayal.
Ryan laughed bitterly.
“Of course he does.”
Eleanor reached toward him.
Ryan stepped back.
“Don’t.”
She lowered her hand.
“Tell me.”
Eleanor took a shaky breath.
She had met Michael at college.
They loved each other.
But Eleanor’s parents wanted her to marry Victor Mercer.
The Mercer family had money.
Connections.
Stability.
Eleanor became pregnant shortly before her wedding.
“Victor knew,” she whispered.
Ryan looked at him.
Victor nodded.
“I knew.”
“Why marry her?”
Victor answered quietly.
“Because I loved her.”
Ryan stared.
Victor continued.
“And because I thought I could be your father.”
“You were.”
Ryan’s voice broke.
“For thirty-eight years.”
Victor looked down.
Ryan hated the fact that this truth hurt differently.
Victor had lied.
But he had also raised him.
Taught him to ride a bicycle.
Attended baseball games.
Sat beside him during his first business failure.
Was blood supposed to erase that?
Or did the lies erase everything else?
Ryan did not know.
“What happened to Michael?”
Eleanor answered.
“My father paid him to leave.”
Ryan laughed.
“This family really has one solution.”
Victor winced.
Eleanor continued.
“Years later, Michael contacted me. I told him you were happy. Victor was your father in every way that mattered.”
“Did he ask to meet me?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“I said no.”
Ryan looked out the window.
Another choice stolen from him.
“Why did Grandpa Mercer do DNA testing?”
Victor answered.
“My father never fully trusted that I had accepted the situation.”
Ryan turned.
“He thought you might cut me out?”
“Yes.”
“So he structured the trust to protect me.”
Victor nodded.
“And then he discovered Emma.”
“Yes.”
Eleanor looked at Margaret’s daughter only in memory, because Emma was still at the station.
Her expression hardened.
“I knew about Victor and Margaret.”
Ryan stared.
“You knew that too?”
Eleanor nodded.
“Not immediately.”
Victor looked ashamed.
“It was during a difficult period.”
Eleanor laughed without humor.
“Don’t.”
Victor fell silent.
Ryan rubbed his temples.
“So every adult in my childhood was lying to everybody.”
No one answered.
Claire spoke quietly.
“Pretty much.”
Ryan looked at her.
For some reason, that almost made him laugh.
Alvarez entered again.
“We found Stephen Voss.”
Everyone turned.
“Where?”
“At the airport.”
Ryan stood.
“Trying to leave?”
“Yes.”
“With documents.”
“What documents?”
“Trust records, medical files, several passports.”
Ryan’s stomach tightened.
“For who?”
“Margaret. Dr. Kern. And one for Claire Bennett.”
Claire went pale.
“A fake passport?”
“Yes.”
Alvarez looked at her.
“We believe there was a plan to make you disappear again.”
Mia moved closer to her mother.
Ryan’s anger returned instantly.
“Where’s Kern?”
“Missing.”
Victor spoke.
“I know where he might go.”
Alvarez looked at him.
Victor hesitated.
“My company owns a private recovery lodge north of the city. Kern used it years ago.”
Ryan stared at his father.
“Why do you know that?”
Victor looked ashamed.
“Because that’s where Margaret first took Claire after the crash.”
Claire went still.
Ryan turned.
“You told me Vermont.”
Claire’s face tightened.
“I thought that was the first place.”
Victor shook his head.
“No.”
Ryan’s chest tightened.
“What happened at the lodge?”
Victor looked at Claire.
“I went there once.”
She stared.
“When?”
“Two days after the crash.”
Claire’s face changed.
“You?”
Victor nodded.
Ryan looked between them.
“What happened?”
Claire began breathing faster.
“I remember someone standing in my room.”
Victor closed his eyes.
“It was me.”
Claire stared.
“You told me Ryan didn’t want me.”
Ryan looked at Victor.
Victor did not deny it.
Claire’s voice rose.
“You told me he knew about the baby!”
“I was wrong.”
“You lied!”
“Yes.”
“You told me he was embarrassed by me!”
Ryan lunged toward Victor.
Alvarez grabbed him.
Ryan shouted.
“You said you didn’t know what Margaret was doing!”
Victor did not defend himself.
“I knew enough.”
Ryan struggled against Alvarez.
“You looked Claire in the face while she was drugged and pregnant and told her I didn’t want her?”
Victor’s voice cracked.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I thought I was protecting you.”
“From what?”
“From throwing your future away.”
Ryan laughed in disbelief.
“My future?”
Victor’s eyes filled.
“You were about to take over the company. Claire was threatening to expose everything. My affair. Your paternity. Emma’s paternity. The trust. The board would have torn our family apart.”
“So you tore Claire apart instead.”
Victor lowered his head.
“Yes.”
Ryan stopped struggling.
Alvarez released him.
Claire looked at Victor.
“I spent years believing Ryan abandoned me.”
“I know.”
“You stole five years.”
“I know.”
“You stole my daughter’s father.”
Victor began crying.
“I know.”
Claire’s expression hardened.
“No. You don’t.”
Silence.
Then Mia spoke from the bed.
“Why is everybody crying?”
The adults looked at her.
Claire wiped her face.
“Because grown-ups made a lot of mistakes.”
Mia frowned.
“Big mistakes?”
Ryan looked at Victor.
“Yes.”
Mia considered this.
“Bigger than coloring on the wall?”
Lily sat up.
“I asked that too.”
For one strange second, Ryan and Claire both laughed.
The tension cracked.
Then Ryan’s phone rang.
Emma’s number.
He stared at it.
Alvarez frowned.
“She was released pending further investigation. Her attorney is with her.”
Ryan answered.
Emma sounded breathless.
“Ryan.”
“What?”
“I know where Dr. Kern is.”
“How?”
“He called me.”
Ryan stood.
“What did he want?”
“He says he has Claire’s original medical files.”
Claire went still.
Emma continued.
“And he says Margaret kept something from all of us.”
Ryan almost laughed.
“What now?”
Emma hesitated.
“Kern says Mia wasn’t Claire’s only baby.”
The room became silent.
Ryan stared at Claire.
Claire’s face had gone white.
“What does that mean?”
May you like
Emma’s voice trembled.
“Claire gave birth to twins.”
