Chapter 10 - the blood test in the safe
The guests had returned to the ballroom.
Wet gowns and ruined hairstyles had done little to reduce their curiosity. Rumors moved through the room faster than the servers could collect the broken glasses.
When Claire entered with Vivienne, every conversation stopped.
Daniel stood near the platform with Sophie beside him.
He had found a dry jacket for her and placed a chair behind the auction table so she could sit away from the crowd.
She was not sitting.
She was waiting for Claire.
Claire crossed the room and took her hand.
“You came back.”
“I promised.”
Helen called the board members to the platform.
Robert Dane placed Edmund’s letter beside the blue folder.
“I received this after his death,” he announced. “It instructed me to vote against the trust until Claire produced three pieces of evidence.”
Vivienne looked at him with disbelief.
“You voted with me because Edmund told you to?”
“He knew you would reveal your allies if you believed the trust was losing.”
Robert named the two board members who had accepted payments from Blackwood-connected companies.
Both tried to leave.
The ballroom doors locked.
Guests began whispering again.
Helen raised her voice.
“No one leaves until the board completes its emergency review.”
The first lock clicked.
The second followed.
Vivienne turned toward the guards.
“Open those doors.”
Marcus stood at the main entrance.
“No.”
Claire placed the blue folder beside Vivienne’s gold chair.
Helen opened it and examined the trust, the deed and the damaged hospital records.
Then Anna played Edmund’s recording.
The ballroom watched in silence as the late Edmund Ashcroft confessed that he had failed Claire and transferred the estate to Sophie.
When the damaged film ended, Helen faced the board.
“The first piece of evidence is Edmund’s statement of competency.”
Robert opened the letter.
“The second is proof that Sophie is Daniel’s child.”
Daniel looked at Claire.
She shook her head.
“I do not have it.”
A voice came from the rear of the ballroom.
“I do.”
Mrs. Alvarez walked between the tables carrying a small steel case.
She placed it in front of Daniel.
“Your father gave this to me two weeks before he died. He said I should open it only when Claire placed the blue folder beside the gold chair.”
Sophie looked at the chair.
“He knew where we would stand?”
“He planned the room,” Claire said.
Daniel entered a code using Edmund’s birth date.
The case opened.
Inside were two sealed laboratory envelopes and a letter.
Daniel read the first envelope.
It contained a DNA report comparing his archived military medical sample with a blood sample collected from Sophie after a school accident.
Probability of paternity: 99.9998 percent.
Daniel closed his eyes.
Sophie looked at Claire.
“What does it say?”
Claire crouched beside her.
“It says Daniel is your biological father.”
Sophie looked at him.
He did not reach for her.
He waited.
“Does that mean I have to call you Dad?”
“No,” he said. “It means you can call me Daniel until you decide whether I deserve anything else.”
Sophie thought about that.
“Okay, Daniel.”
A quiet laugh moved through the guests, softening the room for only a moment.
Claire opened the second envelope.
It was another DNA report.
The comparison listed Daniel and an unidentified male child.
Probability of full sibling relationship with Sophie: 99.7 percent.
The sample date was only eighteen months earlier.
Claire’s vision blurred.
“He was alive eighteen months ago.”
Daniel gripped the table.
“Where was the sample collected?”
The location was coded.
BH-17.
Anna leaned closer.
“Blackwood House, child seventeen.”
Claire unfolded Edmund’s letter.
Claire,
I found the boy once.
Adrian moved him before I could bring him home. The sample is the only proof I could save. Do not trust anyone who claims the child is dead unless you see the body and test it yourself.
The third piece of evidence is inside the locket.
Claire looked at Sophie.
“May I?”
Sophie removed the necklace and gave it to her.
Claire opened the locket and carefully removed Daniel’s photograph.
Behind it was the narrow folded paper.
She used a pair of tweezers from the steel case to unfold it without tearing the edges.
Daniel read over her shoulder.
Sophie is protected by the trust.
Her brother is protected by the name he was given.
Find Samuel Vale.
Claire looked toward Marcus.
He had gone pale.
Daniel crossed the platform.
“Who is Samuel Vale?”
Marcus did not answer.
Sophie looked at him.
“You have my brother’s last name.”
May you like
Marcus slowly removed his security badge.
“Because I raised him.”
