Chapter 12 - The Vale Brothers
Thomas's mother, Helen Vale, had been a housekeeper at the Whitmore estate.
Charles's mother had struggled with infertility.
Edward blamed her.
Helen became pregnant during the same year.
Thomas had always believed his father was Robert Vale.
But Robert had been overseas for eleven months around the time of conception.
Another impossible family story everyone had politely ignored.
DNA proved Thomas and Charles were full brothers.
That meant neither was Edward's child.
Their biological father had to be the same man.
Robert Vale.
Robert had apparently fathered a child with Charles's mother shortly before leaving overseas.
Then fathered Thomas with Helen upon his return.
Two sons.
Two households.
Neither boy knew.
Suddenly, the label on the old Bellhaven cassette made sense.
The Whitmore family tree stopped being a tree a long time ago.
But Margaret's assumptions had been wrong.
She believed Charles carried Edward's blood.
She used Charles's reproductive material to create Sophie because she wanted another direct descendant of Edward.
Instead, she created the biological daughter of Robert Vale's son.
Sophie was not Edward Whitmore's descendant at all.
The revelation should have made Margaret's forty-year obsession meaningless.
Instead, it made her more dangerous.
Detective Morales obtained a warrant for Margaret's arrest.
Charges connected to Sophie's restraint were already enough.
Additional charges were being prepared for evidence tampering, fraud, conspiracy, and unlawful possession of biological material.
But Margaret had disappeared.
Her house was empty.
Her passport remained behind.
Her phone was found beside a highway.
Then Charles received a message.
Come alone if you want the truth about your mother.
Margaret named an abandoned chapel outside Frederick.
Detective Morales forbade Charles from going.
Charles agreed.
Then went anyway.
I realized twenty minutes later when his hotel room was empty.
Thomas and I followed the location.
Police were already moving.
The chapel stood at the edge of an overgrown cemetery.
Charles's car was outside.
Inside, Margaret stood before the altar.
Charles faced her.
I stopped behind a broken side door.
Margaret held no visible weapon.
She looked exhausted.
For the first time since I had known her, she did not look elegant.
She looked old.
Charles held the DNA report.
“You knew?”
“No.”
“That I'm not Edward's son.”
“No.”
“Then everything you did was built on a lie.”
Margaret's face twisted.
“You think that changes anything?”
“It changes everything.”
“No.”
She stepped closer.
“You were still given everything.”
“The house.”
“The money.”
“The name.”
“Things that should have belonged to me.”
Charles laughed bitterly.
“So this was revenge.”
“It was correction.”
“You married me because you thought I was your brother.”
“I married the heir.”
“You fathered Evan with someone else.”
Margaret smiled strangely.
“I created Evan.”
Thomas flinched beside me.
Charles whispered, “What does that mean?”
Margaret looked toward him.
“Evan was never about love.”
“He was continuity.”
“You talk about our son like a company.”
“He was supposed to inherit.”
“Then he married Claire.”
Margaret's expression hardened.
“That ruined everything.”
I stepped into the chapel.
“No.”
Margaret looked at me.
“You ruined everything yourself.”
She did not appear surprised.
“Of course you came.”
“You chained my daughter.”
“She found something she wasn't supposed to find.”
“She is five.”
“She is the reason we're all here.”
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“You are.”
Sirens sounded in the distance.
Margaret looked toward the door.
Then she laughed.
“You think police ending this story makes you safe?”
“What does that mean?”
She pulled a flash drive from her pocket.
“Bellhaven wasn't Nathan's biggest secret.”
Nathan, who had arrived with detectives outside, entered behind us.
His face changed when he saw the drive.
“Margaret.”
She smiled.
“You recognize it.”
Nathan whispered, “Destroy it.”
I looked between them.
“What is on it?”
Margaret held it up.
“The children.”
My stomach turned.
“What children?”
“All of them.”
Nathan closed his eyes.
Margaret continued.
“Bellhaven created more than two hundred births using unauthorized genetic substitutions.”
Detective Morales stepped inside.
“Put the drive down.”
Margaret ignored him.
“Some of those children belong biologically to men who never met their mothers.”
“Some belong to dead men.”
“Some belong to relatives.”
“Some were designed to secure inheritances.”
“Some were designed to destroy them.”
Then she looked directly at me.
“And Sophie wasn't the last.”
My pulse stopped.
“What?”
Margaret smiled.
“You've been so busy asking who Sophie's father is that you never asked the better question.”
May you like
“What question?”
“Whether Sophie was the only embryo.”
