Chapter 10 - THE SECRET IN CLARA'S BIRTH CERTIFICATE
“No.”
Clara stared at Margaret.
“Tell me she's lying.”
Margaret couldn't.
Clara stepped backward.
“No.”
“Clara…”
“Tell me.”
Margaret began crying.
“Your mother worked at Bennett Manor.”
Clara's face went numb.
“My father was Michael Hayes.”
“That was the man who raised you.”
“He was my father.”
“In every way that mattered.”
Clara shook her head.
“No.”
“Thomas and your mother had a relationship before he married Rose.”
Rose stood silently in the doorway.
She already knew.
Clara looked at her.
“You knew?”
Rose nodded.
“Thomas told me.”
Clara laughed.
It sounded broken.
“So Daniel…”
Margaret immediately shook her head.
“No.”
Clara stared.
“Daniel is not Thomas's biological son.”
Silence.
“What?”
Rose sat down.
“Daniel's father was my first husband.”
Clara felt dizzy.
“He died before Daniel was born.”
“Thomas adopted Daniel.”
Clara pressed both hands against her temples.
“So Daniel and I aren't related.”
“No.”
Margaret took her hand.
“But Thomas was your biological father.”
“Did he know?”
“Yes.”
“Did he ever try to find me?”
Margaret nodded.
“He paid for your education anonymously.”
Clara remembered mysterious scholarships.
She had believed they came from charities.
Margaret continued.
“Thomas planned to tell you the truth.”
“When?”
“The week he died.”
Clara closed her eyes.
Another stolen truth.
Another life Eleanor had altered.
Samuel entered carrying a file.
“I think I know why Eleanor told you.”
Clara looked at him.
Samuel placed Thomas's will on the table.
“The inheritance clause doesn't simply favor Thomas's first grandchild.”
He pointed.
“It prioritizes his direct biological descendants.”
Clara read.
Her eyes widened.
“I am his biological descendant.”
“Yes.”
“Which means?”
Samuel took a breath.
“You may already be the controlling beneficiary.”
Clara stared at him.
“Not my baby?”
“Both of you.”
Margaret smiled through her tears.
“Thomas protected you.”
Samuel continued.
“If we prove paternity, Eleanor loses control immediately.”
Clara looked toward the phone.
“That’s why she told me.”
Rose frowned.
“Why would she reveal something that hurts her?”
Clara suddenly understood.
“She wants us to search for proof.”
Samuel looked at her.
“Why?”
“Because she doesn't know where Thomas hid it.”
Margaret's face changed.
“The birth certificate.”
Clara turned.
“What?”
“Thomas had a private certificate prepared.”
“Where?”
Margaret hesitated.
“He gave it to your mother.”
Clara's mother had died eight years earlier.
Her childhood home had been sold.
But Clara remembered something.
A locked wooden chest.
Her mother had always kept it beneath her bed.
Clara grabbed her coat.
Samuel stopped her.
“Eleanor may be expecting this.”
“I know.”
“Then don't go.”
Clara looked at him.
“She has tried to kill my child.”
“She murdered Thomas.”
“She imprisoned Rose.”
“She turned Daniel into a weapon.”
Clara's voice hardened.
“I am finished letting her reach the truth first.”
They drove to Clara's childhood home.
The new owner allowed them inside after Samuel explained.
The chest was gone.
Clara's heart sank.
Then the owner remembered.
“There were some things in the attic.”
They climbed upstairs.
Dust filled the room.
Clara found the chest beneath an old blanket.
The lock was still there.
She broke it.
Inside were photographs.
Letters.
And an envelope bearing Thomas Bennett's name.
Clara opened it.
The birth certificate was inside.
Thomas Bennett was listed as father.
Samuel exhaled.
“We have her.”
A floorboard creaked downstairs.
Clara froze.
Samuel looked toward the door.
“Did the owner come up?”
“No.”
Smoke drifted beneath the attic door.
Clara ran toward it.
The staircase was burning.
“Fire!”
Samuel tried the window.
It had been nailed shut from outside.
Clara stared through the glass.
A black car was parked across the street.
Eleanor stood beside it.
Watching.
She raised one hand.
Then waved goodbye.
Flames climbed the staircase.
Clara held the birth certificate against her chest.
May you like
Eleanor had trapped her in another burning house.
And this time there was no coal tunnel.
