Chapter 45 - The Father Hidden in the Record
Police intercepted the vehicle before it reached the house.
Victor escaped through the garden while Dr. Cole remained in the passenger seat. He surrendered without resistance.
Rachel met him inside the kitchen.
“Are you my father?”
Cole looked at Evelyn.
She answered for him.
“No.”
“Then why does the record carry his name?”
“Because Adrian registered you as his daughter to prevent the Vale trust from finding you.”
Rachel looked at Cole.
“You altered my birth certificate.”
“I created the first one,” he said. “The Bennett certificate came two years later.”
James Bennett had adopted Rachel privately before her public birth record was issued. He raised her as his daughter and protected her connection to Evelyn.
Cole had served as the legal decoy.
“Who was my biological father?”
Evelyn hesitated.
Miriam spoke from the doorway.
“James.”
Rachel turned toward her.
Miriam explained that James and Evelyn were already married in a private ceremony when Rachel was born. Their public marriage documents had later been destroyed in the archives fire.
“Why hide that?”
“Because marriage connected James directly to the Vale trust,” Evelyn said. “Victor could claim he gained access through you.”
Rachel felt the shape of the plan becoming clear.
Marcus’s manufactured marriage had not been an original idea.
Victor had repeated the method once used to hide Rachel.
A sound came from beneath the floor.
The source cartridge activated the old house network.
Addresses appeared across the projected wall. Hundreds of disputed properties illuminated one after another.
A progress bar began moving.
PUBLIC RELEASE: 12%.
Celia entered the room.
“If it reaches one hundred percent, every record goes to the courts, newspapers and property owners.”
“That is what we want,” Tessa said.
“No,” Celia replied. “Victor added false records to the archive.”
“If we release everything without separating them, innocent families will be accused of fraud.”
Rachel looked at the growing percentage.
“Can we stop it?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Celia pointed toward the family tree.
“The system needs all three surviving Vale lines.”
Rachel.
Olivia.
May you like
And Miriam.
But Miriam was no longer in the house.
