Chapter 14 - THE OTHER FATHER
I had spent my entire life believing Rachel and I were full sisters.
We had the same mother.
We had different fathers.
My mother admitted the truth after investigators confronted her with the clinic records.
Before she married my father, she had a brief relationship with another man.
She became pregnant with Rachel.
My father knew.
He agreed to raise Rachel as his own and placed his name on her birth certificate.
For years, the secret seemed harmless.
Then Grandma Evelyn created Emma’s trust.
Her amendment referred to Emma’s “genetic mother.”
My father feared Rachel’s biological father might discover the child and challenge the family’s control.
He pressured Dr. Price to alter records that could identify him.
“Who is Rachel’s father?” I asked.
Mom refused to answer.
Detective Hayes eventually found the name in an old letter.
Thomas Vale.
He was not a stranger.
He was Grandma Evelyn’s former attorney.
He had drafted the trust amendment.
Thomas knew Rachel was his daughter.
He knew Emma was genetically connected to him.
The trust had never been created only out of sympathy for Rachel.
It was his way of placing money under the control of his biological granddaughter.
Thomas had died one month before Grandma Evelyn.
His files passed to his law partner.
Inside those files, police found letters between Thomas and Rachel.
He had contacted her two years earlier.
He told her the truth about her birth.
He encouraged her to reclaim Emma.
He described me as an obstacle created by my father’s lies.
Rachel’s obsession had been fed by a man who believed our family had stolen two generations from him.
Thomas also revealed my father’s theft from the trust.
Rachel used the evidence to control him.
One letter was dated the week before Thomas died.
It read, “If Claire refuses to surrender Emma, create a situation the court cannot ignore.”
There was no direct instruction to poison her.
There did not need to be.
Rachel had already decided what kind of situation would work.
Mark closed the file.
“This started long before the birthday.”
“It started before Emma was born,” I said.
A knock came from the front door.
Detective Hayes stood outside.
Her expression told me the news was not good.
Rachel had been transferred to a medical facility after claiming she was ill.
During transport, the vehicle was forced off the road.
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The driver was injured.
Rachel escaped.
