Chapter 3 - THE GIRL IN THE PHOTOGRAPH
Ellie did not ask about Evan again until that evening.
Leah found her sitting on the bedroom floor with the old photograph in her hands.
“You went through the box,” Leah said.
Ellie did not deny it.
“You always say hiding the truth makes it scarier.”
“I also say you should ask before opening things that belong to other people.”
“I was going to ask.”
“After you opened them?”
Ellie lowered the photograph.
“Is Evan Hale my dad?”
Leah had prepared for this conversation many times.
In every imagined version, Ellie was older. They were sitting somewhere calm. Leah had all the answers, and none of those answers could hurt her child.
Reality gave her none of those comforts.
Leah sat beside her.
“Evan and I loved each other before you were born.”
“Did he know about me?”
“I tried to tell him.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Leah saw the fear beneath Ellie’s careful expression.
“No,” she admitted. “I don’t believe he knew.”
“Why not?”
“Some people made sure we couldn’t speak to each other.”
“Sabrina?”
Leah looked at the photograph.
“I don’t know everything yet.”
Ellie hugged her knees.
“Would he have wanted me?”
Leah turned toward her.
“Listen to me. You were wanted from the first moment I knew you existed.”
“By you.”
“That was enough to build our life.”
“But would he?”
Leah could not lie.
“I don’t know.”
Ellie’s eyes filled with tears, but she refused to let them fall.
“Maybe he doesn’t like children.”
“He funds six children’s hospitals.”
“That’s not the same as knowing one.”
“No,” Leah said. “It isn’t.”
Ellie returned the photograph.
“I don’t want his money.”
“I know.”
“I just want to know whether he would recognize me.”
The question broke something in Leah.
She pulled Ellie into her arms.
The following afternoon, Leah met Nora Sloan at a quiet restaurant near Central Park.
Nora was in her late sixties, with silver hair and a leather briefcase that never left her hand.
“You resemble your mother,” Nora told Ellie.
Leah had brought Ellie because the threatening invitation made leaving her with a sitter feel unsafe.
“You knew my grandmother?” Ellie asked.
“Only through stories.”
Nora opened the briefcase and removed a sealed folder.
“Charles Hale revised his family trust shortly before the alleged plane crash. Under the revision, any biological child of Evan Hale would inherit a protected voting interest in the company.”
“How much?” Leah asked.
“Eight percent.”
Leah stared at her.
Eight percent of Hale Meridian was worth more than $1.4 billion.
Ellie continued coloring on the paper menu, unaware of the number’s meaning.
Nora pushed the DNA report toward Leah.
“Sabrina and Daniel had a powerful reason to conceal this.”
“Because Ellie’s shares would weaken their control.”
“Yes.”
“Why did Charles create that condition?”
Nora hesitated.
“He did not trust Daniel.”
“Then why keep Daniel as trustee?”
“He intended to remove him.”
“Intended?”
“Charles disappeared before he could sign the final order.”
Leah leaned forward.
“You said alleged plane crash.”
“The aircraft was recovered from the ocean. Charles was not.”
“The company announced that his remains were identified.”
“By Daniel.”
A server approached their table. Nora stopped speaking until the woman left.
Leah lowered her voice.
“Do you believe Charles is alive?”
“I believe his death allowed Daniel to gain control of the trust.”
“What does Sabrina gain?”
“Marriage to Evan gives her indirect access to his voting shares. If Ellie is recognized before the wedding, the trust remains divided.”
“And if the wedding happens first?”
“Sabrina becomes successor trustee if anything happens to Evan.”
Leah’s stomach turned.
Nora opened another document.
“This is the letter you sent Evan when you learned you were pregnant.”
Leah recognized every word.
She had written it by hand and delivered it to the Hale mansion herself.
“I left this with a guard.”
“The guard gave it to the head of household security.”
“Sabrina’s father.”
Nora nodded.
“Arthur Vale kept it.”
“Why do you have it?”
“Someone placed it in Charles Hale’s private archive.”
“Who?”
“Rosa Bennett, a housekeeper.”
Leah remembered Rosa. She had been kind to the junior employees and strangely protective of Evan.
“Can I speak to her?”
“She disappeared last week.”
Ellie stopped coloring.
“People keep disappearing.”
Nora looked at her with sadness.
“Yes, they do.”
A shadow moved across the restaurant window.
Leah turned.
A man in a gray coat stood on the opposite sidewalk, photographing them.
The moment he realized he had been seen, he walked away.
Nora closed the folder.
“You must leave.”
“Who is he?”
“I don’t know.”
“You brought us here.”
“I believed we were safe.”
Leah grabbed Ellie’s coat.
Nora caught her wrist.
“Do not go home.”
“Why?”
May you like
Nora looked toward the window.
“Because the same man was outside Rosa Bennett’s house the night she vanished.”
