Chapter 8 - THE BRIDE WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
"Your mother had a child with my father?"
Vincent's voice was dangerously quiet.
Vanessa stood across from him in the study.
She had returned to the estate after Marco located the photograph in her dressing room.
Her engagement ring still glittered on her finger.
But her confidence was gone.
She stared at the picture of Catherine Laurent holding the newborn.
"Yes."
Vincent slowly lowered it.
"Then Samuel is my brother."
Vanessa nodded.
"Your half brother."
For several seconds, no one spoke.
I watched Vincent struggle with the discovery.
His father had built an empire through loyalty and intimidation.
Yet he'd concealed a child from his own family.
"Where is he?" Vincent asked.
Vanessa looked toward the window.
"I don't know."
"Don't lie to me."
"I'm not."
"Your family kept this secret for decades."
"My father kept it. Not me."
Vincent's jaw tightened.
"Then explain Daniel."
Vanessa sat down.
"My father discovered that Elizabeth had been investigating Samuel's identity. He was terrified that she'd expose what happened."
"Why?"
"Because Samuel was supposed to inherit something."
Vincent stared.
"What?"
Vanessa hesitated.
"A trust my grandfather's company helped administer."
"Your grandfather?"
"Catherine's father. He was one of Anthony's earliest business partners."
Vincent leaned forward.
"How much?"
"Enough to destroy my father's reputation."
That answer sounded rehearsed.
I glanced at the old appointment book.
Something didn't fit.
"Miss Laurent," I asked, "if Samuel was born before Daniel, why did my mother refuse to sign Daniel's corrected birth record?"
Vanessa looked uncomfortable.
"Because the record contained information that could identify Samuel."
"What information?"
She shook her head.
"I don't know the details."
Vincent studied her.
"You knew Daniel's dinner was medicated."
Vanessa's eyes filled.
"I knew it was supposed to make him sleepy."
"Why?"
"Because I needed him upstairs before my father arrived."
Vincent's expression hardened.
"You used my son to keep a secret."
"I was trying to prevent a public confrontation."
"By frightening him?"
She looked down.
"I handled it badly."
"That isn't an apology."
"No," she whispered. "It isn't."
For the first time, Vanessa seemed less like the elegant woman who had controlled the banquet and more like someone who had spent years obeying a frightening father.
But understanding her fear didn't excuse what she'd done.
Vincent removed her engagement ring from the table where she'd placed it.
"I won't marry someone who makes my child afraid."
Vanessa nodded.
"I know."
Then she looked at me.
"Rachel, your mother wasn't dismissed because she made a mistake."
I stiffened.
"Then why?"
"She refused to destroy a registration index that connected Samuel to my father's private records."
"Where is that index?"
Vanessa swallowed.
"My father has it."
Vincent stepped forward.
"Then I'll speak to him."
She shook her head.
"He'll deny everything."
"Let him."
Vanessa looked directly at Vincent.
"There's something else."
He waited.
"My father isn't merely protecting himself. He's protecting the person who received Samuel's inheritance."
"Who?"
Vanessa's voice cracked.
"I was told it was you."
Vincent stared at her.
"That's impossible."
"That's what he told me."
I looked again at the appointment book.
Anthony had written that Charles must never control the trust.
But someone had clearly found a way.
Vincent suddenly reached for a file from his father's estate.
He opened it to the list of assets transferred after Anthony's death.
A holding company appeared near the bottom.
Blue Star Holdings.
The same symbol on Mom's envelope.
The same symbol in Anthony's appointment book.
Vincent went pale.
"I inherited that company."
Vanessa looked at him.
"Then perhaps my father told the truth."
But Vincent was already studying the signature page.
"Someone altered this."
He pointed toward a notation indicating that Blue Star Holdings had been transferred to his control when Daniel was born.
Nine years earlier.
Not twelve years earlier, when Anthony died.
Vincent looked at me.
"Why would my father's company become mine on my son's birthday?"
I had no answer.
Then I noticed a second beneficiary listed in tiny print.
The name had been partially covered by an amendment stamp.
Vincent held the paper beneath the desk lamp.
One word became visible.
Samuel.
And beneath it was a note:
"Beneficiary declared deceased upon medical certification, April 17."
May you like
Vanessa stared at the page.
"That's the day my father signed the hospital correction."
