Chapter 9 - The Secret No One Expected
Emma thought she had misunderstood.
"If Henry was Michael's biological father, why would Diane hide that?"
Claire looked uncomfortable.
"I didn't understand either."
Michael stepped closer.
"Explain."
"My mother wrote notes before she died."
Claire removed a small notebook from her bag.
"She believed the test wasn't comparing Henry and Michael."
Michael stared.
"Then who?"
"Robert Vale and Michael."
Emma felt the pieces shift.
Diane had told Robert he could not be Michael's father.
Robert had accepted uncertainty.
But if Diane secretly tested Robert against Michael shortly after birth and altered the results, what had she been hiding?
Michael took the notebook.
Rachel's handwriting documented fragments of conversations.
Diane paid laboratory technician.
Private specimen labeled R.V.
Second specimen infant male.
Result delivered privately.
Payment follows next morning.
Michael turned pages.
The next note was underlined twice.
Diane crying in parking lot. Heard her say: "If Robert ever learns the truth, Henry will learn what I did."
Michael looked up.
"What did she do?"
Claire shook her head.
"I don't know."
Emma thought aloud.
"If Robert was Michael's father, Diane could simply keep lying."
Michael nodded slowly.
"But if Robert wasn't..."
Emma continued.
"Then something else frightened her."
Claire said, "My mother became convinced the paternity issue wasn't the main secret."
Michael closed the notebook.
"What was?"
Claire looked toward him.
"Your date of birth."
Michael laughed in confusion.
"My birthday?"
"You were born on March twelfth."
"Yes."
"According to public records."
Emma saw where this might lead before Michael did.
Claire continued.
"My mother found a hospital billing record dated February twenty-sixth."
Michael stared.
"Two weeks earlier."
"Yes."
"For what?"
Claire swallowed.
"Delivery."
No one spoke.
Michael eventually said, "That's impossible."
Claire nodded.
"Maybe."
She gave him another photocopy.
The record listed Diane Bennett as the patient.
Male infant.
Delivered February 26.
Emma looked at Michael.
"Could your birthday have been recorded later?"
"Why would anyone do that?"
Claire's answer was quiet.
"Because another baby was born on March twelfth."
The cemetery seemed suddenly too silent.
Michael stared at her.
"What are you saying?"
"My mother believed there were two infants."
Emma's stomach turned.
Claire continued.
"One born to Diane."
"And the other?" Michael asked.
"I don't know."
Michael stepped backward.
"This is insane."
"I know."
"No, you don't. You're telling me my birth date is fake and there was another baby."
"I'm telling you what my mother found."
Emma put one hand on Michael's arm.
He pulled away, not angrily, simply overwhelmed.
Claire said, "There was one final note."
She turned to the last page.
Henry suspects hospital records were changed. Says he will confront Diane after gala.
"What gala?" Emma asked.
Claire looked toward Michael.
"The Bennett Foundation winter gala."
Michael's face changed.
"When?"
"Thirty-two years ago."
"Did he confront her?"
"I don't know."
Claire hesitated.
"My mother disappeared from Bennett employment two days later."
Emma stared.
"You said she was reinstated."
"Years later. Quietly."
Michael looked down at the notebook.
"Why are you telling us this now?"
"Because Henry contacted me before he died."
Michael looked up sharply.
"What?"
Claire's eyes filled.
"He said if Diane ever started using blood against Lily, I was to give you everything."
Emma stopped breathing.
"Using blood against Lily?"
Claire nodded.
"He predicted it."
Michael looked toward his father's grave.
For the first time, grief turned into fear.
May you like
"What did my father know?"
Claire answered, "Enough to be afraid of your mother."
