Chapter 11 - THE WIFE NOBODY KNEW ABOUT
Margaret stared at Thomas.
“What wife?”
Thomas’s face hardened.
Sophie gave a broken laugh.
“See? That part surprised him too.”
Daniel raised his gun.
“Start talking.”
Sophie looked at Margaret.
“Thomas has another identity.”
Margaret felt cold.
“No.”
“He’s been using the name Thomas Hale for years.”
Claire said, “And he’s married?”
“Yes.”
Emily looked at Thomas with disgust.
“To our sister?”
Thomas shouted, “She is not your sister.”
Sophie shouted back, “DNA says she is!”
Silence crashed down.
Margaret stopped breathing.
“You tested her?”
“I tested discarded hair from Margaret’s old charity office and compared it to samples from the three adoption files.”
Thomas moved the gun against Sophie’s head.
“Enough.”
Margaret took one step.
“Where is she?”
Thomas’s eyes met hers.
“You don’t want to know.”
“I’m done letting you decide what I want.”
“She has a life.”
“So did I.”
“She loves me.”
Claire looked like she might throw up.
Emily whispered, “Does she know who you are?”
Thomas didn’t answer.
Margaret understood.
His other wife had no idea.
No idea Thomas was married to Margaret.
No idea Margaret might be her biological mother.
No idea the man sleeping next to her had helped erase her identity.
Margaret’s anger became almost calm.
“What’s her name?”
Thomas said nothing.
Sophie shouted, “Rachel!”
Thomas struck her again.
Daniel fired.
The bullet hit the concrete beside Thomas’s foot.
Thomas stumbled back.
Claire ran left.
Emily ran right.
Thomas fired twice.
Metal screamed.
Daniel returned fire.
Margaret dropped behind a crate.
Sophie kicked the chair sideways.
Thomas grabbed her hair.
Emily slammed the tire iron into his forearm.
He screamed.
The gun fell.
Claire tackled him.
For five seconds, the warehouse became chaos.
Then Thomas threw Claire off and ran through a side door.
Daniel chased him.
Margaret rushed to Sophie.
Emily cut the ropes.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Good enough.”
Outside, tires screamed.
Thomas escaped in a waiting truck.
Daniel fired once but missed.
He returned furious.
“He had another driver.”
Margaret looked at Sophie.
“Where is Rachel?”
Sophie rubbed her wrists.
“She lives in Connecticut.”
“Take me to her.”
Sophie hesitated.
“There’s something else.”
Margaret almost laughed.
“There is always something else.”
Sophie looked at Emily and Claire.
“Rachel is pregnant.”
Emily closed her eyes.
“Oh, God.”
“And Thomas knows the trust transfers when Margaret’s biological line reaches certain conditions.”
Charles, who had followed with Ruth in another car, appeared in the doorway.
“What conditions?”
Sophie looked at him.
“One surviving daughter reaches twenty-five.”
Charles went pale.
Claire frowned.
“We’re twenty-two.”
Sophie shook her head.
“No.”
She looked at Emily.
“Your birth certificates are fake.”
Then Claire.
“All of them.”
Margaret whispered, “How old are they?”
May you like
Sophie looked at her.
“They turn twenty-five tomorrow.”
