Chapter 10 - THE THIRD MAN
The man Adrian met was named Samuel Rourke.
For twenty-eight years, he had served as attorney and trustee for the Vale family.
He was also one of the last people still alive who had been present at St. Catherine on the night Adrian was born.
Luka found him before Adrian did again.
Rourke was staying in a motel two counties away.
He agreed to speak only if my father came.
We drove there after dark.
Grace stayed with Mia and a retired neonatal nurse Luka trusted.
Leaving her for two hours felt like tearing away part of my body.
But I needed answers.
Rourke opened the motel door wearing yesterday’s shirt.
He looked terrified.
Then he saw Thomas.
“You should have stayed dead.”
My father replied.
“So should the truth?”
Rourke let us inside.
He refused to sit.
“Victor knows the file exists?”
“Yes.”
“Adrian?”
“Yes.”
Rourke rubbed both hands over his face.
“Then it’s over.”
“What is?”
I asked.
“The Vale family.”
My father stepped forward.
“Who is Subject C?”
Rourke looked at me.
His expression changed.
“You don’t know?”
“No.”
He laughed once.
A broken sound.
“Thomas, you never told her?”
“My job was to protect her.”
Rourke looked toward me again.
“Subject C is Adrian’s biological father.”
“I know that.”
“No.”
His eyes hardened.
“You know what the sample represents.”
He pointed toward Luka.
“You don’t know who it belongs to.”
“Then tell me.”
Rourke swallowed.
“Michael Carter.”
My heart stopped.
I looked at my father.
“Carter?”
Thomas closed his eyes.
“Who is Michael Carter?”
“My brother.”
I stepped backward.
Adrian was the biological son of my father’s brother.
That meant Adrian and I were cousins.
The room vanished around me.
“No.”
Thomas reached for me.
I recoiled.
“No.”
“Elena.”
“No.”
I thought of six years of marriage.
Of Grace.
My stomach twisted.
“Grace.”
My voice barely worked.
Luka caught my shoulders before I fell.
Thomas spoke quickly.
“Listen to me.”
I couldn’t.
My ears rang.
Then he said the only words strong enough to reach me.
“Adrian is not Grace’s biological father.”
Everything stopped.
I stared at him.
“What did you say?”
Thomas looked shattered.
“Adrian already knew you were related before he married you.”
I felt nauseated.
“Then why would he—”
“Because he also knew he could not father children.”
Silence.
I stared at my father.
“No.”
“Adrian was diagnosed with complete infertility when he was nineteen.”
My mind raced through every appointment.
Every conversation.
Every lie.
“We conceived through IVF.”
“Yes.”
“Adrian told me his sample was used.”
Thomas’s voice broke.
“It wasn’t.”
Luka’s hands fell from my shoulders.
Even he looked stunned.
I whispered.
“Whose was it?”
Thomas looked toward Rourke.
Rourke shook his head.
“That information was sealed.”
“Where?”
May you like
Rourke stared at us.
“In the missing DNA envelope.”
