Chapter 4 - THE THIRD CHILD
Daniel felt every muscle in his body go rigid.
“What do you mean, the only children?”
Margaret looked toward the twins.
“Helen gave birth to triplets.”
Ivy stared at her.
Skye’s eyes widened.
Daniel could barely speak.
“There was another baby?”
Margaret nodded.
“A boy.”
“Where is he?”
“I do not know.”
Daniel slammed his hand against the table.
“Stop lying to me.”
The twins jumped.
Daniel immediately lowered his voice.
“I am sorry.”
He crouched beside them.
“None of this is your fault.”
Ivy leaned toward Skye and whispered something into her ear.
Skye nodded reluctantly.
Then Ivy reached beneath the collar of her oversized T-shirt.
A thin string hung around her neck.
Attached to it was a tiny brass key.
“Mommy said only Daddy could open it.”
Daniel carefully took the key.
“Open what?”
Ivy pointed upstairs.
“The room with the painted stars.”
Daniel’s breath stopped.
Claire had designed a nursery on the second floor years earlier.
She had painted silver stars across the ceiling herself.
After her death, Daniel had locked the room and never entered it again.
He led everyone upstairs.
The old nursery smelled faintly of lavender and dust.
The walls were covered with faded drawings of clouds.
Daniel examined every cabinet until the brass key opened a narrow drawer beneath the window seat.
Inside sat a locked wooden box.
The same key opened that too.
Daniel lifted the lid.
There were hospital records.
Surrogacy contracts.
Ultrasound photographs.
Three hospital bracelets.
IVY WHITMORE.
SKYE WHITMORE.
NOAH WHITMORE.
Daniel pressed one hand against the wall to steady himself.
His children had carried his name from the day they were born.
And someone had erased them from his life.
At the bottom of the box was a small digital recorder.
Daniel pressed play.
Claire’s voice filled the room.
“Daniel, if you are hearing this, then Helen found a way back.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
It was the first time he had heard his wife’s voice in nearly two years.
“The babies survived.”
“Your mother paid the clinic to tell us they were gone.”
Margaret stepped toward the recorder.
Daniel held it away from her.
Claire’s voice continued.
“She said children would weaken your focus and divide the Whitmore fortune.”
“Helen escaped with them before Margaret could separate them.”
Then Claire’s voice began to tremble.
“But Margaret found Noah.”
The recording stopped.
Daniel looked at his mother.
“Where is my son?”
May you like
Margaret whispered her answer.
“Ethan has been raising him.”
