Chapter 9 - The Dead Man in the Family)
Michael Vance's death had been convenient.
Damian had never thought of it that way before.
Seven years earlier, a sailboat registered in Michael's name had been found drifting twenty miles off the coast of Maine.
Blood on the deck.
No body.
A Coast Guard search lasted six days.
The family held a memorial.
Michael was declared legally dead three years later.
Damian had mourned him.
Not deeply.
Michael had always been the dark edge of the Vance family.
Brilliant.
Restless.
Addicted to risk.
He handled international acquisitions for Damian's father and had a reputation for making problems disappear.
Damian had been twenty five when Michael vanished.
Claire had already been gone almost a year.
At the time, Damian never connected the two.
Now Emily had spoken his name.
"How does your mother know Michael Vance?" Damian asked.
Emily shook her head.
"I don't know."
"Are you certain that's what she said?"
"Yes."
"Tell me everything you remember."
Emily closed her eyes.
"The man came to the apartment."
"The one with the silver watch?"
She nodded.
"Mom told me to take Sophie to the bedroom."
"What did she say before that?"
"They were arguing."
"About?"
"Sophie."
Damian felt a knot form in his chest.
"What exactly?"
Emily thought carefully.
"He said, 'You can't keep her forever.' Mom said, 'She's a child.' He said, 'She's evidence.'"
Brooks wrote every word.
"Did your mother say Michael's name?"
"She said, 'Tell Michael Vance I won't give him Sophie.'"
Damian looked toward the living room.
Sophie sat on the floor stacking wooden blocks.
"What could a two year old possibly be evidence of?"
No one answered.
Margaret arrived twenty minutes later.
When Damian told her Michael's name, she sat down hard.
"That's impossible."
"Why?"
"Because he's dead."
"No body was found."
"He would have contacted us."
"Would he?"
Margaret's eyes hardened.
"He loved this family."
"Did he?"
"Damian."
"What did Michael do for Dad?"
"You know what he did."
"I know his title."
Margaret became uncomfortable.
"He handled difficult negotiations."
"Claire believed he was involved in separating us."
"I don't know anything about that."
"Victoria said Dad wasn't the worst person involved."
Margaret stood.
"Victoria is desperate."
"Emily heard Claire say Michael's name three days ago."
Margaret stared at her granddaughter.
For the first time, fear replaced disbelief.
"There's something you aren't telling me," Damian said.
Margaret looked away.
"Mother."
She crossed the room.
"Your father and Michael fought before Michael disappeared."
"About what?"
"I never knew."
"Try."
"I heard pieces."
"Which pieces?"
Margaret wrapped her arms around herself.
"Your father said Michael had gone too far. Michael said the family had benefited from everything he'd done."
"What had he done?"
"I don't know."
"Did it involve Claire?"
"I don't know."
"Sophie?"
"She wasn't born."
Damian stopped.
Of course.
Sophie was two.
Michael had supposedly died seven years earlier.
If Michael wanted Sophie, something had happened recently.
Brooks asked Margaret another question.
"Did Michael have children?"
"No."
"Any genetic illness?"
Margaret frowned.
"Why?"
"Trying to understand what a child could be evidence of."
Margaret became very still.
Damian noticed.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Mother."
She looked at Sophie.
Then at Damian.
"Michael couldn't have children."
"How do you know?"
"He discovered it in his twenties."
Brooks stopped writing.
"So if Sophie were biologically connected to him."
"She couldn't be his daughter."
Damian felt another possibility form.
"What about a medical procedure?"
Margaret looked confused.
"Meaning?"
"Stored genetic material. Fertility treatment."
"I don't know."
Emily suddenly spoke.
"Sophie's dad was named Daniel."
Everyone looked at her.
"Mom said he died."
"Last name?"
"Reed."
Brooks searched her tablet.
"Daniel Reed."
She typed.
The results took seconds.
Her face changed.
"What?"
She turned the screen.
Daniel Reed, age thirty four, biomedical researcher.
Formerly employed by Vance Biogenetics.
Dead two years earlier in what police ruled a single vehicle accident.
Damian felt the room grow colder.
Vance Biogenetics was a subsidiary Michael had helped establish.
"What did Reed work on?"
Brooks searched further.
"Genetic therapeutics."
Margaret whispered, "Oh God."
Damian looked at her.
"What?"
She shook her head.
"I don't know."
"You do."
"I know Michael invested heavily in experimental research. Your father shut one program down."
"Which program?"
"I don't remember."
Damian called the current head of Vance Biogenetics.
The answer came ten minutes later.
Daniel Reed had worked in a restricted reproductive genetics program funded through a private Vance family trust.
The project had been terminated seven years ago.
One of its executive sponsors had been Michael Vance.
Damian stared at Sophie.
A two year old girl was somehow connected to a project supposedly terminated five years before she was born.
His phone vibrated.
An email had arrived from Claire's old account.
No subject.
One attachment.
A video.
Brooks insisted on opening it through a secure system.
Claire appeared on screen.
She looked exhausted.
The video was recorded six weeks earlier.
"If you're watching this," she said, "then someone found Emily's key."
Emily grabbed Damian's hand.
Claire looked directly into the camera.
"I need you to understand something."
She swallowed.
"Emily is Damian's daughter."
Damian closed his eyes.
"But Sophie is the reason they're coming."
The video glitched.
Claire continued.
"Daniel discovered what Michael Vance had been doing."
A loud sound interrupted her.
She looked over her shoulder.
"When Daniel tried to expose it, he died."
Emily began crying.
"And if Michael is still alive, Sophie may be the only proof."
The video stopped.
Damian stared at the frozen screen.
Then a second file appeared.
A birth record.
Sophie Reed.
Attached was a handwritten note.
May you like
Do not test Sophie's DNA through any Vance laboratory.
They will know.
