Chapter 9: My Father's Last Confession
Daniel stared at the digital recorder.
He pressed the play button.
Nothing happened.
He pressed it again.
The screen flashed, then went black.
“No,” Daniel whispered.
He shook the device, tapped the side, and tried the button once more.
Still nothing.
Richard watched him with a satisfaction that made Daniel want to tear the room apart.
“Your father loved his dramatic little secrets,” Richard said.
“He believed he could control the truth by hiding it in locked boxes.””
Daniel turned toward him.
“What did he mean by one of his children?””
Richard shrugged.
“Your father had many regrets.””
“Answer the question.””
“I can't answer a question I don't understand.””
Daniel took a step forward.
Richard raised the gun.
“Careful.””
Elisa stood beside the shattered window, her face pale.
Brielle had moved closer to Sophie, who was still tied to the chair. Victor kept his grip on the child's shoulder, but his attention was fixed on the recorder.
Captain Harlan stood near the door, his weapon drawn.
Nobody moved.
Then Sophie whispered, “I know how to make it work.””
Everyone turned toward her.
Daniel crouched beside the chair.
“What did you say?””
Sophie sniffed.
“My dad used to have one like that. It needs a battery.””
Richard's face darkened.
“Be quiet.””
Sophie flinched.
Daniel looked at the recorder.
There was a narrow panel on the back, held in place by a tiny screw.
He searched the desk and found a small screwdriver among the scattered stationery. After loosening the panel, he discovered a corroded battery compartment.
“Can someone get me a battery?”” he asked.
Victor laughed.
“You think we're going to help you?””
Brielle moved before anyone could stop her.
She grabbed a decorative brass candlestick from the mantel and swung it at Victor's wrist.
He shouted and released Sophie.
Brielle pulled her daughter into her arms.
“Run!””
Sophie stumbled toward Elisa.
Harlan raised his gun.
“Stop!””
Elisa threw herself between him and the child.
“She's seven years old!””
Harlan hesitated.
It was only a second.
But Daniel used it.
He slammed his shoulder into Harlan, knocking the weapon away. The gun skidded beneath the table.
Victor charged.
Daniel turned just as Victor struck him in the ribs.
Pain burst through his side.
He staggered, caught the edge of the desk, and drove his elbow backward into Victor's chest. The larger man grunted but didn't fall.
Richard moved toward the safe.
Daniel saw him reach for the documents.
“Don't!””
Richard snatched the envelope and ran toward the hallway.
Elisa chased him.
“Daniel, the papers!””
Daniel shoved Victor away and followed.
They raced down the corridor, past the dark portraits of the Hayes family. Richard reached the staircase first and started toward the main floor.
Daniel caught the back of his jacket.
Richard spun and drove his elbow into Daniel's face.
Daniel fell against the banister.
Richard raised the gun.
“You should have stayed at the altar.””
A loud crack echoed through the hallway.
Richard jerked backward.
The gun slipped from his hand.
For one terrifying moment, Daniel thought Richard had been shot.
Then he saw Captain Harlan standing at the top of the stairs, holding his own weapon.
“Drop the envelope,” Harlan ordered.
Richard stared at him.
“You idiot. You think they'll protect you?””
Harlan's jaw tightened.
“I said drop it.””
Richard slowly released the envelope.
It landed on the stairs.
Daniel scrambled forward and snatched it up.
Harlan kept his gun trained on Richard.
“Get on your knees.””
Richard laughed.
“You don't have the courage.””
Harlan's face twisted.
“You killed Thomas Hayes.””
“Yes.””
The answer came so easily that Daniel almost didn't understand it.
Richard smiled at Harlan.
“And you helped me cover it up.””
Harlan went rigid.
“You told me the evidence was circumstantial.””
“You signed the report.””
“You said he had been drinking.””
“You made the report say that.””
Richard took a step forward.
Harlan raised his gun.
“Stop!””
Richard stopped.
Then he looked at Daniel.
“You want to know who killed your father? It wasn't a mysterious conspiracy. It was a man who understood that loyalty has a price.””
Daniel's voice shook with rage.
“Who ordered it?””
Richard smiled.
“Your father ordered his own death the moment he decided to betray the family.””
Daniel lunged.
Harlan caught his arm.
“Don't.””
Richard seized the moment and shoved past them, sprinting down the stairs.
A door slammed.
Daniel tore free.
“After him!””
Harlan raced toward the exit.
Daniel turned back toward the east wing.
He found Elisa holding Sophie while Brielle stood beside them, one hand pressed to her mouth.
The recorder lay on the desk.
A fresh battery had been inserted.
Sophie had found it in a drawer.
“Daniel,” Elisa said, “you need to hear this.””
He picked up the recorder.
The screen glowed.
He pressed play.
Thomas's voice filled the room again.
“If you're hearing this, then one of my children has finally found the truth. I don't know which of you will be listening, and perhaps that is fitting. I've spent years trying to protect the people I love by deciding which truths they could survive.””
Daniel sat heavily in a chair.
The recording continued.
“Seven years ago, Richard Vale approached me with a proposal. He wanted to use the private clinic to arrange illegal adoptions for wealthy clients. He had discovered that certain families would pay enormous sums to obtain children without the scrutiny of the courts.””
Daniel felt sick.
“I refused. I told him I would report him. He reminded me that he had access to our company's financial records, our security staff, and people inside the police department. He said he could destroy the Hayes family before I could make a single phone call.””
Thomas paused.
“Then I discovered the babies.””
Elisa covered her mouth.
“The first child was Vanessa Cole's daughter. The second was Brielle Whitmore's. Richard had arranged for both infants to be moved through the hospital under false records. He intended to sell one child to a wealthy couple who couldn't conceive, while using the other to manipulate Brielle's family.””
Daniel leaned closer to the recorder.
“Brielle's father owed Richard money,” Thomas continued.
“Richard planned to use the child as leverage. If the family refused to pay, he would expose Brielle's pregnancy and destroy her future.””
Brielle began to cry silently.
Thomas's voice grew heavier.
“I discovered that the babies had been switched, but by then, the records had already been altered. I could not prove which child was which without the original medical files. I decided to delay Richard while I gathered evidence.””
The recording crackled.
“On the night I died, I was on my way to meet a nurse who had agreed to testify. I never arrived.””
Daniel closed his eyes.
He could almost hear his father's voice from childhood, teaching him how to ride a bicycle, laughing when Daniel fell into the grass, telling him that a man was only as good as his word.
Then came the next sentence.
“Richard did not order the accident.””
Daniel opened his eyes.
“What?””
Elisa stared at the recorder.
Thomas continued.
“The person who arranged my death was someone I trusted. Someone who believed the truth would destroy the family. Someone who had more to lose than Richard if the baby switch became public.””
A long pause followed.
Then Thomas said a name.
“Margaret Collins.””
Daniel stopped breathing.
Elisa whispered, “No.””
The recording continued.
“Margaret was the person who altered the final transfer papers. She was the person who delivered the wrong baby to Daniel's room. And she was the person who told Richard where I was going that night.””
Daniel felt as though the floor had disappeared beneath him.
Margaret.
The woman who had watched Lily grow up.
The woman who had guided them through the basement.
The woman who had given them the photograph and the birth bracelet.
She had been involved from the beginning.
Thomas's voice softened.
“I don't believe Margaret wanted me dead. I believe she was frightened. But fear does not erase responsibility. If she is listening to this, I hope she understands that the truth cannot be buried forever.””
The recording ended.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Sophie looked up at Brielle.
“Is Margaret a bad person?””
Brielle knelt beside her daughter.
“I don't know, sweetheart.””
Daniel stood abruptly.
“We need to find her.””
Elisa grabbed his arm.
“Daniel, wait. There's more.””
He turned.
She held up the sealed document from the safe.
“Your father wrote another statement.””
Daniel opened it.
The paper was dated two days before his father's death.
Daniel, if you ever find this, understand that the baby switch was not simply a scheme to steal children. Richard needed to conceal the identity of one child because her existence threatened a powerful family.
Beneath that sentence was a name.
*WHITMORE.*
Daniel looked at Brielle.
She shook her head.
“My father was dead before I was born.””
“Your mother?””
“She's alive.””
“Where?””
Brielle hesitated.
“In London.””
Daniel looked back at the letter.
The next paragraph was worse.
The child Richard wanted hidden was not Vanessa's daughter or Brielle's daughter. It was the child born to another woman that night. A child whose biological father was a man Richard had already arranged to have killed.
Daniel felt cold spread through him.
Three babies.
Not two.
Three.
He looked at Elisa.
“You said there were two.””
“I was told there were two.””
Brielle stared at the letter.
“Who was the third mother?””
Daniel read the final lines.
The third child's records were removed from the hospital before the transfer. If that child is alive, the identity will be revealed by the original ledger. I hid it where no one would think to look.
He turned the page.
There was a final note.
Look beneath the portrait of my mother.
Daniel knew exactly where that portrait hung.
In the main hall of the mansion.
He started toward the door.
But before he reached it, a scream echoed from the garden.
Lily.
Daniel ran.
He reached the conservatory and burst through the service door.
The garden was empty.
The pickup truck was still parked beyond the trees, but its driver's door stood open.
Margaret was gone.
So was Lily.
On the wet gravel lay Daniel's spare phone, its screen cracked.
A message glowed across it.
*COME TO THE OLD FAMILY CHAPEL ALONE. BRING THE ORIGINAL LEDGER. YOU HAVE ONE HOUR.*
Beneath the message was a photograph of Lily sitting beside Margaret in the back seat of a car.
Lily was crying.
Margaret was holding a gun.
And beneath the photograph, someone had written:
*ASK YOUR WIFE WHY SHE CHOSE WHICH CHILD TO SAVE.*
Daniel looked at Elisa.
She had gone completely still.
“Daniel,” she whispered, “there's something I need to tell you about the night Lily was born.””
He stared at her.
“What?””
Elisa began to cry.
“Lily wasn't the only baby I held that night.””
She reached into her pocket and removed a small, folded hospital photograph.
It showed three newborn girls lying side by side in a nursery.
On the back, in Thomas Hayes's handwriting, were three names.
*Lily Hayes. Sophie Whitmore. And the child who was never supposed to exist.*
Daniel looked at the photograph.
Then at Elisa.
“Who is the third child?””
Elisa closed her eyes.
“Your sister's daughter.””
Daniel felt the world stop.
He had no sister.
He had never had a sister.
His father had told him he was an only child.
And yet, beneath the three names, Thomas had written one final sentence.
If Daniel ever discovers the third child, tell him the truth about his mother.
A phone rang somewhere in the mansion.
Elisa looked toward the sound.
Then she whispered the words Daniel would never forget.
“Your mother didn't die when you were born.””
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She looked at him with devastated eyes.
“She's the woman who took Lily.””
