Chapter 16 - THE CHILD ABRAM NEVER KNEW ABOUT
Abram did not understand the sentence.
For several seconds, he simply stared at Felix.
“My baby?”
Felix looked toward the floor.
“Before Celia.”
Abram’s stomach tightened.
“There was no baby before Celia.”
Felix’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
Abram stepped closer.
“With who?”
Felix whispered the name.
“Rachel.”
Abram froze.
Rachel Vaughn.
His college girlfriend.
They had been together for nearly three years.
Then Rachel suddenly ended the relationship.
No explanation.
No meeting.
Just a letter saying she had met someone else and did not want Abram to contact her.
Abram had called.
Her number disconnected.
He drove to her apartment.
Empty.
Doreen comforted him for months.
Abram stared at Felix.
“What are you saying?”
Felix’s voice broke.
“Rachel was pregnant.”
The room seemed to disappear.
“No.”
“She told Mom first.”
“Why?”
“You were working in North Carolina.”
Abram remembered.
A summer construction job.
Six weeks.
He had planned to propose when he came home.
Felix continued.
“Rachel wanted to surprise you.”
“Mom told her you didn’t want children.”
Abram shook his head.
“No.”
“She showed Rachel messages.”
“No.”
“Messages supposedly from you.”
Abram felt physically ill.
The same method.
Again.
Phones.
Messages.
Isolation.
Felix continued.
“Mom told Rachel you were seeing someone else.”
“Rachel didn’t believe her.”
“Then Mom showed her photographs.”
Abram stared.
“What photographs?”
“You at a bar with a woman.”
Abram remembered the woman.
A coworker.
Nothing happened.
Doreen had visited that weekend.
She had taken pictures.
“What happened?”
“Rachel confronted Mom.”
“Mom offered her money.”
Abram’s hands shook.
“How much?”
“Fifty thousand.”
“For what?”
“To leave.”
Abram stepped toward Felix.
“And you knew?”
“Not then.”
“When?”
“Seven years ago.”
“When Dad was dying?”
“Yes.”
Felix’s voice cracked.
“Dad told me.”
Abram shoved him.
Felix stumbled backward.
Morgan stepped forward.
“Abram.”
Abram ignored her.
“You knew for seven years.”
“I didn’t know where Rachel went.”
“You knew I had a child.”
“I didn’t know what happened to the pregnancy.”
Abram’s breathing became ragged.
“And you said nothing.”
Felix cried openly now.
“I was ashamed.”
Abram laughed bitterly.
“Your shame again.”
“Yes.”
Felix did not defend himself.
Abram turned toward Margaret.
“You knew.”
Margaret shook her head.
“Not until Elias told me.”
“When?”
“Before he died.”
“And you never told me.”
“I disappeared.”
Abram looked toward Celia’s video screen.
Celia said nothing.
Her face showed shock.
Abram walked out of the room.
He made it to the parking garage before Celia called.
He nearly ignored the phone.
Then answered.
“I can’t do this.”
Celia’s voice remained soft.
“Yes, you can.”
“My entire life is fake.”
“No.”
“My mother changed everything.”
“Not everything.”
“She took my father.”
“She took my aunt.”
“She locked you in a shed.”
“She may have taken a child from me.”
Celia was silent.
Abram leaned against the concrete wall.
“I would have married Rachel.”
“I know.”
“I would have raised that baby.”
“I know.”
“I don’t even know if it was born.”
Celia inhaled slowly.
“Then find out.”
Abram closed his eyes.
“What if the child is alive?”
“Then you learn the truth.”
“What if they hate me?”
“Then you let them.”
Abram opened his eyes.
Celia continued.
“You don’t control what the truth costs.”
“That is what your mother never understood.”
“She thought if the truth hurt, she had permission to replace it.”
Abram said nothing.
Celia’s voice became firmer.
“Do not become her by deciding someone else cannot handle the truth.”
The search for Rachel Vaughn took nine hours.
Morgan found her through an old marriage record.
Rachel now lived in Colorado.
She was forty years old.
Married.
Two children listed on public records.
One child was twenty years old.
Abram stared at the age.
His child, if the dates matched.
Morgan contacted Rachel through local authorities.
Rachel agreed to a video call.
Abram sat alone.
Celia stayed on the phone but did not join the video.
Rachel appeared.
Her hair was shorter.
Lines had formed around her eyes.
But Abram recognized her immediately.
Rachel covered her mouth.
“Abram.”
He could barely speak.
“Hi.”
For several seconds, neither knew what to say.
Rachel finally whispered.
“I wondered if this day would come.”
Abram swallowed.
“You were pregnant.”
Rachel closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
“Was the baby mine?”
“Yes.”
Abram looked down.
“Did you…”
He could not finish.
Rachel understood.
“I had him.”
Abram stopped breathing.
“Him?”
Rachel nodded.
“A boy.”
Abram’s eyes filled.
“What’s his name?”
“Luke.”
The name nearly broke him.
“Is he okay?”
Rachel smiled through tears.
“He’s wonderful.”
Abram covered his face.
For twenty years, somewhere in the world, his son had been alive.
Walking.
Learning to speak.
Going to school.
Growing taller.
Having birthdays.
And Abram had known nothing.
Rachel waited.
Abram finally looked up.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Her expression hardened.
“I tried.”
“How?”
“I called your house.”
“Your mother answered.”
Abram closed his eyes.
“She said you didn’t want to speak to me.”
“Rachel…”
“She mailed me a letter.”
“She said it was from you.”
“What did it say?”
“That you wanted no legal responsibility.”
“That if I contacted you, your family would fight for custody.”
Abram felt sick.
“I never wrote that.”
“I know now.”
“Why now?”
Rachel looked toward her side.
“Because your father found me.”
Abram stared.
“When?”
“Seven years ago.”
“Dad?”
“He came to Colorado.”
“What did he say?”
“He apologized.”
“He told me Doreen had lied to both of us.”
“Did he meet Luke?”
Rachel began crying.
“Yes.”
Abram covered his mouth.
His father had met the son Abram never knew.
“What did Luke think?”
“I told him Elias was an old friend.”
“Why?”
“Because Elias asked me not to tell Luke until he could bring you himself.”
Abram closed his eyes.
He never got the chance.
Rachel continued.
“Elias sent birthday cards afterward.”
“For three months.”
“Then they stopped.”
“He died.”
“I know.”
Rachel wiped her face.
“Luke knows you exist now.”
Abram looked up.
“What?”
“I told him the truth last year.”
“How much?”
“That his biological father never knew.”
Abram’s voice shook.
“Does he want to talk to me?”
Rachel looked away.
“I asked him.”
Abram waited.
“He said not yet.”
The answer hurt.
But Abram understood.
Celia’s words returned.
You let them.
“I’ll respect that.”
Rachel looked relieved.
“I’m sorry.”
“No.”
Abram shook his head.
“Don’t apologize.”
“We were both lied to.”
Rachel nodded.
Abram hesitated.
“Was my mother ever around Luke?”
“Once.”
His body went rigid.
“When?”
“Three years ago.”
“What?”
“She came to Colorado.”
Rachel’s face hardened.
“She watched Luke leave school.”
Abram gripped the chair.
“Did she speak to him?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“She mailed me a photograph.”
Abram closed his eyes.
Of course.
A threat.
Rachel continued.
“On the back she wrote, ‘Some families are safer apart.’”
Abram felt rage surge again.
But this time he did not stand.
He did not punch the wall.
He did not shout.
He sat still.
He breathed.
Doreen no longer controlled his reaction.
Rachel watched him.
“What is happening there?”
Abram told her enough.
The shed.
Celia.
Elias.
The arrest.
Rachel went pale.
“She’s finally caught.”
“Yes.”
Rachel stared at him.
“Then Abram…”
He waited.
“There’s something you should know.”
“What?”
“Your mother contacted me three weeks ago.”
Abram’s stomach dropped.
“What did she want?”
“She asked whether Luke needed money for college.”
“Why?”
“I thought she was trying to make peace.”
Rachel shook her head.
“She asked for a copy of his birth certificate.”
Abram went completely still.
“Did you give it to her?”
“No.”
“Did she say why?”
“She said she wanted to create a family trust.”
Abram’s mind raced.
Guardianship.
Inheritance.
Land.
Luke.
Doreen had known about Abram’s adult son the entire time.
Rachel continued.
“And when I refused…”
“What?”
“She said Luke might inherit more than he deserved if something happened to you.”
Abram’s blood ran cold.
Doreen had not only planned to control Abram’s assets.
May you like
She had been investigating the person who could inherit them if Abram died.
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