Chapter 12 - Corinne Learns the Truth)
Corinne read the message in silence.
Ethan had requested the meeting with prosecutors present.
The photograph of Martin Vale lay on the table.
Beside it was a photograph of Arthur Vale.
The resemblance was unmistakable.
Same eyes.
Same jaw.
Same slight asymmetry in the smile.
Corinne looked between them.
"Arthur was my grandfather."
Marcus shook his head.
"According to public records, Arthur Vale was your grandfather's brother."
"No."
"That's what your birth records say."
"My grandfather was Thomas."
"Thomas Vale appears to have been a constructed identity."
Corinne stared at him.
"What are you saying?"
Marcus opened Claire's notebook.
"We believe Arthur Vale survived his reported death and lived under the name Thomas Vale for at least eleven years."
Corinne's hands trembled.
"My grandfather died when I was twelve."
"Possibly."
"What does that have to do with Daniel?"
"Claire believed Daniel was afraid of Arthur."
Corinne laughed nervously.
"That makes no sense. Uncle Daniel barely knew my grandfather."
Marcus slid a photograph across the table.
Daniel Mercer and Arthur Vale leaving a courthouse.
Dated five years after Arthur's supposed death.
Corinne stopped breathing.
Ethan watched everything she had believed begin to collapse.
She whispered, "Where did you get this?"
"Claire."
Corinne looked at Ethan.
Hatred appeared automatically.
Then disappeared.
"She knew."
"She was trying to find out."
"Why didn't she tell me?"
"Would you have believed her?"
Corinne lowered her eyes.
No answer was necessary.
The prosecutor spoke.
"Ms. Carter, Daniel Mercer is still missing. If you know anything that helps locate him, now is the time."
Corinne stared at the photographs.
Finally she whispered, "There was a cabin."
"Where?"
"I don't know the address."
"What cabin?"
"Daniel took me there when I was seventeen."
"Why?"
"He said it belonged to my grandfather."
Marcus leaned forward.
"Thomas?"
"Yes."
"Describe it."
"Wood. Near water. Mountains maybe. I don't remember."
"What state?"
"Vermont."
Jonathan Bell had moved to Vermont.
Everyone noticed.
"Anything else?"
Corinne closed her eyes.
"A red bridge."
Marcus was already searching.
They found three possibilities within minutes.
Police teams were dispatched.
Corinne looked toward Ethan.
"Will you ever forgive me?"
"No."
The answer came without cruelty.
That seemed to hurt more.
She nodded.
"I don't expect you to."
Ethan stood.
"But help them find Daniel."
"I will."
"For Maisie."
Corinne's mouth trembled.
"I did care about her."
Ethan stopped.
"Don't."
"I know what I did."
"You hurt her."
"I know."
"You frightened her inside the one place she was supposed to feel safe."
Corinne looked down.
"I know."
"You used her fear because you needed me to look unstable."
Tears slid down Corinne's face.
"I know."
"So don't ask me to make your guilt easier."
He walked out.
The search teams found the cabin before dawn.
Empty.
Recent food.
Fresh tire tracks.
A burned stack of documents in the fireplace.
And one photograph placed deliberately on the kitchen table.
Claire.
Taken through a car windshield.
The day she died.
On the back were five handwritten words.
She should have given it back.
Ethan stared at the photograph.
"Given what back?"
Nobody knew.
Forensics recovered partial documents from the fireplace.
Most were unreadable.
One contained a phrase.
Shaw Vale Consolidated Charter.
Samuel searched corporate archives.
The company had existed.
Founded seventy-three years earlier by Claire's grandfather and Arthur Vale.
Shaw.
Vale.
The fortunes of the two families had once been joined.
The official story said Arthur Vale sold his stake decades earlier.
Claire's ledger suggested otherwise.
If Arthur never legally sold his ownership, his heirs might have claims against certain Shaw assets.
Corinne's father had not been fighting merely to clear his name.
He may have been fighting over ownership.
"Is Daniel an heir?" Ethan asked.
Samuel shook his head.
"Not through the Vale line."
"Corinne is."
"Yes."
"Then why manipulate her instead of helping her claim it legally?"
Samuel's expression hardened.
"Because perhaps Corinne isn't the heir Daniel needs."
Ethan looked toward the nursery where Maisie was sleeping.
"No."
Samuel did not say anything.
Ethan understood anyway.
Claire was a Shaw.
Maisie was Claire's daughter.
If the original company agreement required descendants from both founding families for some transfer or dissolution, Maisie might control something neither family could access alone.
But that still did not explain the message.
Ask Rebecca who her father really was.
Ethan returned to Corinne.
One question.
"Your father. Martin. Was he definitely your biological father?"
Corinne became angry.
"Yes."
"How do you know?"
"Because my mother told me."
"Did you ever test it?"
"No."
"Did Daniel ever mention your father wasn't your father?"
Corinne's face changed.
Slowly.
A memory.
"What?"
Ethan asked again.
"What did he say?"
Corinne looked terrified.
"When I was sixteen, Daniel was drunk."
"And?"
"He said my mother had made one mistake that ruined everyone."
"What mistake?"
"He looked at me."
May you like
Her breathing shortened.
"He said she had a child with the wrong man."
