Chapter 8 - the shot in the dark)
The officers forced Rachel and Oliver behind a concrete column.
Another shot followed.
Then shouting.
Cole's voice.
"Drop the weapon."
Rachel held Oliver's head against her chest.
Laura crouched beside them.
Footsteps thundered across the warehouse.
Then silence.
A radio crackled.
"Suspect down."
Rachel looked toward Laura.
"Who?"
Laura shook her head.
Minutes later, Cole returned.
"Connor Briggs fired at an officer. He was wounded. He's alive."
"Evelyn?"
"Gone."
Rachel stared at him.
"How?"
"There's another exit."
Laura closed her eyes.
Cole turned toward her.
"You said one tunnel."
"That's the only one I knew."
Daniel arrived thirty minutes later despite Cole's order to remain behind.
When Oliver saw him, he did not run to his father.
He hid behind Rachel.
Daniel's face collapsed.
"Oliver."
The boy held Rachel tighter.
Daniel stopped.
Rachel looked at him.
"Your mother told him you're not his father."
Daniel froze.
Laura looked away.
Rachel saw it.
She saw the truth move between them.
"Daniel."
No answer.
"Are you Oliver's father?"
Daniel's face turned pale.
Rachel felt the warehouse disappear around her.
"Daniel."
"Yes."
"Then why did Laura react like that?"
Laura stepped forward.
"Rachel."
"No."
Rachel backed away.
"No more secrets."
Daniel looked at Laura.
She shook her head.
Rachel shouted.
"No more secrets."
Oliver began crying.
Rachel immediately softened.
She carried him outside.
Cole arranged for an ambulance to examine him.
Oliver had not been physically injured during the abduction.
Rachel should have felt relief.
Instead, Evelyn's words kept repeating.
Daddy isn't my daddy.
Ask Laura why your son matters so much.
At the hospital, Rachel refused to let Daniel enter Oliver's room.
Laura remained in the corridor.
At two in the morning, Rachel walked out.
"Tell me."
Laura looked exhausted.
"I don't know the whole truth."
"Tell me what you know."
Laura sat.
"Before I disappeared, my father created a second trust."
"What kind?"
"A bloodline trust."
Rachel frowned.
"It transferred certain properties to the first male grandchild born into the Mercer family."
Rachel looked through the glass at Oliver.
"Oliver."
"Yes."
"But Daniel is his father."
Laura hesitated.
"The trust required genetic confirmation."
Rachel stared at her.
"Why?"
"My father didn't trust Daniel."
Rachel almost laughed.
"Apparently he was right."
Laura continued.
"When Oliver was born, Evelyn asked Daniel to arrange a DNA test."
Rachel felt sick.
"Without telling me."
"Yes."
"And?"
Laura looked toward Daniel at the other end of the corridor.
"The test said Daniel was not Oliver's biological father."
Rachel stared at her.
Impossible.
She had never been unfaithful.
Not once.
"That's wrong."
"I believe you."
"It's wrong."
"Then someone manipulated the test."
Rachel looked toward Daniel.
"He knew?"
Laura nodded.
"For three years?"
"I think so."
Rachel walked toward him.
Daniel stood.
Rachel stopped inches away.
"You took a DNA test."
Daniel closed his eyes.
"Yes."
"Behind my back."
"Yes."
"And it said Oliver wasn't yours."
"Yes."
Rachel slapped him.
Nurses turned.
Rachel did not care.
"I never cheated on you."
"I know."
"Then why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I repeated the test."
Rachel stopped.
"What?"
"Different laboratory. Different samples."
"And?"
"The same result."
Rachel felt dizzy.
"No."
Daniel's voice broke.
"I thought maybe there had been a hospital mistake."
"Then why didn't you investigate?"
"I did."
"What did you find?"
Daniel looked toward Laura.
"My mother stopped me."
Rachel laughed in disbelief.
"Your mother has been stopping you your whole life."
"I know."
"Who is Oliver's father?"
Daniel whispered, "I don't know."
Rachel stared.
"That is not possible."
Then something surfaced in her memory.
The pregnancy.
Four years earlier.
Rachel and Daniel had struggled to conceive.
They had visited a fertility clinic.
For one procedure, Rachel had been sedated.
The clinic was recommended by Evelyn.
Rachel's stomach dropped.
"No."
Daniel watched her realize.
"The fertility clinic."
"Rachel."
"Doctor Vale referred us."
Daniel nodded.
Rachel sat down hard.
"What did they do?"
"We don't know."
Laura spoke from behind them.
"I might."
Rachel turned.
Laura's face was pale.
"Doctor Vale wasn't only a psychiatrist."
"What are you saying?"
"He invested in several private medical practices."
Rachel remembered the clinic director.
Dr. Adrian Shaw.
A friend of Evelyn.
Laura continued.
"One of the documents I stole years ago listed genetic storage accounts."
Rachel's mouth went dry.
"Whose genetics?"
"I don't know."
Daniel whispered, "My father's."
Laura looked at him.
"What?"
Daniel sat.
"When Dad was sick, he stored biological samples."
Rachel could barely understand what she was hearing.
"Are you telling me Evelyn used your dead father's genetic material?"
"No," Daniel said quickly.
"I don't know."
Laura stared at Oliver through the glass.
Then her expression changed.
"There was someone else."
Rachel looked at her.
"Who?"
Laura swallowed.
"Our older brother."
Daniel went still.
Rachel stared at both of them.
"You told me Daniel had one sister."
Laura shook her head.
"Our mother had another child before she married our father."
Daniel looked stunned.
"You never told me this."
"I thought you knew."
"What was his name?"
Laura answered.
"Thomas."
Rachel's heart pounded.
"What happened to him?"
May you like
Laura looked directly at her.
"He disappeared too."
