Chapter 14 - The Other Vale
The man moved before I could speak.
He overturned the table and ran toward the rear exit.
Detectives tackled him in the hallway.
His fingerprints solved the mystery.
His name was Nicholas Vale.
Nathan and Nicholas were identical twins.
Nicholas had disappeared from public records at twenty.
Nathan had helped give him a new identity after a series of fraud charges.
For decades, Nicholas became Bellhaven's invisible operator.
When Margaret needed something done that Nathan refused, Nicholas did it.
Unauthorized specimen transfers.
Record destruction.
False death certificates.
Threats.
Surveillance.
Nathan had genuinely tried to expose Bellhaven.
Nicholas helped Margaret imprison him.
Then when police raided the lodge, Nicholas switched places with his heavily sedated brother during the confusion.
The real Nathan was somewhere else.
Possibly dying.
Nicholas refused to tell us where.
Until Detective Morales mentioned Gloria.
His expression changed.
“She has the boy?”
“Yes.”
Nicholas laughed.
“Then Margaret will kill her.”
That was the first useful thing he said.
“Why?”
“Because Lucas isn't just another child.”
I stared.
“What makes him different?”
Nicholas leaned back.
“His blood.”
I nearly screamed.
“Stop talking in riddles.”
He looked at Charles.
“You still don't understand why Margaret wanted Charles's children.”
“Because she thought he was Edward's son.”
“No.”
Nicholas smiled.
“Margaret discovered the truth about Charles years ago.”
Charles stiffened.
“She knew I wasn't Edward's?”
“Yes.”
“Then why use my genetic material?”
Nicholas looked at Thomas.
“Because of Robert Vale.”
Thomas frowned.
“My father?”
Nicholas nodded.
“Robert Vale had another name before he came to America.”
None of us understood.
Nicholas continued.
“Robert wasn't poor.”
“He wasn't ordinary.”
“He was the unrecognized son of Samuel Whitmore Senior.”
Charles went pale.
Samuel Whitmore Senior had been Edward's father.
That meant Robert Vale was Edward's half-brother.
So Charles and Thomas were still biologically Whitmore descendants.
Not through Edward.
Through Edward's half-brother Robert.
Margaret discovered the hidden genealogy and realized Charles still carried the family bloodline.
Her obsession survived.
But Lucas mattered for another reason.
An old trust created by Samuel Whitmore Senior transferred substantial assets to the youngest living direct male descendant of his bloodline under certain conditions.
Lucas was male.
Sophie was not.
Evan was biologically descended through Margaret and possibly Edward's preserved specimen, but legal challenges surrounding his conception could complicate things.
Lucas, as Charles's biological son, could become the clearest male heir to hundreds of millions of dollars in dormant Whitmore assets.
Margaret had not created him merely as a backup grandchild.
She created him as an inheritance key.
I felt sick.
“He's five.”
Nicholas shrugged.
“Money doesn't care.”
I wanted to hit him.
Instead, I asked about Nathan.
Nicholas finally gave us an address.
A private medical facility in Pennsylvania.
Police found Nathan alive.
Barely.
He had been drugged for months.
When he recovered enough to speak, his first question concerned Lucas.
“Did Margaret get him?”
“No.”
“Then keep him away from her.”
We still needed Gloria.
Authorities traced her call to western Virginia.
Then another call came.
This time from Lucas himself.
A child whispered into the phone.
“Are you Claire?”
My heart stopped.
“Yes.”
“Gloria said you're my real mom.”
I closed my eyes.
“Where are you, sweetheart?”
“I don't know.”
“Are you safe?”
A pause.
“There's a lady outside.”
“What lady?”
“She keeps calling Gloria's name.”
“Can you see her?”
“Yes.”
“What does she look like?”
Lucas whispered.
“Like the angry grandma from my pictures.”
Margaret.
But Margaret was in custody.
I looked at Detective Morales.
He looked equally confused.
Then Lucas said:
“She says her name is Evelyn.”
Margaret's eighty-six-year-old mother.
The supposedly frightened old woman in Savannah.
May you like
And suddenly I realized we had made the same mistake again.
We had assumed age meant innocence.
