Chapter 4 - THE CONDITION IN MY FATHER'S WILL
Adrian Vale had been born at St. Catherine Hospital twenty-seven years earlier.
His official records listed Victor and Eleanor Vale as his biological parents.
M-17 said otherwise.
At least, that was what Luka claimed.
I didn’t want to believe him.
Believing Luka meant accepting that my husband’s family had been connected to my father’s disappearance.
Believing him meant my marriage might never have been what I thought it was.
I stared at my daughter.
We had named her Grace.
I had chosen the name during my seventh month of pregnancy.
Adrian had barely reacted.
Now Grace slept beneath a knitted pink blanket while the foundations of my life collapsed around her.
“Why would my father care who Adrian’s biological parents were?”
“Because Victor Vale’s inheritance depended on bloodline succession.”
Luka explained that Silas Vale, Adrian’s grandfather, had created a family trust worth hundreds of millions.
Control passed only to direct biological descendants.
If Adrian was not Victor’s biological son, Victor’s branch of the family could lose control of the trust.
“That sounds insane.”
“It is.”
“And somehow my father discovered it?”
“He discovered much more than that.”
A woman entered the room.
Mid-forties.
Navy suit.
Silver glasses.
She carried a leather briefcase.
“Luka.”
“Mia.”
She turned to me.
“Elena Carter Vale?”
“Yes.”
“My name is Mia Holloway.”
She handed me a card.
“I was your father’s attorney.”
My laugh was empty.
“Apparently everyone knew my father except me.”
Pain flickered across her expression.
“That criticism is deserved.”
She opened her briefcase.
Inside was a sealed envelope with my name written across it.
The handwriting stopped my heart.
My father’s.
Mia placed it in front of me.
“He instructed me to give this to you after the birth of your first living child.”
My hands shook.
“Why then?”
“Because that was the condition he chose.”
I tore open the envelope.
Inside was a single page.
Ellie,
If you are reading this, then I failed to return before you became a mother.
I stopped.
Nobody had called me Ellie since I was fourteen.
Tears fell onto the paper.
I kept reading.
Do not trust anyone who asks for Grace’s newborn blood card.
My head snapped up.
“How did he know her name?”
Mia shook her head.
“He didn’t.”
Luka pointed.
I looked again.
It didn’t say Grace.
My exhausted mind had substituted the name.
The letter actually read:
Do not trust anyone who asks for your child’s newborn blood card.
I continued.
M-17 was never about protecting a Vale.
It was about proving what the Vale family did.
And if you married one of them, understand this clearly.
They did not find you by accident.
My vision blurred.
Adrian and I had met at a charity fundraiser.
He spilled champagne on my dress.
He apologized.
He made me laugh.
He asked for my number.
For six years, I had told people it was fate.
My father’s letter said otherwise.
At the bottom was one final instruction.
Ask Luka what happened on Blackwater Road.
I lifted my eyes.
Luka went completely still.
“What happened on Blackwater Road?”
He didn’t answer.
Mia closed her eyes.
May you like
That was when I understood.
Whatever happened there was worse than everything I had already heard.
