Chapter 5 - the photograph in Lila’s pocket
Maya told Lila the man in the newspaper was someone she had known long ago.
It was not enough.
Children accepted simple answers only when the adults giving them were not afraid.
Lila sensed the fear.
The following morning, Maya found the newspaper photograph missing.
Lila had folded it carefully and placed it inside her coat pocket.
“Why did you take it?”
“I wanted to show Noah and Finn.”
“You cannot take things without asking.”
“Is he bad?”
Maya crouched in front of her.
“No.”
“Then why do you look scared?”
Maya had no answer suitable for a four-year-old.
She took the photograph and placed it inside the locked file.
That afternoon, Elias Reed entered her bookkeeping office.
He appeared older than Maya remembered, but she recognized him from the years when he had worked as Adrian’s investigator.
Maya reached beneath the desk for the alarm button Jamie had installed.
“I’m not here for Conrad,” Elias said.
“Then who sent you?”
“No one.”
“People like you are always sent by someone.”
Elias placed an old phone on the desk.
The screen displayed twenty-seven archived voicemail records.
All were from Maya’s former number.
All had been intercepted before reaching Adrian.
Maya stared at the dates.
The first was the day she visited the clinic.
The last was the night she left New York.
“Where did you get this?”
“From a server Conrad believed had been destroyed.”
Maya did not touch the phone.
“Why bring it to me now?”
“Because Adrian is about to marry Celeste Laurent.”
“That has nothing to do with me.”
“It does if Celeste helped Conrad erase you.”
Maya looked at him sharply.
Elias continued.
“Three weeks ago, I was hired to investigate financial irregularities inside the Vale family trust. I found payments to private laboratories, hospital employees, and a voice synthesis company.”
Maya remembered the call at the bus station.
The voice that sounded exactly like Adrian.
Her hands became cold.
Elias slid a document across the desk.
It was an invoice for the creation of a custom voice model based on Adrian’s public recordings.
The payment had been authorized by Conrad.
“You believe the call was fake,” Maya said.
“I know it was.”
“What about the paternity declaration?”
“Adrian never signed it.”
Maya’s anger rose so quickly she nearly became dizzy.
“Celeste brought it to my hospital room.”
Elias’s expression hardened.
“Then she was more involved than I thought.”
Maya stood.
“Why didn’t Adrian search for me?”
“He did.”
“He stopped.”
“He was shown evidence that you stole two million dollars and left the country.”
“I never had an overseas account.”
“The account existed. It simply wasn’t yours.”
Maya turned toward the window.
For years she had built her anger around a single belief.
Adrian had known.
Adrian had rejected them.
Now Elias was asking her to consider something more painful.
They had both been manipulated, and neither had fought hard enough to reach the other.
“What do you want from me?” she asked.
“A voluntary DNA sample from each child.”
“No.”
“Maya, Conrad knows they exist.”
She spun around.
“How?”
May you like
Elias looked toward the closed office door.
“Because someone sent him Lila’s school photograph yesterday.”
