Chapter 8 - THE OLD MAN’S PLAN
Claire stepped forward.
“Nice to meet you too.”
Charles’s eyes stayed fixed on her.
“You look like your grandmother.”
“Which one?”
“Mine.”
Claire’s sarcasm vanished.
Margaret closed the door.
“You have sixty seconds before I call the police.”
Charles laughed.
“Which police?”
“The FBI.”
“That might be smarter.”
Margaret stared at him.
“What did you do to my children?”
Charles looked toward the bed.
“For years, I told myself I protected them.”
Emily’s voice was sharp.
“You can stop telling yourself that.”
Charles nodded slowly.
“Fair.”
Ruth lay on a couch downstairs while Daniel worked on her wound with an emergency medical kit.
Margaret, Emily, and Claire stayed with Charles.
He told them everything.
Or what he claimed was everything.
Margaret’s father had discovered Thomas secretly draining money from Westbridge.
When Thomas learned Margaret was pregnant, he saw an opportunity.
If the child inherited her grandfather’s controlling interest, Thomas could control that money through guardianship.
But then Margaret’s father changed the trust.
The children would inherit directly.
Thomas would get nothing.
Charles found out.
He offered his son a different plan.
Hide the babies.
Fake their deaths.
Keep control of the family empire.
“You set the hospital fire?” Margaret asked.
Charles looked offended.
“No.”
“Then who did?”
“Thomas.”
The room went silent.
Emily’s hands clenched.
“He started a fire in a hospital?”
“He intended it to be small.”
Claire laughed in disbelief.
“People died.”
Charles looked at the floor.
“Seven.”
“And you covered it up.”
“Yes.”
Margaret wanted to hit him.
Instead, she asked, “Why were the twins separated?”
Charles swallowed.
“The original plan was to place both with families we could control.”
Emily’s voice dropped.
“But Ruth changed it.”
Charles nodded.
“She took one baby to Saint Anne’s.”
Claire asked, “And me?”
Charles looked at her.
“You went to a man named Samuel Bennett.”
“My father.”
“He was my driver.”
Claire went very still.
“Did he know?”
“Yes.”
“He lied to me.”
“He loved you.”
“You don’t get to say that.”
Charles lowered his eyes.
Margaret looked at Emily.
“Then why did Ruth say she didn’t know about three lockets?”
Charles looked confused.
“Three?”
Claire held hers out.
Emily did the same.
Margaret showed hers.
Charles stared.
“I ordered two child lockets.”
Margaret felt sick.
“Two child lockets plus mine?”
“No.”
Charles’s voice weakened.
“Two total.”
Margaret opened her mouth.
A terrible thought formed.
Emily and Claire were staring at each other.
“If there were only two lockets,” Emily said, “one of ours is fake.”
Claire’s phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
She answered on speaker.
Thomas’s voice filled the room.
“Dad.”
Charles closed his eyes.
Thomas continued.
“I know you’re all together.”
Margaret grabbed the phone.
“What do you want?”
“The photograph Daniel has.”
“Why?”
“Because it doesn’t show two babies.”
Margaret stared at Daniel, who had entered the doorway.
Thomas said, “Look at the mirror behind the hospital bed.”
Margaret took out the old photograph.
She found the mirror.
May you like
And there, reflected in the glass—
a nurse was holding a third newborn.
