Chapter 7 - WHAT MY FATHER DID
“What he did.”
I read Elena’s words three times.
Not what happened to him.
What he did.
Gabriel closed the ledger.
“We go carefully.”
“I’m going.”
“Nora—”
“He is supposedly my father.”
“You have a fractured shoulder.”
“And twenty-eight years of lies.”
Gabriel stared at me.
Then nodded once.
“Fine.”
Victoria came too.
I didn’t ask her.
She simply got into the second SUV.
Three hours later, we reached a small coastal town in Rhode Island.
The address belonged to a weathered cottage facing the water.
No gates.
No guards.
No grand mystery.
Laundry moved on a clothesline.
A bicycle leaned against the porch.
It almost offended me that something so ordinary could hold the answer to my entire life.
Gabriel knocked.
An elderly woman opened the door.
She saw me.
Her hand flew to her mouth.
“Elena.”
“No. Nora.”
She began crying.
“Of course.”
Gabriel showed her the ledger.
“We’re looking for George Mercer.”
Her expression collapsed.
“He’s inside.”
My knees weakened.
Alive.
Actually alive.
Not the man who pushed me.
Not a story.
A man.
He sat near a window overlooking the ocean.
Sixty-two.
Thin.
White hair at his temples.
A scar crossed one side of his neck.
When he looked at me, I saw my own eyes.
That hurt more than everything else.
“Nora.”
I stayed near the door.
“You don’t get to say my name like you’ve been saying it all your life.”
He nodded.
“You’re right.”
No excuses.
That made it harder.
Gabriel remained behind me.
Victoria stood quietly beside the wall.
George looked at her.
Then he started crying.
“Both of you.”
Victoria stiffened.
“You knew about me?”
“I knew Elena had two girls.”
“Did you know which one was yours?”
His eyes returned to me.
“Yes.”
I swallowed.
“Then why didn’t you come?”
“Because I was a coward.”
The room went completely still.
Not hunted.
Not prevented.
A coward.
He didn’t soften it.
“At first, I stayed away because Antonio would have killed you. That part is true.”
“And later?”
George looked toward the ocean.
“Later Antonio died.”
I waited.
“And you still stayed away.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because by then Rebecca was your mother.”
Anger rose hot through my chest.
“You didn’t get to decide whether I needed you.”
“I know.”
“You didn’t get to watch from a distance and call it sacrifice.”
“I know.”
My eyes filled.
“Stop saying that.”
He lowered his head.
I wanted him to defend himself so I could hate him properly.
He wouldn’t.
Gabriel placed the ledger on the table.
“Elena wrote that Nora shouldn’t meet you until she knew what you did.”
George looked at the book.
“Yes.”
“What did you do?”
He closed his eyes.
“I gave Antonio the hospital information.”
Victoria sucked in a breath.
I felt hollow.
George continued.
“I didn’t know Elena had delivered twins. I knew she had gone into labor at St. Catherine’s. Antonio’s men found me. They threatened my brother.”
“You told him where she was.”
“Yes.”
“And that led to everything.”
“Yes.”
The confession was too easy.
Too complete.
I distrusted it immediately.
“Why would Elena hide you afterward?”
“Because when I realized what Antonio intended, I tried to stop him.”
George reached beneath his shirt.
He wore a red rosary.
One bead missing.
The match to Elena’s.
“She gave me this the night she moved me here.”
Victoria touched the rosary we had brought.
“You have the missing bead?”
George shook his head.
“No. Elena kept it.”
Gabriel examined the cross.
A tiny seam ran through the center.
He opened it.
Inside was a rolled strip of microfilm.
Dominic exhaled.
“The ledger backup.”
George nodded.
“Antonio kept the names in two formats. Paper and film.”
“Why?”
“Insurance.”
I looked at him.
“What does any of this have to do with Evelyn?”
George’s face changed.
“Evelyn was trying to save Elena.”
Victoria laughed bitterly.
“That defense is getting tired.”
“No.”
George leaned forward.
“Evelyn made terrible choices. But she was the only person who went back into St. Catherine’s after Antonio ordered the second infant killed.”
My skin went cold.
“She saved me.”
“She arranged for Rebecca to leave with you.”
“Then why terrorize us afterward?”
“Because she discovered something about the second baby.”
Victoria’s voice dropped.
“Me?”
George looked at her.
“Antonio wasn’t your father.”
Silence.
Victoria actually smiled from shock.
“That is not funny.”
“I’m not joking.”
Daniel had been wrong.
Rebecca had been wrong.
Again, what we thought was settled fractured.
Gabriel stepped forward.
“You said Antonio’s blood matched one child.”
“The hospital worker lied.”
“Why?”
“Because Evelyn paid her to.”
Victoria stared at George.
“Then who is my father?”
George’s face filled with shame.
“I don’t know.”
She laughed once.
Of course.
Another empty space.
I looked at him.
“Then why did Antonio keep Victoria?”
“Because Evelyn convinced him she was his.”
“To save her.”
“Yes.”
“And me?”
“He knew you weren’t.”
Because he knew about George.
That made sense.
Too much sense.
Then George said, “But that isn’t what Elena meant when she wrote that note.”
My pulse jumped.
“What did she mean?”
He stood slowly and walked toward a cabinet.
He removed a child’s wooden jewelry box.
Painted stars covered the lid.
He placed it before Victoria.
“Elena sent this here six months before she died.”
Victoria opened it.
Inside was a necklace.
A tiny silver compass.
And a folded note.
She read it silently.
Then looked at me.
“What?”
She handed me the page.
My hands trembled.
Nora,
George believes Antonio’s men caused the hospital exchange.
They did not.
The first switch happened before Antonio arrived.
Someone changed the girls’ identity bands.
Someone who wanted Elena to believe one infant was George’s and one was Antonio’s.
I looked up.
George whispered, “We were manipulated from the beginning.”
“By whom?”
He looked toward Victoria.
“Evelyn.”
Victoria recoiled.
“No.”
George’s eyes filled.
“Your mother created the first lie.”
“Why?”
“To keep Elena and me apart.”
I stared at him.
“That makes no sense.”
“It does if you know the truth.”
“What truth?”
He looked at Gabriel.
Then at Victoria.
Then at me.
“Evelyn wasn’t protecting Antonio’s child.”
His voice broke.
“She was protecting her own.”
Victoria went completely still.
George pointed toward her.
“You weren’t Elena’s second daughter.”
He turned toward me.
“You were.”
May you like
Then he looked at Gabriel.
“And Victoria was the baby Evelyn secretly delivered the same night.”
