Chapter 10 - THE WOMAN IN ZURICH
Margaret never boarded the plane.
She wanted them to think she had.
Airport footage showed her entering the international terminal.
Twenty-three minutes later, she changed clothes in a restroom and exited through domestic arrivals.
A car picked her up.
Registered owner:
Victor Lang.
Her attorney.
That gave Hayes enough to obtain broader warrants.
Victor’s office records exposed another layer.
Margaret had been moving money offshore for years.
Zurich was not an escape route.
It was a message.
Nathan returned to Rebecca’s cassette.
One phrase bothered him.
If I disappear…
Not if I die.
Disappear.
Caroline had never believed Rebecca was dead.
Neither, apparently, had Margaret.
So Nathan searched.
Banking.
Immigration.
Research publications.
Medical conferences.
Nothing.
Then Laura found something strange.
A woman named Rebecca Foster had entered Switzerland twenty-seven years earlier.
There was no departure record.
But twelve years ago, a researcher named Dr. Rebecca Hale had published a paper on pediatric inflammatory lung disease.
The photograph was unavailable.
The institution?
A private respiratory institute outside Zurich.
Nathan booked a secure video call.
The institute director resisted until Laura sent the original birth certificate.
Two hours later, Nathan’s screen lit up.
An elderly administrator appeared.
“We cannot disclose patient information.”
“She isn’t a patient.”
The administrator hesitated.
Nathan knew.
“She’s there.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t need to.”
Claire sat beside him.
Nathan’s voice cracked.
“Please.”
The administrator looked away.
Then a second person entered the frame.
A woman.
Early sixties.
Thin.
Dark hair streaked with gray.
Nathan stopped breathing.
She looked at the camera.
Her hand flew to her mouth.
“Nathan?”
He had never heard anyone say his name that way.
Not even Margaret.
Nathan whispered, “Rebecca?”
The woman began to cry.
Claire squeezed Nathan’s hand.
Rebecca moved closer to the camera.
“My baby.”
Nathan closed his eyes.
He was thirty-six years old.
A husband.
A father.
CEO of a billion-dollar corporation.
And for one impossible moment, he felt fourteen months old.
“Why did you leave me?”
Rebecca’s face broke.
“I didn’t.”
Nathan looked up.
“What?”
“They told me you were dead.”
Silence.
Nathan stared.
Rebecca continued.
“Thomas told me there had been an accident.”
Nathan felt sick.
“My father?”
“He showed me a death certificate.”
Caroline gasped behind them.
Rebecca saw her.
“Carrie?”
Caroline covered her mouth.
The sisters-in-spirit stared at each other across twenty-seven years.
Nathan forced himself back.
“Margaret raised me.”
Rebecca’s face hardened.
“Of course she did.”
“You knew?”
“I eventually learned.”
“When?”
“Fourteen years ago.”
Nathan’s grief became anger.
“And you never came?”
Rebecca closed her eyes.
“I tried.”
“What stopped you?”
“Thomas.”
Nathan stood.
Claire reached for him.
He pulled away.
“What did he do?”
“He begged me not to return.”
“Why?”
“He said Margaret would destroy everyone if I did.”
Nathan laughed bitterly.
“So he let her steal my life.”
Rebecca said nothing.
That silence was answer enough.
Then she told him why she had stayed hidden.
Rebecca had taken copies of trial records.
Margaret threatened to expose Caroline’s location and ensure Caroline never saw her daughter again.
Thomas arranged Rebecca’s disappearance as a compromise.
Rebecca would live.
Nathan would remain with him.
Margaret would bury the trial scandal.
Everyone lost something.
Except Margaret.
She gained everything.
Nathan looked at Claire.
“This family has been negotiating with evil for thirty years.”
Claire answered quietly.
“Then stop negotiating.”
Nathan turned back to Rebecca.
“What evidence do you still have?”
Rebecca’s expression changed.
“I kept the original trial data.”
“How much?”
“All of it.”
Caroline began crying.
Rebecca continued.
“And I know where Caroline’s daughter was transferred.”
Caroline rushed toward the camera.
“Where?”
Rebecca looked at her.
“She wasn’t adopted.”
Caroline’s voice disappeared.
“What happened?”
“She was placed with a family under a sealed identity.”
“Is she alive?”
“Yes.”
Caroline collapsed into a chair.
Nathan caught her.
Rebecca continued.
“Her name is now Anna Reed.”
Caroline sobbed.
Nathan looked at Claire.
One answer.
A bigger question.
Then Rebecca said something else.
“There is one thing you need to know before you confront Margaret.”
Nathan turned back.
“What?”
“Margaret didn’t create the plan to take Noah.”
Nathan froze.
“Who did?”
May you like
Rebecca looked directly into the camera.
“Your father did.”
