Chapter 4 - THE NAME HER MOTHER NEVER SAID
Nobody moved.
The knock came again.
“Colleen?”
Maya grabbed a kitchen knife.
Colleen whispered, “Stay here.”
She climbed the stairs slowly.
“Who is it?”
“Ethan Cole.”
Colleen stopped.
She knew the name.
He was an investigative reporter who had exposed two city council bribery scandals.
She opened the door three inches.
A thin man in his forties stood outside holding up both hands.
“I’m not armed.”
“How did you find me?”
“Your old employee records.”
“You have thirty seconds before I close the door.”
Ethan nodded.
“Your mother’s name was Evelyn Hayes.”
Colleen’s grip tightened on the door.
“How do you know that?”
“Because she worked for the Langford family.”
Jessica appeared behind Colleen.
Ethan saw her.
“Well.”
His eyebrows lifted.
“That confirms more than I expected.”
Jessica stepped forward.
“Confirms what?”
Ethan looked between them.
“May I come inside?”
“No,” Colleen said.
“Then I’ll say it here.”
He handed her a yellowed photograph.
Colleen looked down.
Her mother stood outside an enormous stone mansion.
She was twenty-something.
Smiling.
Beside her stood two young men.
One was clearly a younger Robert Langford.
The other looked remarkably like him.
Daniel.
Colleen turned the photograph over.
Three names were handwritten on the back.
Robert.
Daniel.
Evelyn.
And beneath them:
Summer 1998.
“My mother knew them?”
“She worked in their household for four years.”
Colleen shook her head.
“She cleaned offices.”
“Not then.”
Ethan pulled another paper from his folder.
“Your mother was personal assistant to George Langford, Robert and Daniel’s father.”
Jessica whispered, “George died in 2004.”
Ethan nodded.
“Officially, heart attack.”
“Officially?”
“Three employees claimed he was perfectly healthy the night before.”
Jessica’s eyes narrowed.
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying George Langford died.”
“Daniel Langford disappeared.”
“Evelyn Hayes vanished from the Langford payroll.”
“And one year later, Evelyn was living under a different last name with a small daughter.”
Colleen stared at him.
“What does this have to do with me?”
Ethan hesitated.
Then he reached into the folder one last time.
“This.”
A photocopy of a birth certificate.
Colleen saw her own name.
COLLEEN EVELYN HAYES.
Mother: Evelyn Hayes.
Father:
Blank.
Ethan pointed to a handwritten note attached to the archived hospital record.
PATERNITY SEALED BY COURT ORDER — PETITIONER: LANGFORD FAMILY TRUST.
Colleen stopped breathing.
Jessica covered her mouth.
Ethan’s expression was grim.
“Robert isn’t afraid of you because you hit him with a mop.”
May you like
He looked directly at Colleen.
“He’s afraid because you walked back into his life.”
