Chapter 7
Claire improved slowly.
Matthew fought harder than any newborn should have to.
Every ounce gained felt like victory.
Every alarm in the NICU made my heart stop.
Evelyn requested to see me from jail.
I refused.
Then she requested through her lawyer.
I refused again.
Then she sent a message.
Ask Claire what she did with the second key.
I showed Claire.
Her face went white.
“There’s another safe.”
“Where?”
“Not in the office.”
She closed her eyes, searching through the fog of sedation and trauma.
“Your father said the first safe proves money. The second proves blood.”
Blood.
That word had destroyed too many families.
We searched my father’s journal again.
One entry mentioned Catherine’s piano.
My grandmother’s piano sat in the formal room of Evelyn’s house.
Police had sealed the property, but Detective Holt got a warrant.
Inside the piano bench was a hidden compartment.
Inside that, a safe deposit key.
The bank box contained DNA reports.
Birth records.
Adoption papers.
Letters from Victor to Evelyn.
Nathan was Victor’s son.
That much we knew.
But there was more.
A baby girl had been born before Nathan.
Given away quietly.
Evelyn and Victor’s daughter.
My half-sister by upbringing? No.
Not mine by blood.
But tied to the company trust.
My father had known.
He had supported the child secretly through an account called Rose Fund.
The last payment was made two months before he died.
The recipient’s adult name made my knees weaken.
Dr. Rose Price.
Leonard Price’s daughter.
May you like
The missing doctor was not only Evelyn’s accomplice.
His daughter was Evelyn’s first child.
