Chapter 5 - seven years of silence
Daniel read the certificate twice.
Then he sat down.
For the first time since Claire had known him, he appeared unable to control his expression.
“I had a son?”
Claire stared at the damaged record.
“I don’t know.”
“You gave birth to twins.”
“I was unconscious.”
“You must remember something.”
“I remember being told there had been complications. I remember waking up and asking where you were. A nurse told me you had called and refused to come.”
“I was in Geneva.”
“I know that now.”
Daniel pressed both hands against the desk.
“My father sent me there to negotiate the merger.”
“No. Vivienne sent you.”
“He approved the trip.”
“Because she told him I had ended our marriage.”
Sophie stood quietly beside Claire.
Her eyes moved between the adults.
Claire knelt in front of her.
“Sweetheart, Mr. Vale is going to take you to the kitchen. Mrs. Alvarez will make you hot chocolate.”
“I want to stay.”
“This is grown-up information.”
“Is that paper about me?”
“Partly.”
“And the baby boy?”
Claire hesitated.
“He may have been born on the same night you were.”
“My brother?”
“We do not know yet.”
Sophie looked at Daniel.
“Did you know?”
“No,” he said.
His voice broke on the word.
Sophie studied him for another moment, then took Marcus’s hand.
“Bluebird,” she reminded Claire.
“Bluebird,” Claire promised.
After they left, Daniel closed the office door.
“How did I not know?”
“Because every person who could have told you was paid, threatened or removed.”
“You believed one letter.”
“You believed one too.”
He looked at her.
Neither of them could deny it.
Seven years earlier, they had been young enough to believe love made them impossible to deceive. They had not understood that trust could be broken by silence as easily as betrayal.
Daniel walked toward the window.
“I came back from Geneva two days after Sophie was born.”
Claire stared at him.
“What?”
“I went to your apartment. It was empty.”
“I had been transferred to a recovery clinic outside the city.”
“Vivienne told me you had left with the baby.”
“She told me you refused to visit us.”
“I searched for you.”
“For how long?”
He turned.
“Three years.”
Claire laughed once, without humor.
“I lived forty minutes away.”
“Under the name Claire Bennett.”
“That is my name.”
“You used Claire Hale when we married.”
“Because you insisted the marriage remain secret until your father accepted it.”
Daniel flinched.
“I thought I was protecting you from the press.”
“You were protecting your inheritance.”
“That is not fair.”
“No. Fair would have been my husband sitting beside me when I woke up and learned one of my babies might have died.”
Daniel looked at the certificate again.
“Why did you never tell me Sophie existed?”
“I tried.”
“How?”
“I sent letters to the estate. They were returned. I called your office. Your assistant said you would report me for harassment. I came to the gate with Sophie when she was six months old.”
Daniel’s face changed.
Claire continued.
“Vivienne met me outside. She showed me photographs of you announcing an engagement to another woman.”
“That engagement lasted three weeks.”
“I did not know that.”
“I never agreed to it. Vivienne released the announcement to stop rumors about our marriage.”
“She succeeded.”
Daniel reached into his coat and removed his phone.
“I want an independent DNA test.”
Claire’s anger rose.
“You saw the birth certificate.”
“I need evidence no one in this house has touched.”
“So do I.”
He met her gaze.
“The test is not because I doubt you.”
“You began tonight by asking whether Sophie was yours.”
“Because I was terrified she might be.”
Claire stared at him.
He lowered his voice.
“If she was mine, then I missed every day of her life.”
“That is not Sophie’s burden.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t. She will not become the object you use to punish yourself. You do not get to arrive after seven years and call your guilt love.”
Daniel nodded slowly.
“Then tell me what I am allowed to do.”
“Help me find the truth.”
A movement behind the shelves caught Claire’s attention.
The hidden office door was not fully closed.
Someone was standing in the library.
Daniel reached it first and pulled it open.
Dr. Matthew Cole stood beside the fireplace.
In one hand, he held a medical bag.
In the other, he held a syringe.
“Step away from the desk,” Daniel said.
Dr. Cole looked toward the damaged birth certificate.
“You were never meant to find that.”
Claire took out her phone.
The screen showed no signal.
Dr. Cole noticed.
“The room blocks cellular connections.”
Daniel moved between him and Claire.
“What happened at Saint Arden?”
The doctor’s eyes were red with exhaustion.
“I followed instructions.”
“Whose?”
“You know whose.”
“Say her name.”
Dr. Cole looked toward the library doors.
Before he could answer, a sharp sound came from the hallway.
He staggered.
The syringe fell from his hand.
A dark stain spread across his shoulder, but the injury was not severe enough to hide the panic on his face.
Daniel caught him before he fell.
A figure ran past the doorway.
May you like
Claire rushed into the corridor.
She saw only the edge of a white gown disappearing around the corner.
