Chapter 10 - THE FATHER’S NAME
Security officers surrounded Martin, but Thomas refused to lower the weapon.
Daniel moved carefully between Emily and the line of fire.
“Mr. Carter,” he said, “give me the gun.”
Thomas looked at him.
“You knew.”
“I knew part of it.”
“You knew enough to bring danger into her home.”
Emily stepped around Daniel.
“Dad, Nathan said you are not my biological father.”
Thomas closed his eyes briefly.
The pain on his face answered before his words did.
“No,” he said. “I’m not.”
Emily felt as though something inside her had detached from the rest of the world.
“Who is?”
Thomas looked toward Martin.
Martin lowered his gaze.
Emily stared at him.
“No.”
Thomas finally lowered the revolver.
“Martin Vale was born Martin Blackwood.”
The kitchen became completely still.
Daniel looked shocked.
Richard, who had entered behind the guests, stopped at the threshold.
Thomas continued.
“He was Laura’s first husband.”
Emily’s knees weakened.
Martin took one involuntary step toward her.
Emily stepped back.
“You are my father?”
Martin’s face crumpled.
“Yes.”
The word shattered the last stable part of her childhood.
Thomas placed the revolver on a steel counter.
“Laura married Martin in secret. Richard’s father refused to recognize the marriage because Martin was the son of a woman Edmund never publicly acknowledged.”
Daniel looked at Martin.
“You are my father’s half brother.”
Martin gave a bitter laugh.
“Half brother. Hidden servant. Convenient ghost. Choose whichever title the Blackwoods permitted.”
Richard’s voice cut across the room.
“This is nonsense.”
Thomas turned on him.
“You buried the marriage certificate. You paid the hospital to alter Emily’s birth record. You ordered Martin to disappear.”
“I did what was necessary to prevent a fraudulent claim.”
Martin lunged forward, but security restrained him.
“Fraudulent?” he shouted. “Laura was your sister.”
“She threatened the company.”
“She threatened to expose you.”
Richard looked toward the guests gathering near the kitchen entrance.
“This is neither the place nor the time.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“It is exactly the place.”
Emily could barely hear them.
She looked at Thomas.
“Why did you raise me?”
“Because Laura asked me to.”
“You loved her?”
Thomas nodded.
“I loved her enough to accept that she loved someone else first.”
Emily glanced at Martin.
“Why didn’t he raise me?”
Martin spoke quietly.
“Because they told me you died in the accident.”
Emily stared at him.
“What?”
“Richard showed me a hospital report. He said Laura and the baby were both dead.”
Thomas stepped closer to Emily.
“Your mother survived the first crash. You were not in the car. She had left you with me before meeting Charles.”
“Then how did she die?”
No one answered.
Emily looked from Thomas to Martin, then to Richard.
“Tell me.”
Thomas’s eyes filled with grief.
“Laura reached the hospital alive. Someone entered her room before I arrived.”
Richard said sharply, “This is speculation.”
Thomas ignored him.
“When I got there, she was gone. The hospital claimed she died from internal injuries. But the nurse who called me said Laura had been awake and speaking.”
Emily remembered the recorder.
The voices.
Charles threatening Laura.
Thomas asking for documents.
“What happened to the nurse?”
“Disappeared.”
Martin looked toward Richard.
“You had her killed.”
Richard’s expression did not change.
“You have no proof.”
Daniel held up the sealed document.
“We do now.”
Richard finally looked afraid.
Daniel opened to the last section.
“The Geneva bank released an archived affidavit signed by the nurse.”
Emily’s breath caught.
“What does it say?”
Daniel looked at her.
“It identifies the person who entered Laura’s room.”
Richard turned toward the exit.
Two security officers blocked him.
Daniel continued.
“The affidavit names Charles Blackwood.”
Richard exhaled, almost with relief.
“Charles has been dead for fourteen years.”
“But the nurse also wrote that Charles was not alone.”
Richard’s relief vanished.
Emily moved closer.
“Who was with him?”
Before Daniel could answer, the lights went out.
A scream rose from the ballroom.
Emergency lighting flickered on.
Martin was no longer beside the steel counter.
May you like
Neither was the revolver.
Then a gunshot echoed from the hidden corridor.
