Chapter 10 - THE OLD ESTATE
The old Whitmore estate had been empty for nine years.
Charles died there.
Margaret moved out six months later and refused to sell it.
By eleven-thirty, police had surrounded the property from a distance.
Claire Marsh arrived in an unmarked car.
I recognized her immediately.
She looked older than I remembered.
Fear had hollowed her face.
The moment she saw me, she started crying.
“I am so sorry.”
I stared at her.
“For what?”
She looked toward James.
Then at Lily, who had been taken somewhere safe with Officer Daniels’s sister, a licensed child advocate.
“For agreeing to it.”
My stomach tightened.
“You carried the second embryo.”
Claire nodded.
James cursed softly.
“Margaret told me it was legal.”
Claire wiped her face.
“She said Charles had wanted another child.”
“He was already dead.”
“I know.”
“Then why did you do it?”
“Money.”
Her answer was immediate.
Painfully honest.
“My husband had cancer.”
She looked down.
“Our insurance stopped covering an experimental treatment.”
“Margaret offered you money.”
“Two hundred thousand dollars.”
“Did it save your husband?”
Claire shook her head.
“He died before Evan was born.”
The anger drained out of me.
Not forgiveness.
Understanding.
“Why did you keep Evan?”
“Because Margaret changed after the birth.”
“How?”
“She wanted total control.”
Claire looked toward the dark mansion.
“She dictated feeding schedules.”
“She chose doctors.”
“She hired nannies I didn’t want.”
“She started calling herself Mommy when she thought I wasn’t listening.”
My skin crawled.
“So you ran.”
“Yes.”
“Why wasn’t Evan verified for the trust?”
Claire opened her purse.
She removed an old laboratory report.
“Because I switched the sample.”
Martin stared at her.
“You committed fraud.”
“I protected my son.”
“With whose sample?”
“My husband’s nephew.”
The official test showed Evan was unrelated to Charles Whitmore.
Margaret had believed the embryo transfer failed or had been switched.
Claire disappeared before she could demand another test.
Then Lily was born.
Margaret eventually tested her.
And found the biological child she could prove.
James looked toward the mansion.
“Why would Margaret take Evan now?”
Claire’s face went white.
“Because she discovered the truth.”
A light suddenly appeared in a second-floor window.
Then another.
Police radios crackled.
No one had entered.
A speaker mounted somewhere near the porch clicked on.
Margaret’s voice filled the night.
“Emily.”
I looked toward the house.
“Come inside.”
James grabbed my arm.
“No.”
Margaret continued.
“Come alone, or Claire will lose the only child she has left.”
Claire began sobbing.
I looked at the police commander.
He shook his head.
“Absolutely not.”
Then a figure appeared behind the second-floor window.
Small.
A boy.
Evan.
He pressed both hands against the glass.
May you like
Margaret stepped into view behind him.
And held up a syringe.
