Chapter 5
Richard handed Anna’s last page to Daniel.
“Stay with Emily and Rosa.”
“No,” Daniel said. “I’m coming with you.”
“Emily needs someone here.”
Rosa took the pistol Grant had dropped after switching weapons.
“I can protect her.”
Daniel read the note.
His face changed.
“Mother was here when Father died?”
“That’s what Anna believed.”
Emily looked toward the dark passage.
“Grant took something from the box.”
“The recorder,” Richard said.
“What’s on it?”
“I don’t know.”
“But he does.”
Richard entered the narrow stairway.
Daniel followed despite his warning.
The passage smelled of damp wood and lake water.
Ahead, Grant’s footsteps moved quickly downward.
Evelyn’s voice echoed through the darkness.
“You will never leave the country with those records.”
“I don’t need to leave,” Grant answered. “I only need to destroy them.”
Richard and Daniel reached the bottom of the stairs.
A tunnel extended beneath the estate toward the old boathouse.
Grant was thirty yards ahead, still holding Evelyn.
Richard called to him.
“There’s nowhere to go.”
Grant looked back.
“That is what your father said.”
He fired at a pipe above Richard’s head.
Water burst across the tunnel.
Richard and Daniel dropped behind a support beam.
Grant disappeared into the boathouse.
“Did you hear that?” Daniel asked.
“What?”
“What your father said.”
Richard nodded.
Grant had been in the passage the night William died.
They moved forward.
The boathouse door stood open.
Wind drove rain across the wooden floor.
An engine coughed near the dock.
Grant was trying to start an old motorboat.
Evelyn stood beside him.
For the first time, she looked afraid.
Richard approached with his hands visible.
“Let her go.”
Grant aimed the gun.
“Throw the key into the water.”
“You already opened the box.”
“There are other compartments.”
Evelyn turned toward him.
“What other compartments?”
Grant smiled.
“William never trusted you completely.”
Richard took the brass key from his pocket.
“Give me the recorder.”
“Throw the key first.”
Richard held it over the water.
“Tell me what happened to my father.”
Evelyn’s eyes met Grant’s.
“Do not answer him.”
Grant began to laugh.
“You still think you control me.”
“Grant.”
“You want the truth, Richard?”
“Yes.”
“Your father confronted us in the study. He threatened to call the police. Evelyn tried to take the documents. They fought.”
“I did not fight him,” Evelyn said.
“You grabbed his arm.”
“He was already ill.”
“He collapsed.”
Evelyn’s voice cracked.
“I called for help.”
“No, you didn’t.”
Grant looked at Richard.
“She stood over him while he begged for his medication.”
Richard could barely hear the storm.
“He had pills in his desk.”
“I reached for them,” Grant continued. “Evelyn stopped me.”
“That is a lie.”
“You said if he lived, we would all go to prison.”
Daniel stepped into the open.
“Mother?”
Evelyn looked at her younger son.
“I was frightened.”
“You let him die?”
“I did not cause his heart attack.”
“But you didn’t help him.”
“He was going to destroy our family.”
Daniel’s face crumpled.
“He was our family.”
Grant pulled the tape recorder from his coat.
“William recorded the entire confrontation.”
Evelyn stared at it.
“You told me you destroyed that.”
“I destroyed a copy.”
Richard understood.
Grant had kept the recording as insurance against Evelyn.
For nine years, each of them had protected the other because either could destroy both.
Richard tossed the brass key onto the dock instead of into the lake.
Grant’s eyes followed it.
That single distraction was enough.
Evelyn drove her elbow into his side.
The gun fired.
The bullet struck the boat’s windshield.
Richard charged.
He caught Grant around the waist, and both men crashed onto the wet dock.
The recorder slid across the boards.
Daniel grabbed it.
Grant struck Richard in the jaw and reached for the gun.
Richard caught his wrist.
“You put your hands on my daughter.”
Grant pushed harder.
“She shouldn’t have come.”
Richard slammed his wrist against the dock.
The gun fell into the water.
Marcus and the police rushed through the boathouse doors.
“Don’t move!”
Grant froze.
Officers pulled him away from Richard and forced him onto the floor.
Evelyn leaned against a post.
Her perfect hair had fallen loose around her face.
When an officer approached, she lifted her chin.
“I am a victim.”
Daniel held up Anna’s page.
“No, Mother.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“You heard Grant. He is trying to save himself.”
“I heard you admit you were there.”
“I panicked.”
“You let Father die.”
“He would have sent us all to prison.”
“Us?”
Daniel’s voice broke.
“I was sixteen. Richard was twenty-seven. What had we done?”
“Everything I did was for you.”
“No. Everything you did was so you could control us.”
Police handcuffed Grant.
Richard picked up the recorder.
The tape inside was old, but intact.
Evelyn watched him.
“You cannot use that.”
“Why?”
“Because your father’s voice will not save Anna.”
“No.”
Richard looked toward the main house where Emily was waiting.
“But it may save his granddaughter.”
Evelyn’s expression hardened again.
“You still have no proof she is yours.”
“We’ll get a DNA test.”
“And if it says she isn’t?”
Richard thought of the child defending her mother in the study.
He thought of her small hands pressed against the car window.
He thought of the broken violin.
“Then I will still make sure she is safe.”
Evelyn gave a humorless laugh.
“You’re willing to tear down everything for a stranger.”
“You tore down everything to keep her outside.”
The officers led Evelyn and Grant toward separate police vehicles.
Evelyn stopped beside Richard.
“Do you think the board will forgive this?”
“I don’t care.”
“You will when thousands of employees lose their jobs.”
“That won’t happen.”
“The merger will collapse by morning.”
“Then I’ll find another way.”
“You always believed you were different from your father.”
She leaned closer.
“You’re not. He chose his conscience too late, and everyone paid for it.”
Richard watched her leave.
Back inside the study, Emily sat on the carpet with Rosa.
Daniel knelt nearby.
When Richard entered, Emily ran to him.
She stopped before reaching his arms, suddenly uncertain.
“Is it over?”
Richard crouched.
“Grant can’t hurt you now.”
“What about your mother?”
“She can’t hurt you either.”
Emily glanced at the recorder.
“Did you find the truth?”
“We found part of it.”
She held out Anna’s last page.
Richard took it carefully.
“There’s writing on the back,” Emily said.
He turned it over.
One final line appeared near the bottom.
Richard, if you accept Emily, be careful whom you trust. Someone else in your family helped Evelyn, and it was not Daniel.
Richard read it twice.
He had only one other close relative.
His father’s brother, Thomas Hale.
Thomas was the chairman of the company board.
He also controlled the DNA laboratory used by every Hale-owned hospital.
Richard looked at Emily.
“We need to leave.”
“Where are we going?”
“Somewhere my family can’t reach you.”
Rosa stood.
“We have nowhere else.”
“You do now.”
They returned to the hotel under police protection.
The ballroom had been cleared.
News vans surrounded the building.
Someone had already leaked the kidnapping.
In Richard’s private suite, a doctor examined Emily and confirmed she had no serious injuries.
Rosa remained beside her.
Richard arranged for food, clothing, and security.
At two in the morning, Emily sat near the window holding the pieces of her violin.
“Can it be fixed?” she asked.
Richard examined the split wood.
“I don’t know.”
“My mom saved for two years to buy it.”
“I’ll find the best person in the country.”
“I don’t want a new one.”
“I understand.”
“No, you don’t.”
Emily’s anger came suddenly.
“You have everything. If something breaks, you buy another one.”
Richard did not defend himself.
“This was hers,” Emily said. “Her hands touched it. I can’t replace that.”
“You’re right.”
She wiped her cheeks.
“Are you really my father?”
“I believe I am.”
“But you don’t know.”
“Not yet.”
“What if the test says no?”
Richard sat across from her.
“Then you still won’t be alone.”
“You might change your mind.”
“I won’t.”
“Adults always say that before they leave.”
Richard had no answer strong enough to erase nine years of disappointment.
So he stayed in the chair beside her.
Hours later, Emily fell asleep with the broken violin pieces in her lap.
Richard covered her with a blanket.
His phone buzzed.
A message had arrived from Thomas Hale.
I heard about the child. Do not use the family hospital for the DNA test. Meet me before you trust anyone.
A second message followed immediately.
Your mother was not the person who ordered Anna’s letters destroyed.
Richard looked toward Emily.
Then he received a laboratory report he had not requested.
The subject line read: EMILY BROOKS—PATERNITY ANALYSIS.
The conclusion appeared in bold letters.
May you like
Richard Hale is excluded as the biological father.
Someone had run the test before taking either of their samples.
