Chapter 2 - Eleven Returned Letters
Daniel’s blood was drawn less than five minutes after he agreed to be tested.
A nurse led him into a consultation room while Sophie was prepared for emergency surgery. Emily remained beside her daughter until the anesthesiologist insisted she had to leave.
When Emily returned to the corridor, Victoria was still standing near the elevators.
The sealed medical file remained clutched against her chest.
Brooke had moved away from Daniel’s mother as though she were dangerous.
“What is in that file?” Emily asked.
Victoria’s fingers tightened around it.
“Nothing that concerns you.”
Emily stepped closer.
“My daughter is being taken into heart surgery. Anything involving her concerns me.”
Daniel emerged from the consultation room with a bandage on his arm.
He looked directly at his mother.
“Why did you tell me Emily took money and left?”
Victoria lifted her chin.
“She did take money.”
“You gave it to her.”
“She accepted it.”
Emily’s laugh was quiet and bitter.
“You threatened to destroy my mother’s medical coverage unless I left Boston.”
Daniel turned toward Emily.
“What?”
“My mother was receiving treatment through a foundation connected to your family. Victoria told me the funding would disappear if I stayed.”
Victoria’s expression hardened.
“You were not suitable for him.”
“She was carrying my child.”
“You did not know that.”
“Because you made sure I didn’t.”
Daniel crossed the corridor until he stood only a few feet from his mother.
“Did you receive her letters?”
Victoria said nothing.
“Did you receive them?”
Brooke held up the certified envelope.
“This one was signed for.”
Daniel looked at the signature.
V. Whitmore.
The corridor seemed to tilt beneath him.
Eleven letters.
For years, he had told himself that Emily had vanished without explanation.
For years, he had rebuilt his life around a lie.
“How many?” he asked.
Victoria’s voice lowered.
“It does not matter now.”
“How many letters did you intercept?”
“I was protecting this family.”
“From a child?”
“From scandal.”
Daniel stared at her as if he had never seen her before.
Brooke opened the worn folder and arranged the papers across a side table.
The first letter was dated seven years earlier.
Daniel,
I do not know what your mother has told you. I am pregnant. The baby is yours. I do not want money. I only want you to know the truth.
The next letter had been sent two weeks later.
Daniel,
I waited outside your office today, but security would not let me in. Your mother says you refuse to speak with me. Please tell me yourself. I will accept your decision, but I need to hear it from you.
Another letter was accompanied by an ultrasound photograph.
She is a girl.
I think she has your stubbornness already.
Daniel lowered himself into a chair.
His legs would no longer support him.
Emily gathered the papers back into the folder.
“I stopped writing after Sophie was born.”
“Why?”
“Because your mother sent an attorney.”
Daniel looked at Victoria.
“What attorney?”
Emily removed a legal document.
It was an unsigned agreement offering Emily a larger payment in exchange for permanent silence regarding Sophie’s paternity.
Daniel read the first page.
His name appeared throughout the document.
The language claimed that he denied paternity and considered any future contact harassment.
“I never authorized this.”
“I know that now,” Emily said. “I did not know it then.”
The operating room doors opened briefly as a nurse hurried through.
Emily stood at once.
“Is she all right?”
“We are beginning the procedure. Dr. Bennett will update you as soon as he can.”
The doors closed again.
Daniel stared at the red surgical light above them.
“What exactly is wrong with her?”
Emily remained standing.
“She has a congenital heart defect called restrictive cardiomyopathy. Her heart cannot fill properly. Medication helped for a while, but she has been getting worse.”
“Why didn’t you contact me recently?”
“I did.”
“When?”
“Three months ago.”
Daniel looked confused.
“I received nothing.”
Emily pulled out her phone and opened a sent email.
The address was Daniel’s current company account.
The message had been opened.
The response underneath was brief.
Do not contact Mr. Whitmore again. Your claims have already been addressed.
The message was signed by Daniel’s executive assistant.
Daniel frowned.
“My assistant did not write that.”
Victoria’s face changed.
Only slightly.
But Brooke noticed.
“You knew she contacted him again,” Brooke said.
Victoria looked toward her.
“This is a private family matter.”
“I am his wife.”
“For the moment.”
Brooke flinched.
Daniel turned sharply.
“What did you do?”
Before Victoria could answer, the sealed file slipped from her hand.
It hit the floor.
Several pages spilled out.
Emily bent down first.
The top document was a laboratory report dated six years earlier.
It contained Sophie’s name.
It also contained the results of a genetic test.
Emily read the first line twice.
“This test was performed when Sophie was three months old.”
Daniel stared at the page.
“You had her tested?”
Victoria snatched for the document, but Emily stepped back.
At the bottom of the report was a notation.
Potential hereditary cardiac risk detected through paternal family line.
Daniel looked at his mother.
“You knew she was sick.”
Victoria’s silence answered for her.
Then Emily saw another name printed beneath Sophie’s.
A second child had been tested at the same time.
The name was partially covered by a torn label.
Only the initials remained visible.
A.W.
May you like
And beside those initials were the words:
First-degree biological relation confirmed.
