Chapter 6 - THE BABY BRACELET
"Where is Rebecca's daughter?" Ethan asked.
Vanessa stared at the hospital bracelet.
For once, she didn't look like a woman trying to win.
She looked like someone deciding whether telling the truth would destroy the last safe place she had.
"I don't know where she is now," she answered.
Ethan stepped closer.
"You just told us she's alive."
"She was alive when I last saw her."
"When?"
"Seventeen years ago."
He looked ready to explode.
I stood.
"Stop."
Both of them turned.
"Vanessa, sit down. Ethan, give her enough room to breathe."
"Claire, this is my family."
"And shouting has been working beautifully so far."
He glared at me.
Then sat.
I faced Vanessa.
"Start with Rebecca."
She took a shaky breath.
"Rebecca worked for my father. She handled hospital billing for employees injured on Blackwood properties. That's how she discovered the records."
"What records?"
"Richard had been charging medical expenses to nonexistent employees. Some claims involved people who'd never worked for him."
Ethan frowned.
"Insurance fraud?"
"Among other things."
I looked toward him.
For a man who controlled a criminal empire, he appeared remarkably offended by the possibility that his father had committed financial crimes.
Vanessa continued.
"Rebecca found payments to a private clinic. They weren't ordinary medical bills."
"What were they?"
"Payments connected to fertility procedures."
Ethan's face changed.
I felt the atmosphere shift.
"His operation?" I asked.
Vanessa nodded.
"Rebecca discovered that Richard had arranged something after Ethan's injury."
Ethan gripped the armrest.
"Why?"
"Because your father was afraid of what you might become."
He gave a bitter laugh.
"He spent my entire childhood telling me to build a dynasty."
"Exactly."
Vanessa looked at him with tears in her eyes.
"Richard wanted you dependent on him. He didn't want you starting a family he couldn't control."
I thought about Ethan at thirty-five.
His wealth.
His power.
His desperate desire for an heir.
Suddenly, his obsession looked less like vanity and more like a lifelong attempt to prove something to a dead man.
That didn't excuse the way he'd treated me.
But I understood it better.
"Did Richard deliberately make Ethan infertile?" I asked.
Vanessa hesitated.
"Rebecca believed he'd interfered with Ethan's treatment. She couldn't prove exactly what was done."
That distinction mattered.
A suspicion wasn't a medical conclusion.
I looked at Ethan.
"You'll need a specialist to review the surgical records properly."
He nodded without speaking.
Vanessa touched the hospital bracelet.
"Rebecca was pregnant when she found the payments. She planned to give the records to Eleanor."
"And Daniel?" I asked.
"He was helping her."
"Was the baby his?"
"No."
Vanessa looked toward Margaret.
"Rebecca never told us who the father was."
Margaret lowered her eyes.
I noticed.
So did Ethan.
"Mom," Vanessa whispered.
Margaret's voice trembled.
"I only knew she was frightened."
"Of Richard?" I asked.
"Of what would happen when Eleanor found out."
Ethan stared at his mother's bracelet.
"Rebecca was Eleanor's daughter. Why would she be frightened of her?"
"She wasn't frightened of Eleanor," Margaret said. "She was frightened of Richard learning the baby existed."
I folded my arms.
"Then how did the warehouse burn?"
Vanessa looked at the floor.
"Daniel started a small fire in an empty storage section."
Ethan stared.
"He deliberately burned my father's building?"
"He was trying to destroy the files Richard was using to blackmail Rebecca."
"Why not simply take them?"
"Because Richard had copies. Daniel wanted to make the original accounts unusable and create a distraction so Rebecca could escape."
I felt a chill.
"And the fire spread."
Vanessa nodded.
"Much faster than anyone expected."
I thought about my childhood drawing.
A red building.
Smoke.
A young man lifting me.
"Daniel saved my mother and me."
Vanessa looked surprised.
"You remember?"
"Not clearly. But I remember him carrying me."
Her eyes filled.
"Daniel went back inside three times."
Ethan lowered his head.
"Why didn't he come home?"
"Because Richard blamed him for everything. And because Rebecca was missing."
We sat in silence.
For the first time, Daniel Mercer wasn't simply a mysterious name connected to a pregnancy.
He was a frightened nineteen-year-old who had made a terrible decision and then risked his life to save people.
That didn't make the fire harmless.
But it made him human.
I picked up the hospital bracelet.
"How did you get this?"
Vanessa wiped her cheeks.
"Rebecca gave it to my mother."
Margaret shook her head.
"Not directly."
Vanessa turned.
"Mom?"
Margaret stared at the bracelet.
"Linda Bennett brought it to me."
My breath caught.
"My mother?"
"Yes."
"When?"
"Two weeks after the fire."
"Why?"
"She said Rebecca wanted someone to know her daughter had survived."
I felt anger rise.
"My mother died without ever telling me about this."
Margaret looked ashamed.
"She promised Rebecca she wouldn't put the child in danger."
"Where did the child go?"
Margaret reached into her coat pocket and withdrew a folded paper.
It was old and worn.
I could see the outline of a train ticket inside.
"Rebecca left Chicago with the baby."
"Where?"
"Milwaukee."
The ticket was dated July 2, 2009.
I frowned.
"Why are you carrying this around?"
Margaret's hands shook.
"Because Rebecca sent it back."
I turned it over.
On the back was a small drawing.
A bird sitting on a branch.
Beneath it were the words:
She is safe where the blue door opens.
Ethan frowned.
"What does that mean?"
Margaret didn't answer.
Vanessa looked suddenly alarmed.
"Mom, don't tell him."
Ethan turned toward her.
"Why?"
Vanessa began crying again.
"Because the last person who went looking for that door never came back."
I studied the ticket.
Then remembered something from my mother's trunk.
A little photograph tucked inside a cookbook.
I'd almost thrown it away.
It showed a white house with blue shutters and a blue front door.
On the porch stood a woman holding a baby.
I had assumed it was a distant relative.
Now I wasn't so sure.
"There's a photograph," I said.
Everyone looked at me.
"In my mother's belongings. A house with a blue door."
Margaret turned pale.
"Was there a wooden bird above the porch?"
I stared at her.
"Yes."
She gripped the table.
"Then Linda knew."
"Knew what?"
Margaret covered her mouth.
"Where Eleanor's granddaughter was being raised."
Ethan stood.
"We're going there."
"Not yet," I said.
He looked at me.
"Claire—"
"We have a name, a photograph, and a seventeen-year-old ticket. We don't have permission to invade someone's life."
His jaw tightened.
I held his gaze.
"That child is almost eighteen now. She's a person, not another piece of your family property."
For a long moment, he said nothing.
Then he nodded.
"You're right."
It surprised both of us.
Vanessa suddenly gripped her stomach.
Her face went pale.
"Something's wrong."
Ethan moved toward her.
"Vanessa?"
She winced.
"I need to sit down."
I reached her first.
"Call her doctor," I told Ethan.
He immediately took out his phone.
Vanessa caught my wrist.
"Claire."
"What?"
Her eyes filled with terror.
"If something happens to my baby, you need to know one thing."
"Tell me."
She swallowed.
"Daniel isn't the father."
I stared at her.
May you like
She tightened her grip.
"And Ethan already knows whose baby this really is."
