Chapter 8 - The Secret in Chloe’s File:
Mia woke inside an ambulance.
An oxygen mask covered her face.
Richard sat beside her, holding the rail.
“What happened?”
“Ross released an anesthetic gas through the fire system.”
“Where is Chloe?”
“At the estate with Nora.”
“Dr. Ross said one of us belonged to you.”
Richard’s expression changed.
“I heard him.”
“Do you know what he meant?”
“No.”
Mia tried to sit up.
Pain moved through her skull.
“Chloe’s file had your wife’s initials.”
“Laura authorized something concerning her birth.”
“That doesn’t make her my daughter.”
“You don’t sound certain.”
Richard looked toward the ambulance doors.
“Laura and I separated briefly twenty-one years ago.”
“Why?”
“I was obsessed with the company.”
“She wanted to leave Boston.”
“We reconciled before Nora was born.”
“Did she have another child?”
“Not that I knew.”
Mia removed the oxygen mask.
“Chloe is twenty.”
Richard closed his eyes.
The possibility frightened both of them.
Hale arrested Dr. Ross.
The clinic director demanded an attorney and refused to speak.
Esther gave police six years of copied medical records.
They proved Laura had been imprisoned at Rosebridge under a false name.
They also showed that Rosa visited the clinic using staff credentials.
One record contained a DNA test ordered eighteen years earlier.
The patient was listed only as C.T.
The father’s initials were R.V.
The result page had been removed.
Richard immediately arranged an independent DNA test.
Mia called Chloe.
She did not mention the possibility.
Not yet.
They returned to the estate that evening.
Nora ran into her father’s arms.
Chloe hugged Mia so tightly that the pain in her ribs returned.
“You disappeared for six hours.”
“I’m fine.”
“That is what you always say when you are not fine.”
Mia looked toward Richard.
He understood.
They told Chloe privately.
She listened without interrupting.
When Richard finished, she stood beside the window.
“My mother was Rosa.”
“She raised me.”
“No test changes that.”
“No one is trying to take her place,” Richard said.
“What happens if you’re my father?”
“I try to become someone worthy of that fact.”
Chloe looked at him.
“You didn’t protect Mia.”
“You didn’t protect Nora.”
“You didn’t protect Laura.”
Richard accepted each accusation.
“No.”
“I didn’t.”
“But I will not run from what I failed to see.”
A medical technician collected the samples.
Results would take twenty-four hours.
While they waited, the group prepared to meet Laura at the seaside chapel.
Hale objected to Richard going.
Richard refused to remain behind.
The chapel stood on a cliff overlooking the Atlantic.
Its bell tower had partially collapsed.
Waves struck the rocks below.
Richard entered alone while Hale and Mia watched from a nearby building.
The chapel bell rang once.
Then twice.
A woman stepped from behind the altar.
She wore a gray coat.
Her hair, once dark, had turned almost entirely white.
Richard stopped in the center aisle.
“Laura.”
The woman lifted her face.
Even from a distance, Mia saw the years of suffering written across it.
Richard moved toward her.
Laura raised one trembling hand.
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
“I searched for you.”
“Not long enough.”
The words nearly broke him.
“I believed you were dead.”
“They made sure you did.”
Laura looked past him toward the doorway.
“Mia is here.”
Richard turned.
Mia entered despite Hale’s instructions.
Laura stared at her.
“You look like Rosa.”
“Where is my mother?”
Laura’s eyes filled with pain.
“She was alive when we escaped.”
“Where did she go?”
“To retrieve the original foundation ledger.”
“Jonathan followed her.”
“Did he take her?”
“I don’t know.”
Richard stepped closer.
“Come home.”
Laura laughed quietly.
“I haven’t had a home in six years.”
“Nora needs you.”
At the sound of their daughter’s name, Laura’s control shattered.
She covered her mouth and turned away.
“I watched her through school cameras.”
“I sent the letters.”
“I wanted her to know I had not abandoned her.”
Mia thought of the kitchen camera.
“You were watching us at the estate.”
Laura nodded.
“Rosa connected me to the old security network.”
“I saw Evelyn strike you.”
“I turned the camera because the vase had broken.”
“You knew the key was inside.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you contact Richard directly?”
“Because Jonathan monitors him.”
“He has people on the board, in the company, and inside the police department.”
Richard shook his head.
“Hale is helping us.”
“Hale may be honest.”
“Someone beside him is not.”
A sharp crack echoed through the chapel.
The stained-glass window behind Laura shattered.
Richard threw himself toward her.
A dart struck Laura’s shoulder.
She collapsed into his arms.
Hale entered with his weapon drawn.
Mia ran toward the broken window.
A dark figure moved along the cliff path.
She followed.
The figure reached a waiting motorcycle.
Before he put on his helmet, he looked back.
Elias Crane smiled at her.
Then he accelerated into the fog.
Mia returned to the chapel.
Richard held Laura against his chest.
A folded page had fallen from her coat.
It contained the DNA results Dr. Ross had removed from Rosebridge.
Mia read the final line.
May you like
Probability of paternity: 99.98%.
Richard Vance was Chloe’s biological father.
