Chapter 7
I stared at Harris through the video call.
“What baby?”
“We were hoping you knew.”
“I don’t.”
Amy sat beside me.
Her face had gone pale.
Victor stood across the room.
He suddenly looked sick.
I noticed.
“Victor.”
He didn’t answer.
“Victor, what baby?”
“There are things your father kept private.”
“Stop protecting people!”
“I’m not protecting Teresa.”
“Then talk.”
Victor looked at Amy.
“Before Ryan was born, Teresa had another pregnancy.”
I froze.
“What?”
“She lost the baby.”
My anger faded slightly.
“Why would Dad write about that?”
Victor shook his head.
“That’s not the baby he meant.”
Amy whispered, “Then who?”
Victor sat down.
“Twenty-seven years ago, Teresa disappeared for almost a year.”
I frowned.
“I was a child.”
“You were six.”
“I remember staying with Dad.”
“She told everyone she was helping her sister in Arizona.”
“Wasn’t she?”
“No.”
“Where was she?”
“I never knew.”
Amy connected the pieces before I did.
“You think she had another child.”
Victor closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
I stood.
“That’s insane.”
“Thomas discovered it shortly before he died.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
“And Marcus?”
Victor nodded slowly.
“I think he helped her hide it.”
My phone vibrated.
Melissa.
She had sent a photograph.
Another box had been discovered in Grandma’s storage unit.
Inside was a birth certificate.
Mother: Teresa Carter.
Father: blank.
Child: Daniel Carter.
Date of birth: twenty-six years ago.
I sat down.
“I have a brother?”
Amy touched my shoulder.
Victor whispered, “Half brother.”
My mind raced.
“Where is he?”
“Nobody knows.”
Detective Harris immediately began searching.
By afternoon, they found him.
Daniel Carter had changed his last name at eighteen.
Daniel Vale.
Vale.
The room went silent.
“Marcus,” Amy whispered.
I nodded.
Daniel was Marcus’s son.
My mother had secretly had a child with the man she later helped steal from my father.
And Dad had discovered it.
Suddenly the trust amendment made sense.
The missing money made sense.
The secret recordings.
The fear.
Everything.
Harris called us back to the station.
“We found Daniel.”
“Where?”
“Three states away.”
“Does he know about any of this?”
“We spoke with him.”
“And?”
“He wants nothing to do with Teresa or Marcus.”
“Why?”
“He says they abandoned him.”
I didn’t understand.
“Both of them?”
“He was raised by another family.”
My stomach twisted.
“What does he know about Dad?”
“Enough.”
Daniel agreed to a video call.
When his face appeared on the screen, I stopped breathing.
He looked like me.
Not exactly.
But enough that there was no doubt we shared a mother.
Daniel stared back.
“So you’re Ryan.”
“Yes.”
He laughed bitterly.
“The son she kept.”
I didn’t know what to say.
“I didn’t know you existed.”
“I believe you.”
“Why?”
“Because Teresa spent my whole childhood pretending I didn’t exist.”
Amy squeezed my hand.
Daniel continued.
“Marcus contacted me three months ago.”
“What did he want?”
“Money.”
“From you?”
“No.”
Daniel’s expression changed.
“From the house.”
I leaned closer.
“What house?”
“Your house.”
My blood chilled.
“He said Thomas hid evidence there that could put Teresa away.”
“What evidence?”
“I don’t know.”
“He broke in looking for it.”
“Yes.”
“Did he find it?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he called me afterward.”
Daniel hesitated.
“He said Thomas was smarter than he remembered.”
I thought about Dad.
The recorder.
The safe.
The writing behind it.
Maybe the safe was a distraction.
“Did Dad ever contact you?”
Daniel looked away.
“Once.”
“When?”
“Two weeks before he died.”
“What did he say?”
Daniel’s eyes filled with something between anger and grief.
“He apologized.”
“For what?”
“For not finding me sooner.”
My throat tightened.
“He knew you were Teresa’s son?”
“Yes.”
“And Marcus’s?”
“Yes.”
“What else?”
Daniel leaned toward the camera.
“He said Teresa had done something unforgivable.”
“What?”
“He wouldn’t say over the phone.”
“Did he tell you where the evidence was?”
Daniel paused.
Then he nodded.
“He said, ‘Ryan will find it when he finally protects his family.’”
Amy and I stared at each other.
Dad had known.
Somehow, years before Caleb existed, Dad had known the truth would eventually force me to choose between my mother and my wife.
Then Daniel said one final thing.
“He also told me the evidence was somewhere Teresa would never willingly look.”
I thought about my mother.
What she hated.
Who she hated.
May you like
Then my eyes moved toward Amy.
And suddenly I knew exactly where Dad had hidden it.
